Introduction
Including A. metallicum, gold leaf triturated; A. muriaticum, the bichloride, AuCl3; A. muriaticum natronatum, the chloride of gold and sodium, NaCl. AuCl32H2O; and A sulphuratum, product of decomposition of chloride by sulphuretted hydrogen.
Provings
1. HAHNEMANN, Mat. Medorrhinum Pura, vol. iv of original, vol. i of translation. Contains 335 symptoms of A. metallicum from himself and seven fellow-observers; also eighteen from A. muriaticum.
2. IBID., Chronic Diseases, part ii of original, vol. of translation. The same, with eighty-two additional symptoms, mainly from author.
3. Dr. MOLIN proved A. metallicum, A. muriaticum, and A. sulphuratum. In what manner is not specified here, save that he experimented on himself and some others. But from another place (Bull. de la Soc. Med hom. de Paris, i, 7) we learn that he used the 4th dil., beginning with 1-drop doses, and duplicating daily (1, 2, 4 8, 16, &c.) until positive effects were obtained; then allowing these to subside, and proceeding in like manner again and again. He reports the following results:-
3 a. From A. metallicum, -desire for solitude; restlessness; loss of memory; religious exaltation; ennui; causeless grief, and frequent weeping; impatience and anger; disgust for life and tendency to suicide. Sleeplessness or continual sleepiness; nocturnal agitation; unpleasant and fatiguing dreams. Eruption of small white pimples all over hairy scalp, with heat and itching; great and continuous burning at vertex and occiput, some over whole head; every 3 or 4 d., attack of shooting, burning and beating in left forehead, with nausea and even vomiting of bile; mental exertion makes head ache. Burning and shooting pains, with itching, in lids and inner angle of eyes; redness of sclerotic and (before menses) of lids; constant lachrymation and feeling as of sand in eyes; agglutination of lids in m. Burning, pricking, and itching behind ears, and oozing there; burning and darting in ears; buzzing, hissing, and ticking sounds in ears; diminished hearing. Redness and swelling of nose, or red pimples thereon; burning and itching within and without, with shooting and smarting within nose; scabs from nose, or thick discharge like white of egg; frequent sneezing. Face red and swollen, or marbled with red and violet patches, or spotted with large red pimples. Aphthae in mouth, heat and smarting there; redness and swelling of gums, which bleed easily; pimples on lips, with burning, darting, pricking, and great itching. Same feelings in throat, most felt when swallowing. Aversion to eating; extreme thirst; desire for cold or for alcoholic drinks; nausea, and desire to vomit immediately after eating, sometimes even while eating; hiccup; watery risings; choking a little while after having eaten; burning, shooting and cutting pains in stomach and abdomen (especially right hypochondrium and epigastrium); sensibility of abdomen to touch, an especially tender spot in left hypochondrium; weight over pubes; heat and sensation of scratching in groins; twisting colic before and during stools, which are diarrhoeic, most frequent at n., greenish or yellowish- grey; burning and forcing pains at anus; external piles, bleeding during stool. [ “Other observations have offered us examples of haemorrhoidal tumours that owed their appearance to the exciting effects of the chloride.” (LEGRAND, cited by BURNETT. See p. 508.) ] Pain during micturition; urine scanty, either red and hot, with gravel, or thick, with very strong ammoniacal odour, and quickly decomposing. Burning, shooting, and smarting in urethra; heat and dull pains in perineum; painful erections. Redness and swelling of labia; heat, smarting and prickings at vulva and in vagina; white thick leucorrhea; period delayed. Frequent strong and tearing cough, noisy during n. Respiration laboured; burning, shootings, and prickings in chest; palpitation at n., and when lying on back, strong and irregular; heat, itching, shooting, and cutting in heart. Pains in parotids; difficulty of turning neck as in torticollis; heat in axilla and loins, going from latter to bladder; bruised pain in loins; heat, pricking and itching in back. Burning, dartings, and prickings in arm; fatigue of arms, movements are difficult; sharp pains in finger-joints. Difficulty in walking; swelling of feet; redness and burning of toes.
3 b. To A. muriaticum is ascribed a very similar array of symptoms, with the following modifications: To the mental symptoms are added excessive gaiety and carelessness, and motiveless waywardness. The sleepiness and sleeplessness appear in day and n. respectively. In the head there is giddiness; coldness on vertex, instead of heat, latter being felt in forehead and occiput; head heavy and stupid, and often moves restlessly. The eye symptoms are identical, with addition of difficulty in keeping eyes shut. Moisture behind ears forms scabs. Discharge from nose is yellow and thick, forming scabs, or watery, acrid, and malodorous. Besides other symptoms of mouth and throat, there is swelling of submaxillary glands and some dysphagia. In stomach there is uneasiness and pain after eating, putrid eructations. slow digestion, frequent yawning after eating. In abdomen, inflation, with suffocative feeling; stitch in left hypochondrium as after running fast; continual feeling of uneasiness in right hypochondrium, with burning there; redness, itching, heat, and smarting at umbilicus, and eruption of small red pimples above pubes. The genital symptoms are swelling and tension of testicles, lancinations along cord, heat and itching in urethra; same in vagina, redness and swelling of labia, continual oozing at vulva, yellow and clear leucorrhea. Some d. before period, eruption of large red pimples on labia. The cough is more pronounced, and is accompanied with heat in larynx, and expectoration, white and blood-streaked, or yellow and thick; speech is difficult, and voice hoarse and stridulous. With chest and heart symptoms there is sense of suffocation at n. The sensations in back and loins were much felt, with stiffness and fatigue. Besides burning and dartings in arms, there is involuntary starting, aching and stiffness; last also in hands, with burning and itching and difficulty in closing them. Besides redness of toes and swelling of feet there are boils on buttocks and thighs; stiffness in thighs and legs; swelling of knees; heat, pricking, and lancinations in legs; burning of feet; cutting pains in toes when walking.
3 c. The same may be said of the symptoms referred to A. sulphuratum. The disposition is mournful and thoughtful, or sad and disagreeable. The dreams are very terrifying. Continual flow of blood to head, and falling out of hair, are new symptoms in this region. To the eye troubles are added throbbing and photophobia. To those of the nose great sensibility to least touch, and throbbing and cutting pains; the coryza is dry. Pallor of the face is noted besides the other appearances. The gums bled; the lips cracked; the teeth felt numb, or were the seat of shooting pains, which sometimes spread over head and receded again. Shootings were felt also in throat. In abdomen, sensation as of a ball rolling about was added to other feelings. The pains at anus were very sharp, and there was constipation instead of diarrhea-stools being like rabbits’ dung. Incontinence of urine occurred at n. The sexual symptoms were very marked, and to the ordinary ones were added transitoriness of the (frequent) erections, amounting to impotence; non-appearance or irregularity of menses, with extreme weariness; pains in heart and nausea the day before them; weight and bearing down in female parts. Cough as with A. mur., and croupy. Chest symptoms are the same, but palpitations are felt only on strong movement. Drawing right along spine; swelling of thyroid and of breasts (which are tender to touch); cracks in nipples, and bitings and dartings at base of mammae, -are peculiar symptoms of A. sulph.; in other respects it seems to have affected trunk and extremities like A. met., and mur., but it caused some oscillation and uncertainty in legs, and sense of deadness in feet. The burning, so marked with the other two preparations, is rarely noted under this; but, on the other hand, its darting pains are more pronounced. (Bull. de la Soc Medorrhinum de Paris, i, 19.)
4. Dr. BUNCHER took 1/10000th gr. of A. mur. The chief effects were: Burning in conjunctiva, dryness of eyes, weakness of sight, the letters disappear by candle-light for a few m., the paper appears blank. Weakness of memory, confusion of head, pressure on brain, along sagittal suture. Drowsiness; profound sleep. Indisposed to mental work. Bruised feeling of limbs. Oppression about heart compelling deep breathing, which relieves. Frequent call to urinate, lasting 2 1/2 d. Increased secretion of urine. Excess of urea and urates. Speedy decomposition of urine. (N. Zeitsch. f. hom. Kl., iv, 208.)
5. Dr. EBERLE proved the 6th, 3rd, and Ist dec. dil. of Aurum mur., and also a solution of 1 to 16, from 25th March to 5th Dec., 1858. His principal symptoms were: severe headache on left frontal protuberance near foramen supra-orbital, next day. on right frontal protuberance. Smarting and itching in right canthus, compelling scratching. Violent tearing in right temple. Drawing pain in left temple towards crown. Shooting pain in left ear. Drawing pain in right ear. L. ear feels as if a plug were in it (for several d.). Lightning-like twitches in right upper maxilla. Tickling in trachea with dry cough as from breathing in dust. Drawing pain in both sides of chest. Spasmodic drawing between sixth and seventh ribs, with feeling as if someone were trying to stretch out heart. Shooting in right pectoral muscles, not increased by pressure, but a little so by deep breathing, and much so by moving upper part of body, lasting 10 h. Shooting tearing in intercostal muscles of right side, then of left side. Great oppression of chest hardly allowing him to breathe. R. chest on rising up as if beaten, the pectoral muscles painful to touch, this was as bad at n. In the n., woke up by a shooting boring pain in the point of impact of the apex of heart, deeply seated, that lasted some m. (thought he could not have borne it if it had lasted longer); not affected by deep breathing; it went off completely when he pressed his hand on cardiac region; immediately afterwards radiating from this place a lancinating pain which ended in the left hypochondrium, for a moment so violent that it stopped his breathing; on breathing deeply the pain went off. Empty feeling in stomach. Painful drawing in pit of stomach to middle of sternum (as if a hard body were pushed upwards; aggravated by stooping, eating, drinking, only coming on in jerks). Drawing pain in small intestines frequently recurring during day, relieved by liquid evacuations, eating, drinking, movement, but not by pressure. Rumbling and audible grumbling in abdomen. Thin, frequent stools with burning in anus, and tenesmus. At n., woke with violent itching on glans penis. Painful drawing in left testicle to inguinal ring, recurring in jerks. Burning when urinating as if urine were too hot and acrid. Feeling of heat in urethra and strangury. Shooting pain all along urethra on rising. Stiffness in nape. Drawing, tearing pain in muscular parts of both hip-joints, lasting some time. Lancinating pain in jerks on anterior and middle of both thighs extending to patella, so violent as to cause him to jump. Occurrence of a petechia-like exanthem on both legs, with a small papule in the centre, which lasted 5 d. Bruised feeling on lower third of right leg (as if beaten), which becomes so bad by continual walking that he must limp home (this went off after 7 h.) with a feeling as if the pain always tended more towards the big toe and flew out at the tip of the toes. Burning pains as from a red-hot coal on anterior aspect of left leg. Tearing in left metatarsus. Drawing in left instep. Drawing burning pain in left big toe frequently recurring during day, worst when walking. Burning pain in left clavicle, transient. Drawing pain in right shoulder- joint. Drawing and boring in middle of right upper arm for 3 successive d. Drawing in elbow as if a sinew were violently pulled, recurring frequently momentarily, d. and n. Violent drawing in ball of right hand. Drawing tearing pains in various parts of body, especially extremities. Strong metallic taste with increased secretion of saliva, urging to swallow, at same time feeling as if a plug stuck in throat (from undiluted solution). Fluent coryza with rough throat and irritation to cough. Coryza with frequent tickling in throat. Great weariness. Extraordinary feeling of prostration in limbs, indescribable weariness of whole body scarcely allowing him to rise from his seat. Bruised feeling in back rendering stooping scarcely possible. Sad disposition as though some great misfortune were about to occur, for several d.; very restless sleep with frightful dreams. (Ibid.)
Hughes was a great writer and a scholar. He actively cooperated with Dr. T.F. Allen to compile his 'Encyclopedia' and rendered immeasurable aid to Dr. Dudgeon in translating Hahnemann's 'Materia Medica Pura' into English. In 1889 he was appointed an Editor of the 'British Homoeopathic Journal' and continued in that capacity until his demise. In 1876, Dr. Hughes was appointed as the Permanent Secretary of the Organization of the International Congress of Homoeopathy Physicians in Philadelphia. He also presided over the International Congress in London.