Blood.-The condition of the blood is altered by mercury, which renders it more fluid, the fibrin, albumin and red corpuscles are diminished, and it coagulates with difficulty and forms a very soft colt. There results a cachexia and general anasarcous state of the body, with palpitation, panting respiration and general prostration. large doses of mercury lead to an increase in the number and size of the vessels to the bone- marrow, the fat cells atrophy; later, gelatinous degeneration follows and the cellular elements of the marrow disappear.
Sleep.- The sleep is disturbed and the patient wakes in fright from terrifying dreams.
Fever, &c.- Probably mercury has no action on the temperature centres themselves but the temperature is frequently raised in association with, and secondarily to, the inflammations caused by it. This is often of a hectic character, accompanied by profuse perspirations, especially at night, which do not relieve the general symptoms, and there are frequently recurring shudderings and a sensation of coldness throughout the body.
THERAPEUTICS.
The chief employment of mercurius in material doses has been in the treatment of syphilis. It is given in order to destroy the organism, the spirochete pallida, that is the cause of the disease, and the dose aimed at is one just short of that which will produce symptoms of mercurial poisoning. Arsenic in one or other of its preparations is usually given concurrently or in alternation with it. It is most valuable in primary and secondary syphilis and less efficacious in the tertiary stage. Administration is by mouth, inunction or intra-muscular injection. The last method is the one usually preferred, but it has the disadvantage of causing considerable pain and swelling in the tissues which are the seat of injection. It is commonly given in syphilitic iritis in conjunction with the instillation of atropine into the conjunctival sac to dilate the pupil. In the forms of calomel and blue pill it is much used as a purgative in “biliousness” and cardiac dropsy.
Externally it is employed as a disinfectant wash in surgical operations in the form of solutions of the perchloride or cyanide; caution must be used, as many cases of acute mercurial poisoning have occurred from its absorption, notably when used as a vaginal douche after parturition. In the from of ointment mercurial salts are in favour for skin disease, especially those of parasitic origin, and for the skin affections and ulceration s of syphilis. Citrine ointment (ung. hydrarg. nit.) has been much used in conjunctivitis; it is acid and irritant, and had better be used in the form of ung. hydrarg. nit. dil., which is citrine ointment diluted to one in five.
In the smaller doses employed homoeopathically mercurius is one of the most widely used remedies. its profound influence on the blood, on the mucous membranes, skin, glands, and secretory organs gives it an extensive range and makes it applicable to a multitude of diseases.
Syphilis.- Its power to cause inflammatory affections and ulcerations of the skin and mucous membranes, as well as pains in the bones, especially the long bones, that are worse at night, makes it a very suitable remedy for venereal sores and the ulcers and skin eruptions of secondary syphilis. It is, therefore, even in infinitesimal doses, a remedy for syphilis, but only for the lesions of syphilis to which its action is similar. It would not in these doses be fatal to the spirochaetes, at any rate not directly fatal, and one would not in so serious a disease forego the benefit that can be gained from the administration of preparations of mercury and arsenic given in doses lethal to these organisms.
Digestive Tract.- Mercurius is indicated in stomatitis and simple aphthous inflammation of the mouth, with foul odour of the breath, salivation, and sharp, stinging pains that are worse at night; the tongue is swollen, covered with thick, yellow, moist fur, and has the edges indented by the teeth; in gingivitis and toothache from carious teeth, when the gums are spongy and receding, the teeth tender at the roots, so that they feel too long, the pain is worse at night, from the warmth of the bed, and from taking anything cold into the mouth; the crowns of the teeth decay, the roots remain; in sore throat, when the throat feels dry although the mouth is full of saliva and the tonsils are swollen or suppurating, with sharp sticking pains on swallowing (hep., nit. ac.).
The action of mercurius on the salivary glands makes it useful in mumps, and its power to inflame lymphatic glands gives it a place beside belladonna, which it will usually follow, in inflammations and suppurations of those organs.
Though the action of mercurius on the stomach is not very marked, it is useful for various disorders of digestion. There are violent thirst, although the mouth and tongue are moist; aversion from meat, wine, brandy, beer, coffee, greasy food and butter; excessive hunger or complete anorexia, or appetite only for bread and butter; the pit of the stomach burns, and is swollen, and is sensitive to touch. Catarrhal gastritis is the complaint for which it is generally given, and it is useful also for the sudden vomiting of milk in infants.
Mercurius causes swelling and tenderness of the liver, and is a remedy for jaundice consequent on obstruction of the common bile-duct from inflammation secondary to gastro-duodenal catarrh. The patient cannot lie on the right side.
On the small intestine mercurius has little or no influence, but its ability to inflame and ulcerate the large bowel gives it a prominent place in the treatment of diarrhoea and dysentery; there are colic, constant urging to stool, tenesmus with chilliness, the passage of stools that are usually small in amount, green or of green mucus (arg.nit., bell., ipec., sulph.), bloody, acrid, which excoriate the anus, and the passage of which does not relieve the tenesmus.
Head.- The headaches calling for mercurius are generally associated with disorder of the stomach or liver, and are full and bursting, or there is a feeling of constriction as of a band round the head compressing it; the pain in worse from a draught and in the open air and better in a cool room. The whole scalp is painful to touch; the hair falls out; there may be a foetid, oily sweat on the head, or offensive, moist eczema.
Eyes.- Mercurius inflames the conjunctiva as if does other mucous membranes, and is very useful in blepharitis, keratitis and episcleritis when the discharges are profuse, burning, thin and acrid, and are worse at night from warmth, especially the heat of a fire or lamp. It is, therefore, much used in the eye affections of workers in foundries. The eyelids are swollen and inverted, lachrymation is profuse and excoriation, and the lids are spasmodically closed. The higher potencies have been recommended for iritis, syphilitic or not.
Ears.- Mercurius is an important remedy for inflammations of the external and internal ear with much sanious, offensive discharges; also for deafness due to catarrh of the eustachian tubes.
Nose.- It is a favourite medicine for nasal catarrhs in which there is much sneezing and the discharge is fluent, corrosive and offensive, and excoriates the upper lip. The nose is red and swollen, and the nasal bones are painful to touch. Nose bleeding during sleep is an indication for it.
Sexual.-Mercurius has been much used for ulcerations on the genitals of both men and women, for catarrhal and gonorrhoeal discharges,-for pruritus pudendi, balanitis, and swelling and suppuration of the inguinal glands (buboes).
Respiratory.-It has but a limited sphere in respiratory diseases, but is serviceable for hoarseness, bronchial catarrhs and bronchitis when there is a short, dry, fatiguing cough occurring chiefly at night, when the patient is warm in bed, and which may be accompanied by stitching pains through the chest walls from front to back on sneezing or coughing. The chest feels dry. The cough is worse from lying on the right side, from change of weather and from night air. Mercurius affects the lower lobe of the right lung (chel., kali c.).
Skin.-Besides the skin eruptions occurring in the secondary stage of syphilis, eczema rubrum, when it is of the same description as eczema mercuriale, calls for mercurius, and it is also indicated in boils and ulcerations of the skin that have a lardaceous base, a tendency to spread and to undermine the edges and to the formation of foul-smelling acrid pus.
IN the affections for which mercurius should be prescribed we should bear in mind its deteriorating influence on the blood, which causes discharges easily to assume an offensive, sanious character, which leads to a general anaemia or cachexia to muscular relaxation and prostration, to emaciation and to general nervous and mental weakness…. In the last condition the tremors set up remind one of those of paralysis agitans and it should be thought of in that disease. It has been used in meningitis. For periostitis, especially of the tibia, when the pain is worse at night and from the warmth of the bed, it is one of the chief remedies, and it should also be considered in the more advanced caries of bone, such as caries of the spine or of the bones of the face and skull, when there is much low-grade suppuration.
Edwin Awdas Neatby founded the Missionary School of Homeopathy and the London Homeopathic Hospital in 1903, and run by the British Homeopathic Association. He died in East Grinstead, Sussex, on the 1st December 1933. Edwin Awdas Neatby wrote The place of operation in the treatment of uterine fibroids, Modern developments in medicine, Pleural effusions in children, Manual of Homoeo Therapeutics,