Zinc, an element. (Zn,) Atomic weight, 64.9. Trituration of the metal.
PATHOGENESIS
The provings of zinc were made with the metal, the oxide, the acetate, the sulphate and the phosphate; the first two and the last, being insoluble, were made with triturations; the acetate and sulphate, which are soluble, with fluid dilutions. Symptoms arising amongst workers in brass, an alloy of copper and zinc, are included, and also those observed in cases of accidental poisoning and in illnesses produced in persons from drinking water contaminated with zinc.
The soluble salts of zinc form insoluble albuminates with the tissues and thereby have an astringent action. Those in most common use in orthodox general practice are the sulphate and chloride; the former is the more astringent, the latter the more irritant, and has frequently caused corrosive poisoning. The sulphate has a harsh, metallic taste, and when taken in small doses by the mouth causes nausea and inclination to vomit; in large doses it brings on violent vomiting and purging, abdominal pain and collapse. In workers in zinc a condition known as ‘brass-founders’ ague” is induced. This is manifested by pains in different parts of the body and general weakness, the prolonged rigors, associated with nausea and a sensation of contraction of the thorax, followed by a short stage, with acceleration of pulse, headache, coughing and soreness of the chest. The rigors give place to profuse perspiration and sleep, from which the patient awakes in his usual health. These attacks are liable frequently to recur.
Intravenous injections of zinc have shown that it depresses the central nervous system, and to a less extend the heart and voluntary muscles, causes irritation and congestion of the mucous membrane of the stomach and intestines, and inflames the kidneys.
Zinc is excreted mainly by the walls of the stomach and intestines, to a much smaller extent in the bile and urine.
The finer symptomatology of zinc brought out by the provings will be more conveniently dealt with in the therapeutic section.
THERAPEUTICS.
In general orthodox practice zinc has been given internally, usually in the form of the sulphate, as an emetic. The sulphate, oxide and carbonate have been used in the treatment of various brain diseases, such as epilepsy, chorea and hysteria. Externally, the soluble zinc preparations (except the chloride) have been employed as astringents, in the form of a lotion, to ulcers, as an eyewash in conjunctivitis, and as an injection in gonorrhoea. The insoluble salts have been used in power or ointment for ulcers and diseases of the skin. The chloride, which is a powerful caustic, has been applied in the form of paste, or in a pencil to destroy malignant growths, chancres and gangrenous sores, and it has been used in very dilute solution as a disinfectant.
Digestion.-In homoeopathic practice, instead of being used as an emetic, zincum is employed to alleviate disorders of the alimentary system, which occur, not so much as a primary disease, but which may come on in the course of illnesses when the nervous system is involved in the case, and is the part mainly affected. The symptoms that most indicate zincum in gastric complaints are nausea, with increased flow of saliva and yet thirst; a sweetish, metallic or bitter taste, drawing and smarting in the roots of the teeth which are painful when eating and feel long and loose; the gums bleed easily; the tongue is dry and coated at the root, a sensation of crawling may be felt in the inner surface of the cheek. The throat is dry, sore and painful between the acts of deglutition, but during swallowing a cramp like pain may be felt externally in the muscles of the neck; pain is felt in the posterior part of the hart palate and velum palati while yawning; the patient has an aversion from meat, fish, sweets, wine, brandy and warm food; there may be anorexia, but irresistible hunger is more characteristic, with hurried eating and drinking; sweet things and wine upset the stomach and sour eructations occur after milk. Nausea is referred to the stomach, with retching and vomiting of bloody mucus, and there are burning, a sense of pressure and stitching pains in the epigastric and stomach regions; a sensation as of a worm creeping up from the pit of the stomach into the throat has been described; cramping pains occur in the hypochondria, associated with dyspnoea, and oppression of the chest comes on after eating, which brings on or aggravates all the stomach symptoms; there is great fulness and distension of the abdomen from flatulent colic, which is made worse by wine to wards evening or during the night, and causes loud rumbling and the passing of hot, moist, foetid flatus without relief; stitching and griping pains occur in the abdomen, especially after a meal. Itching and crawling, as of a worm, is felt in the anus, and there is burning after stool; there may be diarrhoea with stupor as in typhus, but the more usual condition is obstinate constipation, with which the stools are small, hard, dry and crumbling, and, on account of loss of power in the rectum, are passed with the exertion of much pressure. Zincum has been found useful in atonic dyspepsia, with flatulence and an “an-gone” sensation at 11 a.m. (sulph., sepia), in lead colic, in enteralgia of drunkards, in flatulent colic coming on in the evening, in cholera infantum, associated with a hydrocephaloid condition, in chronic dysentery and in worms. These symptoms referable to the alimentary tract are not due solely to the action of zinc on its mucous membrane, but more to irritation, with subsequent depression of the nervous supply to its involuntary muscle.
Nervous System.-Zinc is a drug that acts almost solely on the nervous system, irritating and then depressing the brain and spinal cord. It does not do this by promoting active hyperaemia of the nervous tissues, like belladonna, but they suffer a loss of their vitality, going on to paralysis. Reflex action is increased from weakness of control by the higher centres, and to this is probably mainly due the convulsions that occasionally occur in children during dentition and from worms, and also the jerking and disorderly movements which are so common, and make zincum a suitable remedy for chorea, hysterical twitchings, globus hystericus, reflex symptoms arising from floating kidney, and hysterical retention of urine. The epileptic fits for which zinc is useful are without aura, a circumstance which suggests that they are probably more of reflex than cortical origin.
Mind.-The depression of the brain produced by zinc renders it of great value in cases of brain fag, whether due to over- study, over-taking of the brain in business, night watching or fatigue. With this condition there is a weak memory, over- sensitiveness, especially to noise, and to people talking; the patient is low-spirited, cross, easily offended, mental operations are difficult to him, “he repeats all questions before answering them,” the mind becomes stuporous, especially in the afternoon and evening; in extreme cases unconsciousness supervenes. It is a medicine for threatened “paralysis of the brain,” in fevers, such as scarlet fever or typhus. It is especially indicated when these states of cerebral depression come on when there is insufficient vitality to bring out eruptions or to continue normal discharges, and when exanthematous diseases do not develop. It is not a question of their being suppressed by some outside influence, as is the case with cuprum, their failure to appear is due to lack of power within to throw them out. The patient is too weak to develop the exanthemata, the menstrual function fails, expectoration stops, urine is suppressed, foot-sweat dries up, the lochia cease, and milk does not appear after parturition. Zincum will re-establish these functions with relief to all the symptoms.
It is useful in the brain affections of children; indications are crossness in the evening, grinding of teeth, rolling of the head, sudden screaming as if from pain when unconscious (apis); these symptoms may accompany dentition, worms, or exanthematous fevers.
Mental diseases for which zincum may be useful are Huntingdon’s chorea, stupor, energia, general paralysis of the insane (stage of fits, of paralysis), Korsakow’s disease, encephalitis lethargica, exhaustion psychosis, confessional states and alcoholic confusion.
Head.-Cerebral depression may be accompanied with many head symptoms, such as vertigo, with a tendency to fall to the left when walking, pressure on the vertex worse after dinner, dizziness, with nausea and vomiting of bile, unilateral headaches, with tearing and stinging pains, worse from wine, in a warm room and after eating; “pressure in the root of the nose, as if it would be pushed into the head” (kali bich.), is a characteristic pain. There is a sensation in the scalp as if insects are crawling from the occiput to the forehead. A neuralgia for which zincum phosphoricum is the remedy, is a severe pain in the forehead, associated, with frequent stabs going through the brain from before backwards to the occiput. It is a medicine for migraine.
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,