(From vol. vi., 2nd edit., 1827.)
(This brittle, easily melted, reddish-white metal is dossolved in a sufficient quantity of nitric acid to saturation, the perfectly limpid solution is dropped into a considerable quantity of pure water – from 50 to 100 parts – and well stirred; the precipitated white sediment (oxyde of bismuth), after standing a couple of hours, is freed from the superincumbent fluid by carefully decanting; then, again, as much pure watermixed with a few drops of potash os poured on it, and the sediment well stirred through it. The precipitate, after standing for some hours, is freed from the superincumbent water by decanting, and the sediment is completely dried on blotting-paper, on which other blotting-paper is laid, and weights laid on it, until all moisture is removed. When perfectly dried this is the oxyde of bismuth, one grain of which is triturated for an hour with a hundred grains of milk-sugar in a porcelain mortar, what adheres to the bottom of the mortar beinf frequently scraped up with a bone spatula. Of this hundredfold powder-attenuation one grain is again triturated with a hundred grains of milk-sugar in the same manner for an hour, so that 1/10000th of a grain of oxyde of bismuth is contained in each grain of this powder; a very small portion of a grain of this is the dose employed for homoeopathic use.)
The few symptoms recorded below of the pure effects of bismuth on the healthy human body, which I should like to see increased will teach us useful homoeopathic employment of it in important morbid states. Among others they – e.g. Symp. 32 and 53 – show how the commendations of oxyde of bismuth in a kind of stomach-ache and gastralgia, by ODIER CARMINATI, BONNAT, and others, are solely based on homoeopathy, though this was unknown to them, and also that the power of oxyde of bismuth in palpitation, warranted by ODIER, rests only on the peculiar property possessed by this drug, of exciting strong and peculiar palpitation of the heart in the healthy (See Symp. 56); not ot mention other indications for its use.
But as these qualities of our oxyde of bismuth are purely homoeopathic, we see, at the same time, how improperly these and other physicians acted in administering in such cases sucj large doses of it – 1, 2, 6. Up to 12 grains for a dose, two, three, and four times a day – thus, in their ignorance, running the risk of injuring their patients.
As has been said, and the most careful observations prove it, where bismuth is indicated in similar and other cases, a single dose of the smallest possible part of ten-thousandfold attenuation prepared in the manner decribed above fulfils the object perfectly.
[HAHNEMANN was assisted in this proving by F. HARTMANN, C. T. HERRMANN, C. F. LANGHAMMER.
No symptoms are derived from old-school sources.
The 1st edit. Had only 7 fewer symptoms than are in this 2nd edit.]
In the morning, long continued dizziness.
Vertigo; sensation as if the brain whirled round in a circle (aft. 1 h.). [Hrr.]
Vertigo: sensation as if the front half of the brain whirled round in a circle, several times a day, for several minutes a time. [Hrr.]
Confusion of the head. [Hrr.]
5. The head is extremely heavy (aft. 1 h.) [Hrr.]
Violent aching heavy pain in the forehead, especially above the root of the nose and in both temples, when sitting (aft. 3.1/2 h.). [Htn.]
Pressure and feeling of weight in the forehead, more severe when moving. [Hrr.]
Pressure and feeling of weight in the occiput, more severe when moving. [Hrr.]
Hard pressure from within in both temples, unaffected by movement or touching (aft. 2.1/2 h.). [Hrr.]
10. Dull, aching drawing in the head, here and there, worse on moving. [Hrr.]
Dull aching drawing in the head, here and there.
Obtuse cutting pain in the brain, which commences over the right orbit and extends to the occiput (aft. 3 d.). [Hrr.]
Boring pain outwards, now in the right, now in the left, frontal protuberance, sometimes in both at once (aft. 9 h.). [Htn.]
Tearing pressure in the right temple internally, but more externally, increased by pressing on it. [Hrr.]
15. Twitching tearing pain in all the left occiputal bone, more violent close to the parietal bone (aft. 2.1/2 h.). [Htn.]
A burning, contractive pain in the head, especially in the forehead and eyes.
A constant digging and boring, as with a blunt instrument, in the forehead, eyes, and nose down to its tip – an alternate contraction and expansion.
Tearing pain in the forehead, over the right internal canthus of the eye and posteriorly in the orbit (aft. 24 h.). [Hrr.]
Hahnemann's three major publications chart the development of homeopathy. In the Organon of Medicine, we see the fundamentals laid out. Materia Medica Pura records the exact symptoms of the remedy provings. In his book, The Chronic Diseases, Their Peculiar Nature and Their Homoeopathic Cure, he showed us how natural diseases become chronic in nature when suppressed by improper treatment.