Mercurius solubilis
as William Boericke recorded it in Homoeopathic Materia Medica, 1927
Mercurius solubilis Hahnemanni
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Mind
Slow in answering questions. Memory weakened, and loss of will- power. Weary of life. Mistrustful. Thinks he is losing his reason.
General
Every organ and tissue of the body is more or less affected by this powerful
drug; it transforms healthy cells into decrepit, inflamed and necrotic wrecks, decomposes the blood, producing a profound anæmia. This malignant medicinal force is converted into useful life saving and life preserving service if employed homeopathically, guided by its clear cut symptoms. The lymphatic system is especially affected with all the membranes and glands, and internal organs, bones etc. Lesions produced by mercury very similar to those of syphilis. Very often indicated in the secondary stage of syphilis where there is a febrile chloro- anæmia, rheumatoid pains behind sternum, around joints, etc; ulcerations of mouth and throat, falling of the air, the eruptions and ulcerations of mouth and throat, etc. These are the special conditions and stages to which Mercur is homeopathic and where the 2x will do surprising work. Again, hereditary syphilis manifestations, are within its range; bullæ, abscesses, snuffles, marasmus, stomatitis or destructive inflammations. Tremors everywhere. Weakness with ebullitions and tremblings from least exertion. All Mercury symptoms are worse at night, from warmth of bed, from damp, cold, rainy weather, worse during perspiration. Complaints increase with the sweat and rest; all associated with a great deal of weariness, prostration, and trembling. A human "thermometer". Sensitive to heat and cold. Parts are much swollen, with raw, sore feeling; the profuse, oily perspiration does not relieve. Breath, excretions and body smell foul. Tendency to formation of pus, which is thin, greenish, putrid; streaked with thin blood.
Modalities
Worse, at night, wet, damp weather, lying on right side, perspiring; warm room and warm bed.
Head
Vertigo, when lying on back. Band-feeling about head. One-sided, tearing pains. Tension about scalp, as if bandaged. Catarrhal headaches; much heat in head. Stinging, burning, fetid eruptions on scalp. Loss of hair. Exostosis, with feeling of soreness. Scalp tense; oily sweat on head.
Face
Pale, earthy, dirty-looking, puffy. Aching in facial bones, Syphilitic pustules on face.
Eyes
Lids red, thick, swollen. Profuse, burning, acrid discharge. Floating black spots. After exposure to glare of fire; foundrymen. Parenchymatous keratitis of syphilitic origin with burning pain. Iritis, with hypopyon.
Ears
Thick, yellow discharge; fetid and bloody. Otalgia, worse warmth of bed; at night sticking pains. Boils in external canal (Calc pic).
Nose
Much sneezing. Sneezing in sunshine. Nostrils raw, ulcerated; nasal bones swollen. Yellow-green, fetid, pus-like discharge. Coryza; acrid discharge, but too thick to run down the lip; worse, warm room. Pain and swelling of nasal bones, and caries, with greenish fetid ulceration. Nosebleed at night. Copious discharge of corroding mucus. Coryza, with sneezing; sore, raw, smarting sensation; worse, damp weather; profuse, fluent.
Mouth
Sweetish metallic taste. Salivary secretions greatly increased; bloody and viscid. Saliva fetid, coppery. Speech difficult on account of trembling tongue. Gums spongy, recede, bleed easily. Sore pain on touch and from chewing. Whole mouth moist. Crown of teeth decay. Teeth loose, feel tender and elongated. Furrow in upper surface of tongue lengthwise. Tongue heavy, thick; moist coating; yellow, flabby, teeth-intended, feels as if burnt, with ulcers, Fetid odor from mouth, can smell it all over room. Alveolar abscess, worse at night. Great thirst, with moist mouth.
Throat
Bluish-red swelling. Constant desire to swallow. Putrid sore throat; worse right side. Ulcers and inflammation appearing at every change in weather. Stitches into ear on swallowing; fluids return through nose. Quinsy, with difficult swallowing, after pus has formed. Sore, raw, smarting, burning throat. Complete loss of voice. Burning in throat, as from hot vapor ascending.
Stomach
Putrid eructations. Intense thirst for cold drinks. Weak digestion, with continuous hunger. Stomach sensitive to touch. Hiccough and regurgitation. Feels replete and constricted.
Abdomen
Stabbing pain, with chilliness. Boring pain in right groin. Flatulent distention, with pain. Liver enlarged; sore to touch, indurated. Jaundice. Bile secreted deficiently.
Stool
Greenish, bloody and slimy, worse at night, with pain and tenesmus. Never-get-done feeling. Discharge accompanied by chilliness, sick stomach, cutting colic, and tenesmus. Whitish-gray stools.
Urinary
Frequent urging. Greenish discharge from urethra; burning in urethra on beginning to urinate. Urine dark, scanty, bloody, albuminous.
Male
Vesicles and ulcers; soft chancre. Cold genitals. Prepuce irritated; itches. Nocturnal emissions, stained with blood.
Female
Menses profuse, with abdominal pains. Leucorrhœa excoriating, greenish and bloody; sensation of rawness in parts. Stinging pain in ovaries (Apis). Itching and burning; worse, after urinating; better, washing with cold water. Morning sickness, with profuse salivation. Mammæ painful and full of milk at menses.
Respiratory
Soreness from fauces to sternum. Cannot lie on right side (Left side, Lycop). Cough, with yellow muco-purulent expectoration. Paroxysms of two; worse, night, and from warmth of bed. Catarrh, with chilliness; dread of air. Stitches from lower lobe of right lung to back. Whooping-cough with nosebleed (Arnica) Cough worse, tobacco smoke.
Back
Bruised pain in small of back, especially when sitting. Tearing pain in coccyx; better, pressing on abdomen.
Extremities
Weakness of limbs. Bone-pains and in limbs; worse, night. Patient very sensitive to cold. Oily perspiration. Trembling extremities, especially hands,
paralysis agitans. Lacerating pain in joints. Cold, clammy sweat on legs at night. Dropsical swelling of feet and legs.
Skin
Almost constantly moist. Persistent dryness of the skin contra indicates mercurius. Excessive odorous viscid perspiration; worse, night. General tendency to free perspiration, but patient is not relieved thereby. Vesicular and pustular eruptions. Ulcers, irregular in shape, edges undefined. Pimples around the main eruption. Itching, worse from warmth of bed. Crusta lactea; yellowish- brown crusts, considerable suppuration. Glands swell every time patient takes cold. Buboes. Orchitis (Clemat, Hamam, Puls).
Fever
Generally gastric or bilious, with profuse nightly perspiration; debility, slow and lingering. Heat and shuddering alternately. Yellow perspiration. Profuse perspiration without relief. Creeping chilliness, worse in the evening and into night. Alternate flashes of heat in single parts.
Relationships
Compare: Capparis coriaccea (polyuria, glandular affections, mucous diarrhœa; influenza); Epilobium––Willow herb––(chronic diarrhœa with tenesmus and mucous discharges; ptyalism, dysphagia; wasting of body and much debility; cholera infantum); Kali hyd (in hard chancre); Mercur acet (Congestion with stiffness, dryness and heat of parts affected. Eyes inflamed, burn and itch. Lack of moisture. Throat dry, talking difficult. Pressure in lower sternum; chancre in urethra; tenia capitis favosa margin of ulcers painful): Mercurius auratus (psoriasis and syphilitic catarrh; brain tumors; lues of nose and bones; ozæna; swelling of testicles); Mercurius bromatus (secondary syphilitic skin affection); Mercurius nitrosus-Nitrate of Mercury––(especially in postular conjunctivitis and keratitis; gonorrhœa and mucous patches, with sticking pains; syphilides); Mercurius phosphoricus (nervous diseases from syphilis; exostoses); Mercurius precipitatus ruber (suffocative attacks at night on lying down while on the point of falling asleep, obliged to jump up suddenly which relieves; gonorrhœa; urethra felt as a hard string; chancroid; phagedenic ulcer and bubo; pemphigus, mucous patches, eczema with rhagades and fissures, barber's itch; blepharitis, internally and externally; leaden heaviness in occiput, with otorrhœa); Mercurius tannicus (syphilides in patients with gastro-intestinal diseases, or, if very sensitive, to ordinary mercurial preparations); Erythrinus- South American Red Mullet Fish––(in pityriasis rubra and syphilis; red rash on chest; pityriasis); Lolium temulentum (in trembling of hands and legs); Mercur cum kali (inveterate colds, acute facial paralysis). Henchera-Alum root––(Gastro- enteritis nausea, vomiting of bile and frothy mucus; stools watery, profuse, slimy, tenesmus, never-get-done feeling. Dose, 2 to 10 drops of tincture). Compare: Mez; Phos; Syph; Kali mur; Aethiops.
Antidote: Hep; Aur; Mez. Complementary: Badiaga.
Dose
Second to thirtieth potency.
What the other books say about Mercurius solubilis
The same remedy read by a different author. They disagree, and the disagreements are where the remedy becomes recognisable.
- Mercurius solubilis in Allen's Keynotes — The few symptoms that, when genuinely present, point at one remedy and not its neighbours.
- Mercurius solubilis in Farrington — Lectures that teach remedies in families, by comparing them with each other.
- Mercurius solubilis in Kent — Kent teaching a class, one remedy at a time — fewer remedies, far more on each.
- Mercurius solubilis in Boger — A compressed key — the generals and the characteristic modalities, with very little narrative.
Search every book at once, take rubrics from Kent and Bönninghausen, and practise on a patient who answers back — free account.
Create a free accountCite this page. William Boericke. Homoeopathic Materia Medica. 9th edition (preface dated San Francisco, June 1927). Mercurius solubilis — Mind. HomeopathyWorld, https://homeopathyworld.in/materia-medica/books/boericke/mercurius-solubilis. Published 1927: public domain in the US (since 2023) and in India (author died 1929). Reproduced as the author wrote it; a historical reference for students and practitioners, not medical advice.