Argentum metallicum appears in 11 of the 13 classic books on Similia. Each was written to do a different job — here is what each adds on this remedy, with the opening of its entry.
- Allen HC — The keynotes that separate this remedy from its nearest neighbours.
“The Metal. (Pure Silver) Tall, thin, irritable persons. Ailments from abuse of Mercury. Constitutional effects of onanism. Affects the cartilages, tarsal, ears, nose, Eustachian; the structures entering into joints. Seminal emissions: after onanism; almost every night; without erection; with atrophy of penis. Crushed…”
- Allen TF — The raw proving record — symptoms as the provers reported them, unedited.
“Metallic silver. Preparation , The pure precipitated metal for trituration (Hahnemann used the leaf silver). Authorities. He is all the time in a kind of intoxication; he knows not how to define it, 3. Increased cheerfulness and disposition to talk the whole day (after three hours), (reaction), 8. When pleased…”
- Boericke — The quick clinical read — keynotes, modalities and the conditions it is actually prescribed in.
“Silver Emaciation, a gradual drying up, desire for fresh air, dyspnœa, sensation of expansion and left-sided pains are characteristic. The chief action is centered on the articulations and their component elements, bones, cartilages, and ligament's. Here the small blood vessels become closed up or withered and carious…”
- Boger (Syn) — Generals and modalities in a short analytical portrait rather than a symptom list.
“NERVES. Cartilages, mucous membranes: LARYNX. Bones. Condyles. Joints. Genito-urinary. Left side; ovary. Testis (R). USING VOICE. Mental strain. Noon. Cold damp. 3 to 5 A.M. Motion. Coffee. Wrapping up. Slow, deep, low grade processes. THICKENED SECRETIONS, cartilages, tarsi, etc. Gray or tenacious mucus. Sore…”
- Clarke — The widest entry — sources, provings, clinical uses, relationships and antidotes in one place.
“Silver Leaf and Precipitated Silver. Ag (A. W. 107.66). Trituration. Blepharitis / Brain-fag / Caries / Chlorosis / Cough / Diabetes / Enuresis nocturna / Epilepsy / Epithelial tissue, affections of / Exostosis / Heart, affections of / Hit-joint, disease of / Hysterical joint / Joints, affections of / Laryngitis /…”
- Hering — Graded symptoms, each weighted by how often provers and practice confirmed it.
“Pure Metallic Silver. Hahnemann published in 1813, in the fourth volume of his Materia Medica Pura, the first proving made by him and his class, with the Argentum foliatum , or the silver leaf of the gold beaters, after having collected a few symptoms from the nitrate. But like he had experienced with the gold, and…”
- Kent — The mental and general picture — who the patient is, before what the remedy cures.
“Generalities: We will take up the study of Metallic silver. No wonder that this remedy is a very deep acting remedy, for it has been used symbolically, and medically throughout all history. It has been a valuable substance throughout all history. It is an anti psoric and from its symptoms. I believe it to be an…”
- Lippe (KN) — Only the symptoms Lippe considered reliable enough to prescribe on.
“Sensation of soreness in the joints. Tearing in the joints of the hands and feet, through the fingers and toes. Boring in the joints. Pricking from within outwards. Sensation of numbness, and as if asleep in the limbs. Pressing, tearing pain, mostly in the head. Sensation of soreness and rawness in internal organs…”
- Lippe (MM) — The strict Hahnemannian reading — the symptom picture without clinical interpretation.
“Restlessness, anxiety, which directs him from place to place. Ill-humor, with disinclination to talk. Pressing, tearing pain in the skull, principally in the temporal bones, renewed every day at noon, with soreness of the external head, aggravated by pressure and contact, ameliorated in the open air. Painful sensation…”
- Lippe (Red) — Keynotes with the most-trusted ones marked as red-line symptoms.
“Common name: silver. Has strong effects upon the secretions of the mucous membranes (Hydr., Kali-B., Nat-M., Puls., Rhus-T.). Produces spasms, which simulate those of epilepsy. The attacks are followed by delirious rage (Stram.). The patient jumps about and tries to strike those near him (Bell., Canth., Stram.) (F.)…”