Aurum metallicum appears in 12 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.
“Gold (The Element) Sanguine, ruddy people, with black hair and eyes; lively, restless, anxious about the future. Old people; weak vision; corpulent; tired of life. For constitutions broken down by bad effects of mercury and syphillis. Pinning boys; low-spirited, lifeless, weak memories, lacking in "boyish go;" testes…”
- Allen TF — The raw proving record — symptoms as the provers reported them, unedited.
“Aurum foliatum, metallic gold. Preparation , Triturate pure gold with sugar of milk. Authorities. Religious excitement, 15. In a reverie he says something absurd, 1. The child woke after three o'clock, early in the morning, and spoke rapidly in a strong voice, and with red face, thus: "Mother, thou art my jewel of a…”
- Boericke — The quick clinical read — keynotes, modalities and the conditions it is actually prescribed in.
“Metallic Gold Given full play, Aurum develops in the organism, by attacking the blood, glands, and bone, conditions bearing striking resemblance to mercurial and syphilitic infections; and it is just for such deteriorations of the bodily fluids and alterations in the tissues, that Aurum assumes great importance as a…”
- Boger (Syn) — Generals and modalities in a short analytical portrait rather than a symptom list.
“MIND. Nerves. VASCULAR SYSTEM. Heart (R). Bones: NASAL. Skull. Patellæ. Joints. Glands. Liver. Kidneys. Emotions: Depressing. Disordered affections. Mental exertion. Cold. Night: Sunset to sunrise. Abuse of Merc. or Kali-iod. Cloudy weather. Cool; open air. Cold bathing. Becoming warm. Music. Walking. Vaso-motor…”
- Clarke — The widest entry — sources, provings, clinical uses, relationships and antidotes in one place.
“Aurum foliatum (metallic gold). Au (A. W. 196.8). Trituration. Alcohol, effects of / Amenorrhœa / Angina pectoris / Asthma / Bone affections / Breath, offensive / Corpulency / Depression / Ears, affections of / Erethism / Erysipelas / Eye, affections of / Fevers / Gonorrhœa / Hæmorrhages / Hæmorrhoids / Hemiopia /…”
- Hering — Graded symptoms, each weighted by how often provers and practice confirmed it.
“Gold. Au., the element. Gold, the common metal, proved and introduced by Hahnemann in 1818, in Materia Medica, vol. iv (95 and 138) ; 2d ed., 1825 (151 and 201) ; in Chronic Diseases, 2d edition, 1835, 404 symptoms. The last proving was made by J. C. Burnett, in 1879. No preparation ought to be used except such as has…”
- Kent — The mental and general picture — who the patient is, before what the remedy cures.
“The general features of the remedy are such as relate to the mind and such as relate to the tissues of the body in general. If you run through the mental symptoms, taking them all in as one great whole, you will see that all the affections, natural to healthy man, are perverted. So great in extent is this that one of…”
- Lippe (KN) — Only the symptoms Lippe considered reliable enough to prescribe on.
“Melancholy. Fear, even to suicide. Paralytic drawing in the limbs in the morning, when awakening and on getting cold. Pain in the bones at night. Great ebullition and palpitation of the heart. Oversensitiveness to all pain and to the cold air. Desire for the open air. Hysterical spasms, with laughing and crying…”
- Lippe (MM) — The strict Hahnemannian reading — the symptom picture without clinical interpretation.
“Melancholy mood, dejected, inclined to weep, and longing to die. Excessive anguish, increasing even to self-destruction. The least contradiction excites his wrath. Alternate peevishness and cheerfulness. Congestions to and heat in the head, with sparks before the eyes, and glossy bloatedness of the face, aggravated…”
- Lippe (Red) — Keynotes with the most-trusted ones marked as red-line symptoms.
“Common name: gold. GREAT HOPELESSNESS; HARASSED, WITH A DESIRE TO COMMIT SUICIDE; WEARY OF LIFE (N.). Peevish and vehement; wrath at least contradiction (Bry., Nux-V., Sulph.) (R.). MELANCHOLY (Ign., Nat-M., Puls., Stann.). QUARRELSOME (Anac., Bell., Bry., Hyos., Nit-Ac., Sulph.) (R.). Imagines that he is not fit for…”
- Nash — The comparisons — the remedy set beside the ones it is most often confused with.
“Wants to commit suicide; thinks he is no good in the world. Nodes and bone pains, caries and necrosis with great depression of mind. Abuse of Mercury, in syphilis, in massive doses. “Looks on the dark side, weeps, prays, thinks she is not fit for this world, longs for death, strong inclination to commit suicide.”…”
