Bromum 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.
“Bromine. (The Element.) It acts best, but not exclusively, on persons with light blue eyes, flaxen hair, light eyebrows, fair, delicate skin; blonde, red-cheeked, scrofulous girls . Sensation of cobweb on the face (Bar., Bor., Graph.). Fan-like motion of the alae nasi (Ant. t., Lyc.). Sailors suffer with asthma "on…”
- Allen TF — The raw proving record — symptoms as the provers reported them, unedited.
“The pure elementary substance (Bromine). Preparation , Tincture, and dilutions with distilled water. Authorities. ( 1 to 17, from Hering's résumé, Neues Archiv , 2, 3; when the preparation used is not noted with the symptom or referred to in this list, it is understood to be the 30th); 1 , Lippe, provings on himself…”
- Boericke — The quick clinical read — keynotes, modalities and the conditions it is actually prescribed in.
“Bromine (BROMUM) Most marked effects are seen in the respiratory symptoms, especially in larynx and trachea. It seems to affect especially scrofulous children with enlarged glands. Blond type . Enlarged parotid and goitre. Tendency to spasmodic attacks. Left-sided mumps . Sense of suffocation; excoriating discharges…”
- Boger (GA) — Which general headings this remedy belongs under — the analytical scaffolding.
“ACRIDITY, excoriations, etc. CHILLED, cold becoming, while hot, by ices, uncovering a part, as head, hand-hands, etc. in cold water, etc.., Agg. HUMID, warm, wet weather, Agg. LARYNX AND TRACHEA SCRAPING SIDE, left to right STERNUM, region of, also throat-pit, etc. VAPOR, smoke, fumes, etc.., as of (Comp. Dust.) VOICE”
- Clarke — The widest entry — sources, provings, clinical uses, relationships and antidotes in one place.
“Bromine. Br. (A. W. 79.9). Solution in distilled water. Apoplexy / Asthma / Breast, cancer of / Cancer / Cough / Croup / Diphtheria / Dysmenorrhœa / Emphysema / Feet, pain in / Fistula lachrymalis / Glands, enlargement of / Goître / Heart, disease of; hypertrophy of / Laryngismus / Migraine / Parotid gland, induration…”
- Hering — Graded symptoms, each weighted by how often provers and practice confirmed it.
“Bromine. The element. Proved by C. Hg., in 1838, and later ; a carefully made collection, numbering five hundred and ten symptoms, obtained with the use of high and low doses from fourteen provers, four of them being females, and containing nearly all the characteristics which have hitherto led to innumerable cures…”
- Kent — The mental and general picture — who the patient is, before what the remedy cures.
“Bromium is one of the routine medicines. It is one of the medicines that the neophyte will make use of for every case of diphtheria and croup, and laryngitis he comes across; and when it does not work he will " try something else." All who prescribe on the name use Bromium as one of their routine medicines; but…”
- Lippe (KN) — Only the symptoms Lippe considered reliable enough to prescribe on.
“Faucial angina and very sore throat. General trembling. A sensation of something being alive in the skin, principally in the arms and legs. Great watchfulness in the evening. He has much trouble in getting to sleep at night. Anguish in sleep, and sleep full of dreams. Constant dreaming in sleep. Jerking and starting…”
- Lippe (MM) — The strict Hahnemannian reading — the symptom picture without clinical interpretation.
“Cheerful mind; desire for mental labor. Low-spirited, and out of humor. Crying and lamentation, with hoarse voice. Headache after drinking milk. Pain over the left eye. Scald-head. Lachrymation (right eye) with swelling of the tear-gland. Darting through the eyes, (left). Dilatation of the pupils. Flashes before the…”
- Lippe (Red) — Keynotes with the most-trusted ones marked as red-line symptoms.
“Common name: bromine. An important remedy in laryngeal affections; also in scrofulous and tubercular affections of the glands (N.). Has done some wonderful work in diphtheria. The membrane first forms in the bronchi, trachea or larynx running upward (just opposite of Lyc., which often forms first in the nose and runs…”
- Nash — The comparisons — the remedy set beside the ones it is most often confused with.
“An element proven and arranged by Hering and an important remedy in laryngeal affections. Also in scrofulous and tubercular affections of the glands. It is well known to act best on persons with light blue eyes, flaxen hair, light eye-brows, fair, delicate skins, red cheeked scrofulous girls. It will be remembered how…”
