Zincum metallicum

by C.M. Boger — A Synoptic Key of the Materia Medica

Historical reference for practitioners and students. The statements below reflect the named author’s homeopathic teaching and do not establish treatment effectiveness. This text is not medical advice and must not replace appropriate diagnosis or care.

REGION

BRAIN AND NERVES: Occiput. Spine. Orbital region.
Root of nose.
Blood.
Inner canthi.

WORSE

EXHAUSTION; mental.
Suppressions.
Noise.
Touch.
Wine.
After being heated.

BETTER

Motion.
Hard pressure.
Warm open air.
FREE DISCHARGES.
Fagged

, enervated or depressed; can't throw things off; develop exanthema or discharges, etc. Increasing weakness; < eating; with restlessness. Isolated effects; one part numb, another sensitive; formication; pain in spots; between skin and flesh, etc. Transverse pains. Automatic acts. Tremor. Jerkings; nightly. Spasm. Shootings. Descending paralysis. Disabling bone pains. Bloody discharges. .................... Fretful and sensitive; cries if vexed. Easily startled, excited or intoxicated. Muddled. Forgetful; repeats the question, then answers. Brain-fag. Screams; if moved; during sleep; with pain, etc. Violent vertigo; with stupor. Headache of varying intensity; pressive on vertex or root of nose; into eyes; with weak vision; < warmth, > hard pressure. Temples; heavy ache in; pain, < biting. Occiput; dragging, down back; as of a blow on, then weak legs; heat in. Crashing in head on falling to sleep. Rolls head and grinds teeth. Brain paralysis. Hair painful; on vertex; bristles. Eyes feel drawn together. Squint. Lachrymation on eating. Pterygium. Swelled nose. Pale, bluish, miserable face. Sticky lips. Bitter mouth. Voracity. As of a lump in liver region or at navel. Hypogastric flatulence. Itching at anus during stool. Piles draw down, > heat < walking; ulcerate. Violent urging but urinates only in certain positions, bending backward, crossing limbs, etc.; blood follows urine. Pressive cutting about kidneys. Grasps genitals; with each cough, etc. Sexual excitement. Onanism; during menses. Profuse, lumpy menses. Pain (boring) in l. ovary. Spasmodic dyspnœa, < flatulency > expectoration. Bursting, one hard throb or as of a cap over heart. Hard heart beat. Constricted chest. Nape tired; < mental exertion; lame, then stupor. Spine aching, burning along, < sitting; sensitive; inter-scapular cutting, > eructations; weak lumbar, < standing. Spasms, from spinal injuries. Pains in limbs on becoming heated. Hands tremble; eczema on. CAN'T KEEP FEET AND LEGS STILL; cramp when cold. Toes feel swelled; sore; ache in tips. Sensitive soles. Bones of feet feel broken. Sweaty feet, with sore toes. Stumbling. Spastic gait. Varicoses; painful; chronic; on genitals. Broken, unrefreshing sleep.

Antidote: Tab.

Complementary: Pul.

Related: Ign. Kali-p. Lach. Pic-ac.

Zincum metallicum across the other classic books

Zincum metallicum appears in 15 of the 21 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.
“Zinc. (The Element.) Persons suffering from cerebral and nervous exhaustion; defective vitality ; brain or nerve power wanting ; too weak to develop exanthemata or menstrual function, to expectorate, to urinate; to comprehend, to memorize. Incessant and violent fidgety feeling in feet or lower extremeties; must move…”
Allen TF — A compiled symptom record drawing on proving reports and other named observations.
“An element. Preparation , Triturations of the metal. Authorities. (No. 1 to 12 , from Hahnemann, Chr. Kn.)”
Boericke — The quick clinical read — keynotes, modalities and the conditions it is actually prescribed in.
“Zinc (ZINC) The provings picture cerebral depression. The word "fag" covers a large part of zinc action. Tissues are worn out faster than they are repaired. Poisoning from suppressed eruptions or discharges. The nervous symptoms of most importance. Defective vitality. Impending brain paralysis. Period of depression in…”
Boger (GA) — Which general headings this remedy belongs under — the analytical scaffolding.
“ALTERNATING EFFECTS, sides, states, etc.(Comp. Periodicity, Wandering, Waves). BALL. BLOOD SEPSIS, etc. BLOOD VESSELS. BLOWS, shocks, thrusts, crash, explosions, etc. (Comp. Shattered): BORING, grinding, etc. CARPHOLOGY, nervous picking, etc. CHANGE of position, Amel. CHILLED, cold becoming, while hot, by ices…”
Clarke — The widest entry — sources, provings, clinical uses, relationships and antidotes in one place.
“metallicum. Zinc. An Element. Zn. A. W. 64.9. Trituration of the metal. Alcoholism / Amblyopia / Asthma / Brain-fag / Brain, paralysis of / Breasts, affections of / Cataract / Chilblains / Chin, eruption on / Chlorosis / Cholera / Chorea / Constipation / Cracks / Dentition / Diarrhœa, nervous; with stupor / Diphtheria…”
Farrington — The differential diagnosis — remedy families narrowed through direct clinical comparison.
“Zinc: Nervous depression; Undeveloped diseases from enervation; Brain—Hemispheres, Sensorium, Pons, medulla; Spine; Anaemia; Organs; Skin. Zinc: Belladonna, Cuprum, Stramonium; Hyoscyamus; Calcarea ostrearum; Camphor; Plumbum; > Ign.; Hep. Zincum metallicum is the zinc preparation we most frequently use. You will…”
Guernsey — The leading characteristics — a compact bridge from repertory result to remedy study.
“Affections in general appearing in the left inguinal ring; left side of the back; upper jaw, and troubles of the teeth in the lower jaw; loins; posterior surface of the thigh; tendo Achillis; big toe; joints of the toes. Sexual.--Female: Complaints coming on while the menses are absent, but feels perfectly well during…”
Hahnemann (CD) — The antipsoric proving record — Hahnemann's later materia medica in its chronic-disease setting.
“ZINC. Rub a piece of pure metallic zinc on a whetstone under distilled water, in a clean porcelain bowl ; the gray powder deposited on the bottom is dried on white blotting paper, and one grain of it is used to prepare the dynamized preparations of zinc, in the same manner as with other dry drugs, in the manner…”
Hering — Graded symptoms, each weighted by how often provers and practice confirmed it.
“Zinc. The element. Introduced by Franz. Provings by Hahnemann, Franz, von Gersdorff, Hartlaub, Hartmann, Haubold, Lesquereux, Nenning, Rückert, Rummell, Schweikert, Stapf, Chronische, Krankheiten, vol. 5, p. 428 ; Franz, Archiv für Hom., 6, 2, p. 188 ; Schreter, Neues Archiv für Hom., vol. 3, p. 187 ; Wernek, Hygea…”
Kent — The mental and general picture — how Kent organizes the remedy’s historical symptom portrait.
“Zinc. has a full and substantial proving, including symptoms of every part of the body. It is an antipsoric, suitable in broken down constitutions, feeble constitutions; enfeeblement characterizes the whole proving. The Zinc. patient is nervous and extremely sensitive, excitable, trembling, quivering, twitching of…”
Lippe (KN) — Only the symptoms Lippe considered reliable enough to prescribe on.
“Deathly sickness at the stomach with marked nausea. Pallor of the body surface, with low fevers, inclining to coma. Variableness of the symptoms. Twitching of the members.”
Lippe (MM) — The strict Hahnemannian reading — the symptom picture without clinical interpretation.
“Very variable mood: at noon, low-spirited; and in the evening, hilarity, or vice versa. Morose and indisposed to converse (especially in the evening). Great sensitiveness to the talking of others and to all noise. Aversion to work and to walk. Weakness of the memory. Thoughtlessness and dulness of the intellect…”
Lippe (Red) — Keynotes with the most-trusted ones marked as red-line symptoms.
“Common name: zinc. Pallor of the body surface, with low fevers (Ferr., Nat-M., Sep.). Nape of the neck feels weary and tired, from writing or any exertion (N.). Variableness of the symptoms (Ign., Kali-S., Tub.). Pain in the back, worse when sitting (Agar., Arg-M., Rhus-T., Sep., Valer., Zinc.) (N.). DEFECTIVE…”
Nash — The comparisons — the remedy set beside the ones it is most often confused with.
“Inability to develop or hold out the rash in eruptive diseases, can’t expectorate or menstruate, is > if can. Cannot take stimulants, as they aggravate in general. Fidgety feet, must move them constantly. Twitching of single muscles all over the body. Violent trembling all over, so as to shake the bed; lost nerve…”

Zincum metallicum in Kent's Repertory

Kent's Repertory lists Zincum metallicum in 4,332 rubrics. These are the ones where it carries the highest grade — the symptoms Kent treated as most characteristic. Most of them sit in EXTREMITIES (917), HEAD (321), GENERALITIES (319), MIND (273), ABDOMEN (224).

BACK - CRACKING - Lumbar region - walking,while
BACK - PAIN - burning - Spine - sitting - while
BACK - WEAKNESS (tired feeling - in Spine) - Cervical region - writing - while
BLADDER - PARALYSIS - hysterical subjects,in
BLADDER - RETENTION of urine - hysteria,in
BLADDER - URINATION - retarded,must wait for urine to start - sitting, - can only pass urine while
CHEST - PAIN - sore - bruised - menses,before and during
COUGH - DRY - menses, - before - morning
EXPECTORATION - BLOODY,spitting of blood - menses, - before
EXPECTORATION - BLOODY,spitting of blood - morning - menses,during
EXTREMITIES - NUMBNESS - Wrist - in measles
EXTREMITIES - PAIN - Foot - heel - wine,after
EXTREMITIES - PAIN - boring - Foot - heel - wine,after
EXTREMITIES - PAIN - stitching - Joints - transversely
EXTREMITIES - PAIN - stitching - Thigh - above the knee - transverse
EXTREMITIES - PAIN - stitching - Thigh - transverse
GENERALITIES - CHOREA - menses,during
MIND - TORMENTS everyone with his complaints
MIND - UNCONSCIOUSNESS - exanthema slow to appear,when
BACK - PAIN - aching - Cervical region - writing - while

Search all 7 classical repertories

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Previous remedy: Zinc-val

Zinc-ar Zinc-chr Zinc-i Zinc-p

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