Iridium metallicum
Iridium (metal) · Iridium · Mineral
Those who respond most effectively to Iridium met. are generally well presented and confident. If not successful in their plans or projects, or if they become ill and exhausted, they may experience confusion, with poor concentration and the feeling that their minds are empty.
Classic physical symptoms linked to Iridium met. include exhaustion and anemia following a bout of illness, and muscle pain and stiffness with tender, swollen joints. There may be nervous, pinching pains in the wrists, fingers, and limbs. In the hip joints there may be scraping, smarting pains and a crawling sensation; sciatic nerve pain may radiate down the legs. Neuralgic pains, perhaps in the back of the head, may be treated with Iridium met., as may lameness or partial paralysis, especially in the elderly. The remedy is also used to help prevent suppurating abscesses in the armpits.
Key symptoms
- Anaemia with increase of red blood corpuscles
- Spinal paresis especially in the aged and after illness
- Exhaustion after disease; profound weakness
- Children puny, weak-limbed, growing too fast
- Hoarse cough worse from talking
- Profuse watery coryza better indoors
- Difficult concentration; sensation mind is void
- Dislocated feeling in left hip-joint
- Nephritis of pregnancy
- Rheumatism and gout; uterine tumors
Worse (aggravation)
Better (amelioration)
The Metal (IRIDIUM)
Intestinal putrefaction and septicæmia. Anæmia, increases red corpuscles. Epilepsy; lupus. Rheumatism and gout. Uterine tumors. Spinal paresis. Exhaustion after disease. Children who are puny, weak-limbed, and grow too fast. Nephritis of pregnancy.
Head
Difficult concentration of thought. Sensation as if mind were void. Though confused. "Woodeny" feeling in right side of head. Right side of scalp sensitive. Profuse, watery coryza, better indoors. Ozæna.
Respiratory
Hoarse cough, worse talking; posterior nares feel raw, inflamed, profuse, thick, yellowish discharge. Chronic laryngeal catarrh.
Back and extremities
Weakness in the kidney region. Spinal paresis, especially for the aged and after disease. Pressing in groin and left thigh. Tension in both thighs, especially left. Dislocated feeling in left hip-joint and dull pain toward left gluteal region.
Relationship
Compare: Iridium chloride (Produces salivation and stiffness of jaws followed by head and nervous symptoms. Congestion of nares and bronchi. Dragging pain in lower back. Headache worse right side, heavy feeling as of liquid lead).
Compare: Platina; Palladium; Osmium.
Dose
Sixth and higher.
The metal. Ir. (AM. 192.5). Trituration.
Clinical
Anæmia. Axilla, abscess in. Bronchitis, chronic. Cramps. Gout. Hemiplegia (r.). Neuralgia. Numbness. Rheumatism. Spinal paresis.
Characteristics
Iridium is a rare metal of the Platinum group found in platinum ore. It is one of the heaviest substances known. A. J. Tafel took gr. xx. of 3rd trituration. He experienced a number of symptoms, all within two hours of taking the dose. Prominent among them were: A sensation of numbness; in ears and throughout the body. A feeling as if the eyes were being affected from below upward. A feeling as of a triangle on face, the base formed by the two malar-bones, the apex in the vertex. The numbness, and a cramp-like contraction in right calf, show a resemblance to the action of Plat. Irid. needs and deserves a fuller proving. The majority of symptoms appeared on the left side. In the Revue Hom. Française of February, 1892 (translated New York Med. Times, November, 1892), M. Laboucher gave an account of this remedy …
Classical texts are in the public domain. Educational reference only — not medical advice.
