Mercurius praecipitatus ruber
Mercury(II) oxide (red precipitate, HgO) · Mineral
Mercurius Praecipitatus Ruber suits patients with intense syphilitic or gonorrhoeal taint, particularly where ulceration is spreading and indurated. It is indicated in neonates with pemphigus and in cases of follicular and skin infections of the beard area. The remedy intensifies all typical mercurial characteristics with extreme tissue destruction.
Key symptoms
- Sensation of a glowing hot iron in anus moving up and down
- Gonorrhoea with urethra felt as a hard string
- Phagedenic ulcer with bubo; deep indurated ulcer with red hard edges
- Pemphigus neonatorum and intertrigo syphilitica
- Mucous patches on scrotum and anus with or without fissures
- Eczema with sero-purulent or purulent exudation
- Tongue enormously swollen and protruding
- Profuse fetid salivation with blood
- Violent diarrhoea with cramps and bloody stools
Worse (aggravation)
- Night (paroxysms of suffocation on lying down)
- Lying down while falling asleep
Better (amelioration)
- Jumping up suddenly (suffocative attacks disappear on rising)
Red Precipitate. Red Oxide of Mercury. HgO. Trituration.
Clinical
Anus, burning in. Chancroid. Gonorrhœa. Mucous patches. Pemphigus neonatorum.
Characteristics
This intensely irritating mercurial was investigated by Hahnemann. All the usual mercurial symptoms were intensified. Hansen has used it in practice, and gives these as indications [which are not all found in the provings]: Gonorrhœa when the urethra is felt as a hard string. Phagedænic ulcer and bubo. Indurated ulcer, deep, with red, hard edges, and especially when spreading. Syphilitic iritis when the pains have ceased. Pemphigus neonatorum and intertrigo syphilitica. Mucous patches on scrotum and by anus, with or without fissures. Eczema, acute or chronic, much sero-purulent or purulent exudation, also externally (in ointment 1 to 40 of prepared lard). Tinea tonsurans, circinata and sycosis. Folliculitis barbæ (internally and externally).─These are Hansen's own observations. In the symptoms of the proving a sensation "as of a hot iron in anus moving up and down" looks like a possible keynote.
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