The Gold Rush
NATIONAL JOURNAL OF HOMOEOPATHY 1998 May / Jun VOL VII NO 4.
Dr Lakshminarayanan
In popular imagination, Gold - Aurum- metallicum is the undisputed queen among precious metals, though Platinum and Palladium are more expensive. The lure of gold has corrupted even otherwise simple souls - Mackenna's Gold and other Hollywood pictures have used this lure of the gold hunt to highlight human nature at its most bases and the tragedy that results to many adventurers. Even today, this attraction towards gold is very strong eg a gold nugget weighing over 10 kilos found in Australia recently, shows that there is probably a lot more virgin gold waiting to be discovered on this world's crust.
But Homoeopaths, being on the therapeutic side, know what action Gold has on a human. Ayurveda still uses gold salts in the form of 'swarna bhasma' for treating their patients. It was left to E B Nash to epitomize Gold's curse, quote 'strange that this noble metal for which mankind strives for its pecuniary alue, should, when taken into the organism, cause the greatest unhappiness' Neatby and Stonham on Gold. 'The mental state - a marked 'inferiority complex'... a feeling of apprehension and inability to cope.... Upto desire to die."
While a person, who was so susceptible to Mercury that she started salivating by sleeping with her husband, who had taken Mercury. In the case of gold, even a look at gold or even a thought could corrupt the soul.
Platinum today is symbolically sputtered on safety razor blades but had never been able to surpass gold in glamour. Palladium is reputedly a more attractive metal in jewelry. Both these metals have tremendous therapeutic effect on mentally disturbed patients. Silver, the lesser of the precious metals has an extraordinary range of mental symptoms in therapeutics. All these metals are highly resistant to the action of heat & chemicals including strong acids. Some of them require either hot, concentrated sulphuric acid or a mixture of two of the strongest acids- hydrochloric and nitric to dissolve them. At the same time they are extremely soft and ductile.
Silver is the lowest ranked or the poor cousin but has an extraordinary effect in the treatment of diarrhoea and dehydration, where the rubric is, stool while eating or soon after eating and drinking - frequently indicated in infants and children - but is distinguished from other drugs like Crot-tig and Colocynth in the absence of colic and griping; AGG also by refined sugar or sweets made from it; concomitant; - enormous flatulence. In the more chronic - sub acute cases, the patients will also be
1] Over anxious with stage fright, anticipatory anxiety [as before an exam] but have a diarrhoea, instead of urge for frequent urination which Gels patients of anxiety exhibit more prominently
2] Air hunger at heights
3] Impulse to jump out of a window when looking down from a height, or off a narrow bridge over water; fear of confined spaces, cave, low roofed car, or room i.e. claustrophobia.
All in all a very unique drug picture not having a parallel with any other remedy. Its nearest remedy is Dys-co [Bach], the bowel nosode.
Gold, is capable of rousing the worst passions even in simple souls, by the very thought and desire to acquire it. But while the hoarder may face only the threat of being robbed, the wearer of gold ornaments faces the prospect of much suffering. Ears and nostrils are pierced to insert gold ornaments. The whole making is nearly always free forming any sequelae if made in the traditional way by an experienced goldsmith with a sharpened copper wire. But if resistant to the action of heat and chemicals including strong acids. Some of them require either hot concentrated sulphurica acid or a mixture of two of the strongest acids- hydrochloric and nitric to dissolve them. At the same time they are extremely soft and ductile.
Silver is the lowest ranked or the poor cousin but an extraordinary effect in the treatment of diarrhoea and dehydration, where the rubric is, stool while eating or soon after eating and drinking- frequently indicated in infants and children- but is distinguished from other drugs like Crot-tig and Colocynth in the absence of colic and griping; AGG also be refined sugar or sweets made from it; concomitant; -enormous flatulence.
Readers of NJH may recall another clinical observation I had made [see feedback on warts issue] on the growth and proliferation of black, fleshy/seedy warts like a string of beads dotting the neckline of gold chain wearers. Discarding the chain and using Nitric-acid with or without intercurrent Thuja internally were effective in removing the warts. But it requires a long time before the elimination is compete; patients who discontinue after a little while, will continue to 'wear' the string of warts. One lady known to me with abundant jewels and fond of wearing them was forced to dump them in a bank locker since 15 years; so ugly were the numerous warts she sported. Lest we think that only women are victims of this cruel game that gold plays. I now see men and boys who wear thin gold chains, also sprouting warts. They receive the same treatment.
The mental sphere: the picture of 'inferiority complex', inability to cope, ending in the reversal of 'love of an young and very handsome tall young man, who resembled Gary Cooper, was brought by his father [some 35 years ago] This boy had a very disfiguring cleft palate which had soured his life and given him a terrible inferiority complex. Those were bold days and I was also full of Neatby and Stonham's drug picture of Aurum. So an instant prescription was made -Aurum-met 200, 1M in series of 24 hourly. The next day soon after the 2nd dose 1M was taken, the boy took out his father's revolver and was about to shoot himself, but was luckily detected in time and saved. The alarmed father rang me up and I persuaded him to give the 3rd dose and report next day. I still remember the laughing cheerful face of the boy when his father bought him, all depression gone. This snapshot prescription and almost instant 'cure' is difficult to forget even today. It was on that day that I told the boy that he was a Gary Cooper look alike and he went to school on cloud 9. [Gary Cooper was a great name among Hollywood heroes of that era]
Dr John Peterson of England coined the phrase 'blending' of remedies. He would say - 'suppose it was a Sulphur patient, why not think of Sulphur-iod, ditto Merc-iod and with Aurum his blending was the double salt Aurum-mur-natruonatum. So when I treated my first [outside] case of manic depression, following failure in examination, it was Ignatia, Natrum-mur, Aur-m, Nat-Sepia. [see Hom Heritage -Special Mind issue, Mind the therapeutic enigma] which converted an uncontrollable, hysterical adolescent girl into a charming, laughing lass in about 3 months.
In keeping with Aurum's propensity to create warts, its miasmatic nature is sycotic. When we use the salts of Gold, Aurum-mur is the remedy of choice when one is treating gynecological - bulky uterus - tumours of various kinds, resultant menorrhagia, and metrorrhagia, fear of malignancy. Skepticism would save many women the trauma to their bodies and their bank balances. Healthy skepticism should substitute gullibility.
So Aurum-mur is one of the most important remedies for treating gross Pathology of the uterus. The progress will be slow as my few patients know and patience should be preached to the patients that non-invasive internal curative medication is a slow therapy when Pathology is already evident. Homoeopaths have not ventured so far to treat the bigger tumours entirely by medicine, as the required motivation is difficult to find both in a patient and the attending physician.
Platinum has two peculiar symptoms
1] The constipation of travelers, stool difficult to wash, as it sticks disagreeably to the anus.
2] Patient tends to sleep with legs wide apart.
It is but fitting to close this article with a condition best described as a "superiority complex' in Platinum the direct opposite of Aurum's "inferiority complex".
Argentum and Aurum still remain the most outstanding remedies in the Hom MM of precious metals. May be Palladium, Iridium, Osmium and others have had little or no proving and much less clinical trials. They offer a wide scope for future research. Till such time, the so-called MM published by today's authors [the modern flying gurus] should be treated as largely speculative. We have still not utilized even all the salts of Aurum to any large extent and thus let our patients go under the surgeon's knife needlessly. Gold and Silver are very precious metals, more precious in therapeutics than in their mundane uses.
