Repertory › Remedies in the repertory

Plumbum metallicum (Plb.)

Plumbum metallicum (Plb.) appears in 901 rubrics in the repertory. Of these, 57 are single rubrics in which only this remedy appears, and 51 are small rubrics with at most two other remedies. The emphasis lies on Delusions and Delirium, plus Memory, Speech, Slowness and Restlessness. Together they yield the picture of a person who believes himself persecuted, avoids the gaze of others, and whose mind sinks into slowing, loss of memory and delirium.

Persecution and murder

Distrust is the starting point. The Delusions introduce murderers and assassins: everyone in the surroundings is a murderer, the person is being murdered, his life is in danger. Particularly distinctive is persecution by friends, which appears in two single rubrics, and beside it persecution by demons. The remaining images are strange: people appear like puppets, castles and palaces are seen, ants fill the bed, fire falls from the sky, and everything trembles and turns in a circle. Dead relatives also appear, the corpse of the spouse, of the brother and of the child.

Shyness of the gaze

The person evades observation. He looks everywhere except at the questioner, avoids glances when spoken to, and speaks in hints. Hysteria shows itself only when he is looked at or observed: "Hysteria – observed, only when he/she is." Part of the reserve is that he is reserved after eating and that sadness combines with timidity. Where he does desire something, however, this expresses itself as avarice, as a claim to the best for himself and as pining for another person. The forbidden occupies him, he broods over it and becomes excited by it.

Slowing and memory

The second strand is the decay of mobility. The rubrics list slow articulation, slowness in the afternoon, in stillness and in reaction to pain, increasing indifference and speech that grows weak, especially during the menses. Memory is two-sided: it weakens with arteriosclerosis and after apoplexy, but remains good for numbers and appointments. Torpor, coma with slow pulse and pale face close the line.

Delirium and spasm

Delirium has its own features: groping as in the dark, rolling eyes, a mouth full of mucus, music that is heard or that triggers the delirium, constant repetition of the same sentence, folding and unfolding of the bedclothes. It alternates with pains in the limbs, with colic, with comatose sleep and with sadness. Rubrics on Epilepsy and Convulsions recur again and again, before and after the attack: confusion, stupor, restlessness, screaming and sighing. In pain the person strikes his head against the wall or against his chest.

Restlessness and self-injury

Outbreaks interpose themselves between the slowing. Restlessness occurs in attacks, as anxious restlessness with yawning and after convulsions; the person bites the clothing, wails anxiously and screams loudly. Irritability over every trifle stands beside the illusion that the bed is turning around or moving up and down. Violence is directed against his own body: the head is struck against the wall in pain, the chest with the hand. A small rubric names religious monomania, a single rubric mania after eight to ten years of masturbation.

Body and children

The connection to bodily states is close. Unconsciousness occurs with retention of urine, in delirium he urinates on the floor, and the abdominal wall feels as if pulled inward by a string. In children there is failure to thrive with dry, wrinkled skin.

Summary

Plumbum metallicum shows in the repertory a person who feels threatened and observed outwardly and slows down and closes up inwardly. The rubrics suggest that distrust and withdrawal grow on the same ground, until thinking stalls and delirium or coma take over.

A reference work for professionals; it does not replace diagnosis or treatment.