Repertory › Remedies in the repertory

Zincum metallicum (Zinc.)

Zincum metallicum (Zinc.) appears in 1,197 rubrics in the Repertory. Of these, 91 are single-remedy rubrics in which only this remedy is listed, and 85 are small rubrics with at most two other remedies. The emphasis lies on Children, Delusions, Fear, Anxiety and Sadness, as well as Irritability, Gestures, Unconsciousness, Delirium and Dullness. The result is the picture of an overexcited, exhausted mind that oscillates between excitement and dullness, is easily thrown off balance by noise and touch, and whose states are strikingly bound to times of day and bodily processes.

Alternation of mood

The mind is marked by opposites that replace one another. Numerous single-remedy rubrics list sadness alternating with cheerfulness, fear, timidity and contentment; likewise anxiety, contentment, irritability, hatred and revengefulness appear in alternating rubrics. The time modality is unusually exact: lively at noon and sad in the evening, or the reverse, dejected at noon and glad in the evening. Noon also appears in its own right in rubrics on cheerfulness, capriciousness, sensitiveness, morose mood, anger, stupefaction, unconsciousness and dullness. A single-remedy rubric lists cheerfulness when talking, another slight fright alternating with sadness. Zinc thus shows less a basic mood than an inconstancy that follows the course of the day.

Irritability and sensitiveness to noise

Irritability occurs in many forms. Listed are irritability alternating with indignation, raving, discouragement, cowardice and timidity, likewise anger alternating with timidity. Two single-remedy rubrics describe raving at the slightest noise, one of them as wanton, malicious raving. Every noise awakens from unconsciousness, brass music aggravates, and touch is refused during headache. One rubric records that the person annoys everyone, another that she becomes morose while others talk and remains impatient. Wine and coffee increase the irritability and make absent-minded. Zinc acts like a nervous system without a buffer, in which external stimuli arrive directly as vexation or raving.

Restlessness of the limbs and gestures

A striking group are the Gestures (31 rubrics). The hands grasp involuntarily, pick at the lips until they bleed, or at a sore spot until it gets worse. Especially characteristic are single-remedy rubrics in which children grasp the genitals when coughing, and corresponding to them is the tendency to masturbation with cough, spasms and during menses. In children there are constant movements of the feet, restless feet after waking, shrieking screaming on waking and trembling. In adults there is restlessness of the legs and of the ovaries. The body is evidently in constant motion that the mind cannot calm.

Delusions of swaying and guilt

The 80 Delusions form a second emphasis, with 20 specific rubrics. Frequently they concern motion and floating: the bed rocks back and forth, the chair sways on sitting up in bed in the morning, the head moves up and down, floats or sways, pictures and phantoms move up and down. There is the idea of falling to one side, to the right in high places, and the idea of falling down. A second line concerns guilt and threat: the delusion of having done something wrong, the idea of being pursued by the devil, of being summoned before court, which occurs in the climacteric, as well as scolding and obscene voices and visions on waking. Peculiar and recorded only here is the idea of having a goiter over which one cannot look when sitting. It is noteworthy that these Delusions are more frequent in the morning on waking, in half-sleep and in the menopause.

Stupefaction, delirium and clouding of consciousness

The remedy knows many states of reduced or clouded consciousness. Listed are stupefaction in attacks, stupefaction after epistaxis and from scarlet fever, dullness on closing the eyes and ameliorated lying, stupor in diarrhea, as well as half-conscious states. Unconsciousness is connected with slowly appearing or suppressed eruptions, a relation that recurs in somnambulism after the disappearance of old eruptions and after suppressed emotions. In delirium the excitement is great: the person is hard to quiet, wants to leave the bed, whispers and can be restrained only with difficulty. Delirium tremens occurs after small quantities of alcohol, with a white tongue. The manifestations evidently pass from the disappearance of discharges and eruptions into the mind.

Fear, anxiety and death

Fear is directed at the family and family affairs, at threat and at being buried alive; it is better in the evening, but also occurs at noon and alternates with sadness. A single-remedy rubric links fear with hydrocephalus. Anxiety arises from terrible appearances while awake, from starting from sleep during menses and alternating with contentment. Death is a theme of its own: evening thoughts of death that are accepted calmly, presentiment of death with the same calm, and the idea that everything is dead. Against this stands fleeing, in which the person is hard to hold back. Nearness of death and restlessness find room side by side here.

Speech, thinking and exhaustion

Speech is disturbed. Listed are slow answering because the question is not understood, unintelligible speech after lying down in the evening, incoherent talking, half smiling, and the tendency of children to repeat everything said to them. Talking in dreams and half-grinning talkativeness belong here, as does haste in eating: the person cannot eat fast enough. Mental exhaustion arises from night watching and excessive study; thoughts persist obstinately when the person is alone. A single-remedy rubric describes confusion as after loss of sleep. Also belonging here are anorexia from anxiety and gas poisoning as a cause of intoxication.

Summary

In the Repertory, Zincum metallicum appears as a remedy of overexcitation and exhaustion. The mood follows the course of the day, noise and touch trigger rage, hands and feet find no rest, and in half-sleep and on waking swaying, guilt and threat press into consciousness. Stupefaction, stupor and delirium stand opposite, and many states occur when discharges or eruptions are suppressed or disappear. The picture is that of an overburdened nervous system that finds no middle way between excitement and dullness.

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