Understanding Zincum met.

Dr. Claudio C. Araujo MD, FFHom (Lon.) et al.

Trying to become part of the cultural and religious aspects of the XIX Century, we turn ourselves into the Bible citations (New and Old Testaments) to understand two extremely symbolic dreams brought up during the proving. We are assuming here that the dreams are reflecting the general and religious aspects of that period when the symptoms/dreams were produced, so that’s the reason of our search in the Bible, the moral and ethical reference to that period.

Disgusting dream of being smeared with human excrement (after two days), [2]. 

Dreams of corpses and horses, which changed into dogs under him, [2]. 

Do they both have any relationship to each other? The source is the same. It should mean that they would be probably connected to the same personal feeling expressed by the prover.

Findings in the Bible are: 

Malachi 2:1 – 3 “And now, O ye priests, this commandment is for you. If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart to give glory unto my name, saith the Lord of Hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings; yea, I have curse them already, because you do not lay it to heart. Behold, I will corrupt your seed, and spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts; and one shall take you away with it” (Isa. 36:12)

Revelation 22:15

Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the immoral persons and the murderers and the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices lying.

Philippians 3:2

Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision;

Isaiah 56:10-11

His watchmen are blind, All of them know nothing. All of them are mute dogs unable to bark, Dreamers lying down, who love to slumber; And the dogs are greedy, they are not satisfied And they are shepherds who have no understanding; They have all turned to their own way, Each one to his unjust gain, to the last one.

2 Kings 8:13

Then Hazael said, "But what is your servant, who is but a dog, that he should do this great thing?" And Elisha answered, "The LORD has shown me that you will be king over Aram."

2 Samuel 16:9

Then Abishai the son of Zeruiah said to the king, "Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over now and cut off his head."

In short terms, those two dreams combined are saying that someone in being punished by God by being smeared with feces in his body. Following the Bible quotation, there is nothing to be done, he is already a sinner, and this is the result of his sin. Some authors are associating this Bible’s passage to carnality and symbolically associating carnality to the dog’s attitude towards its own sexuality. So now we have an association of those two dreams: Carnality is to be punished by God and its symbol is the dog inside us.

Dogs in the Bible are representatives of what is worse in our nature. So different from the imagery of the XXI Century, when dogs are the representatives of friendship, fidelity and obedience.

What else in the proving can be linked to this combination of dreams?

A woman in her climacteric years suffered from delusions caused by grief and anger; believed herself to be called before court on account of her wicked actions; at night she could not sleep, and during day sleep was light and not refreshing; believes the devil is after her;(…)

Very uneasy mood, as though he had committed a crime, [27]. 

Great fear, as if persecuted by men or the devil, on account of crimes which he has never done; is afraid of becoming imprisoned, or poisoned, or shot, or buried alive, (…)

Those symptoms have the same line of thought, they are the “external” consequences of this internal feeling, of carnally sinned. 

Could be our Zincum patient someone in conflict with his/her sexuality?

We have seeing that sexuality is a strong issue for the Zincum patient. It’s out of his/her control.

Irresistible sexual desire at night; desire for onanism. 

Nymphomania caused by onanism, menses which were suppressed suddenly appear, with alternate redness and paleness of face, severe pains and pressing in abdomen and back.

Nymphomania, lochia suppressed, scanty secretion of milk, painful sensitiveness of internal and external genital organs.

Zincum believes that he is filthy inside himself. This is a torment and a huge despair. Voices are coming from inside, accusing him, asking him to do things that doesn’t want to do. But he feels as if they were part of himself.

After sitting in spiritual circles, shocks in upper and lower limbs; gradually they became more and more threatening, and two months later he received nervous shocks in hands and legs, during prayer and sleep at night, sometimes at other hours; (…); peace of mind forsook him; heard voices speaking from within him in abusive and filthy language; felt depression of spirits; (…) as if fire were coursing through body, running from left foot to head, burning forehead, eyebrows, ears and eyes; constant desire to put an end to his life; always restless; feels < in morning, > in evening; sleep disturbed; peace of mind gone; prejudices and superstitious beliefs began to trouble him; shocks convulsed him frightfully; vicious and abominable thoughts, chiefly lustful, trouble him; sometimes workings of limbs ludicrous, sometimes grave; had to laugh or cry against his will; sensation of creeping, warm, throbbing, shifting, running, encircling, in all parts of his body; visions of living and dead; did not speak, suffering continually his shocks; sometimes falling down as if paralyzed; walks with heavy steps, or runs as if in fright; utters in agony the loudest lamentations and cries; would not eat unless forced to; pale and emaciated, suffering, distracted countenance;

The clinical picture above probably best embodies the general image of the Zincum patient. Altogether with the psoric general constitutional state, we have all those mental aspects of Zincum reflected on these symptoms.

Which other aspects of Zincum can be brought now?

Vexation is associated with annoyance, which in turn is associated to boredom.

Boredom is the first associated symptom to fidgetiness. So, probably the fidgety feet, so much present in our Zincum patients, are result of boredom and vexation.

Vexation and anxiety, [1]. 

Sobbing on account of vexation, without obvious reason, with pressive pain in the op of the head, 

Vexatious, or quarrelsome or sad dreams, [8]. 

There are many symptoms expressing Zincum’s irritability and moroseness. Should they all be being linked to his boredom and vexation?

 Ill-humored and indolent (first day); lively and joyful later, [1]. 

Fretful, morose; for several days inclined to have a secret grudge*, and to vexation; quiet; it frets him to be obliged to speak a word.

Easily irritated, peevish; the talking of other people and every noise are intolerable,

He wishes that he might get hold of some one on whom he might vent his anger.

Iracible, impatient; sad, weeps frequently; despairs of her recovery; is querulous; objects to noise, or talking of others; dislikes work, cannot or will not walk.

Why is he so angry? Why does he want to vent his anger on the people surrounding him?

Zincum is bored, vexed, impatient and angered. He has lost control of his sexuality.

Dealing with people is also far too difficult. He doesn’t support other’s conversation, their voices or noises.

Let’s recur once again to the dreams we first quote:

Dreams of corpses and horses, which changed into dogs under him, [2]. 

According to the Bible, horses (and its horsemen) represented the Egyptians who held the Jews in slavery.

(Egyptians) corpses and their horses will be changed into dogs, by God’s will. 

The ruler will be turn into a slave, changed to a minor expression of social position, as a dog. 

Did Zincum felt that he had lost his place as a ruler? Is he now afraid and suffering from the vexation of being a dog, of being chased away from his former house, his society? Is this the first impression that brought out all his anger towards the others?

Only a ruler can vent out his anger toward his subjects without being punished by the Law of men.

Zincum knows that he has those sin thoughts inside himself and that he will be punished for this. Will he be able to hold then down? Will she be strong enough to control her sexual desire? Will he avoid being smeared with feces, as a punishment, from God?

Real horses, as opposed to symbolic horses which we will deal with in a moment, were etched into the Hebraic mindset early on as representing the worldly power of Egypt and its armies.

Ex 15:1 (NIV) Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the Lord: "I will sing to the Lord, for he is highly exalted. The horse and its rider he has hurled into the sea." 

Horses are used in the main to represent a carnal strength, a trusting in flesh; relied on by the enemies of God to their peril. Along this line:

Ps 20:7 (NIV) Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.

Ps 33:17 (NIV) A horse is a vain hope for deliverance; despite all its great strength it cannot save.

Isa 31:1 (NIV) Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in the multitude of their chariots and in the great strength of their horsemen, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel, or seek help from the Lord.

In the modern sense, a good equivalent for horses would be money. It is that which we put our confidence, our hope... outside of (or in competition with) the Lord.

Beyond "horses" in plural, a real, individual horse is used as a negative image of the spiritually dull person--along with the mule and donkey--as one who does not (or cannot) understand the will of the Lord.

Ps 32:9 (NIV) Do not be like the horse or the mule, which have no understanding but must be controlled by bit and bridle or they will not come to you.

Pr 26:3 (NIV) A whip for the horse, a halter for the donkey, and a rod for the backs of fools!

In any case, the main text concerning horses in scripture was mentioned above, but here in a fuller context.

Ps 20:6-8 (NRS) Now I know that the Lord will help his anointed; he will answer him from his holy heaven with mighty victories by his right hand. Some take pride in chariots, and some in horses, but our pride is in the name of the Lord our God. They will collapse and fall, but we shall rise and stand upright.

Other interesting uses of horses in the Bible are when Elijah runs faster than Ahab's horse and chariot all the way to Jezreel(1Ki 18:46, Ps 147:10-11). Consider as well Haman's thought to glorify himself by riding a horse through the city in Ester 6, where the king bestows this honor on Mordecai instead. Also, Jesus rides into Jerusalem not on a horse (at least the first time) but on a donkey (Jn 12:14).

Spiritual, or heavenly horses represent judgment, and usually dramatic judgment for the sake of violent purification. The movie "Fellowship of the Rings" from "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy visually conveys this sense of dreadful horses rather well with the wraith-riders. They are a portent of bad things to come. In scripture, the symbolic horse generally represents a particular aspect or agent of punishment or plague. In Rev 6, we get a taste of things to come in terms of horses riding out with the first "seals".

Source: An overview of the symbolic use of the horse and horses in the Bible; 

by Dean VanDruff.

Zincum Groups

Hahnemann, Allen, Hering & Kent

Dr. Claudio C Araujo MD, FFHom. (Lon.)

Humor

Laugh

A teacher of leuco-phlegmatic habit, frequently vertigo, for several months an involuntary, periodically appearing fit of laughing, which he cannot suppress; fits appear several times a day and cause severe convulsions of chest and abdomen, rush of blood to head and brain; a tendency to constipation and apoplexy. 

He is frequently able to laugh excessively over a trifle, but he is just as easily vexed, 

Lively and excited, [4]. 

Very joyful, excited mood, especially towards evening, [3]. 

Good-humored and talkative, [8]. [10.]

Very happy at times, [7].

Anxiety

Anxiety: makes her restless in morning; during menses. 

Anxiety, [18], [26], [30]. 

During the menses anxiety, [1].

Anxious mood, as from a misfortune (first eight days), [23]. 

Anxiety that made her restless, in the morning (after eight days), [23]. 

Anxious dreams, [1]. 

Heavy anxious dreams (after three days), [23]. 

Anxious dreams, the anxiety of which continued after waking, [1]. 

Variable Mood

Apprehensive and lachrymose mood, which disappears in evening. 

Low-spirited at noon; lively in evening, or vice versa. 

Extremely variable mood; alternately fretful, irritable, quarrelsome, despondent and depressed. 

Mood uneasy, unsteady (after two days), [1]. 

Apprehensive and lachrymose mood, which disappears in the evening, [8]. 

Extremely variable mood; sad at noon, melancholy; in the evening contented and happy (second and third days), [7]. 

Fretfulness, irritability, anger

At noon irritable, peevish, terrified; > in evening.

Fretful, morose; for several days inclined to have a secret grudge, and to vexation; quiet; it frets him to be obliged to speak a word. 


Fretful, despondent mood, especially in evening. 

Very impatient, but not bad-humored. 

Easily angered and very much affected thereby. 

He wishes that he might get hold of some one on whom he might vent his anger.

Irascible, impatient; sad, weeps frequently; despairs of her recovery; is querulous; objects to noise, or talking of others; dislikes work, cannot or will not walk.


Morose in morning, afternoon and evening. 

Answers were slow, and he spoke as if in a bad temper. 

Peevish and lachrymose during menses. 

Irritable, startled. 

She looks very morose, gloomy and disturbed, even in morning. 

Easily excited to anger, and very much affected thereby, [3]. 

Easily excited to anger, but quiet, [1]. 

Easily becomes angered, [1], [8]. 

Irritable, startled, [1]. 

Easily irritated, peevish; the talking of other people and every noise are intolerable, [3]. 

At noon, irritable peevish, terrified; in the evening better, [1]. 

Ill-humored and indolent (first day); lively and joyful later, [1]. 

ll-humored and sad (second day), [1]. 

 Ill-humor, [11], [26]. 

Very impatient, but not bad-humored, [7]. 

Morose in the morning (eight day), [1].

Extremely gloomy and morose, [6].

She looks very morose, gloomy and disturbed, even in the morning, [8]. 

Morose and peevish in the evening, though well disposed, [8]. 

Morose, peevish, and fretful, in the afternoon, [8]. 

Fretful, morose, several days, inclined to have a secret grudge and to vexation; he is for the most part quiet, and it frets him to be obliged to speak a word, [2]. 

Fretful, despondent mood, especially in the evening, [3]. 

Alternately irritable, fretful, quarrelsome, despondent, and depressed, [1]. 

Answers were slow, and he spoke as if in a bad temper, [52]. 

Talking

Attacks of great loquacity, [3].

Talking and listening were distressing, [31a]. 

Vexation

Vexation and anxiety, [1]. 

Sobbing on account of vexation, without obvious reason, with pressive pain in the op of the head, [1]. 

Vexatious, or quarrelsome or sad dreams, [8]. 

Sadness

Overpowering sadness, [7]. 

Despondent, [1].

Mood depressed and sad, [8].

Somewhat depressed (after six days), [1]. 

During the menses peevish and lachrymose, [1]. Sad dreams (second night), [53]. 

Ill-humored and sad.  Hypochondriac mood.

 three hours after dinner, with pressure under the short ribs, especially of the right side, with aversion to work and discomfort over the whole body, without trace of flatulence or of overloading the stomach (after five days), [1]. 

Indifferent (after thirteen days), [1]. 

With Oneself

Stares as if frightened on waking, head rolls from side to side. 

During sleep: cries out, awakes with fear; limbs and body jerk; nightmare.

Imaginative power lively and excited; attacks of great loquacity. 

Fanciful illusions when holding the head down, as though she had a large goiter*, which she could not see over, [8]. 

Thinks of death calmly; hypochondriacal, with gastric symptoms; pressure in spine and fear of death.

Quiet thoughts of death in the afternoon, with weakness, [1]. 

A woman in her climacteric years suffered from delusions caused by grief and anger; believed herself to be called before court on account of her wicked actions; at night she could not sleep, and during day sleep was light and not refreshing; believes the devil is after her; face and head feel hot, features sunken, moderate heat alternates with chill all over body; vertigo, gait tottering, loss of appetite, constipation; muddy urine, with brick dust sediment; after waking up feels languid and cannot rouse herself; is very sensitive, weeps easily; pulse not frequent, but irregular in strength of beats.

Very uneasy mood, as though he had committed a crime, [27]. 

Great fear, as if persecuted by men or the devil, on account of crimes which he has never done; is afraid of becoming imprisoned, or poisoned, or shot, or buried alive, with great excitation, pappy taste, whitish-coated tongue, eructation, loss of appetite, retarded stool, vertigo and heat in head and face. θ Delirium tremens. 

General internal discomfort.

With the Others

Awoke frequently, with violent palpitation and screaming, from anxious dreams of thieves. 

Anxiety on account of thieves or horrible apparitions while awake, like a feverish fancy, [1]. 

Dream as though she were being strangled, and in the morning after waking fear lest a man who strangled her would return, [1]

Sensitive to others talking and to noise. 


Talking or listening is distressing; much talking of other people, even of those of whom he is fond, affects his nerves and makes him morose and impatient. 

Much talking of other people, even of those of whom he is fond, affects his nerves, and makes him morose and impatient, [3]. 

He wishes that he might get hold of someone on whom he might vent his anger.

A gracile, delicate, but healthy girl of 23, who made her living by embroidery, nursed her old father during a long and tedious sickness, and then felt mentally and bodily exhausted; after recovery of her parent she returned to her usual labors, but a sleepiness, without any other morbid symptom, set in, with loss of appetite, though her tongue was perfectly clean; when sitting at her embroidery or at her sewing table she heaved a deep sigh, needle fell from her hand, she fell back in her chair, and slept with eyelids spasmodically closed and eye whirled around in circle; after sleeping from five to fifteen minutes, she began to weep, or to sing, or to speak incoherently, waked up then, after a few moments to fall again asleep, in a quarter of an hour to awake again in a similar manner.

Attacks of great loquacity, [3].

Apprehension and ennui; she seeks society, [8].

Dreams: anxious; anxiety continued after waking; with mental excitement, talking about midnight about his dreams; vexatious; quarrelsome; sad; as if she were being strangled, in morning, fear lest the man who strangled her would return; disgusting, (…); vivid, feeling weary in morning on waking; anxious, (…) of fleeing, followed by sweat. 


Dreams of corpses and horses, which changed into dogs under him, [2]. 

Disgusting dream of being smeared with human excrement (after two days), [2]. 

 

With the Environment

Great sensitiveness to noise, [1]. 

After sitting in spiritual circles, shocks in upper and lower limbs; gradually they became more and more threatening, and two months later he received nervous shocks in hands and legs, during prayer and sleep at night, sometimes at other hours; felt great heat in head; peace of mind forsook him; heard voices speaking from within him in abusive and filthy language; felt depression of spirits; it seemed that small balls coursing along hands and legs caused the shocks; Nux vom. did some good, lessened heat of head, but mesmerizing made him <, as if nerves were violently torn; as if fire were coursing through body, running from left foot to head, burning forehead, eyebrows, ears and eyes ; constant desire to put an end to his life; always restless; feels < in morning, > in evening; sleep disturbed; peace of mind gone; prejudices and superstitious beliefs began to trouble him; shocks convulsed him frightfully; vicious and abominable thoughts, chiefly lustful, trouble him; sometimes workings of limbs ludicrous, sometimes grave; had to laugh or cry against his will; sensation of creeping, warm, throbbing, shifting, running, encircling, in all parts of his body; visions of living and dead; did not speak, suffering continually his shocks; sometimes falling down as if paralyzed; walks with heavy steps, or runs as if in fright; utters in agony the loudest lamentations and cries; would not eat unless forced to; pale and emaciated, suffering, distracted countenance; after Zincum a small abscess a little below middle of right clavicle.

Dreams: (…) of water and drowning; of fire (…)

Work

Indifferent; despondent; disinclination to work. 

Dread of work, disinclination to work, [1], [31a]. 

Mental operations very difficult (first eight days), [23].

Childhood

Kent: Feeble children, feeble girls, mind feeble, memory poor.

Tendency to be docile, but when aroused irascible. If the child comes down with scarlatina or measles, it goes into a stupor. The eruption does not come out. There is a tendency to convulsions, drawing in the extremities, suppression of urine, rolling of the head from one side to the other, and from stupor it goes into complete unconsciousness; inability to throw eruptions to the surface. The great nervousness of Zinc. is manifested in the feet. You will notice a child or a woman keeping one foot going all the time, cannot keep it still. Many medicines have nervous feet and many have relief of symptoms by motion of the feet. But this is marked in Zinc. A girl about twelve years of age had no congruity of symptoms and I could not find the remedy. The mother said the child mortified her by keeping one foot constantly going in church. On asking why she did this, she replied that if she stopped, she would lose her urine. Zinc. cured the whole patient. 

Child cross toward evening; brain affected. 

Hydrocephalus; child has its feet in constant motion; distension of abdomen; constipation, with hard and dry feces; on awaking child gives evidence of fear, and rolls its head from side to side; it cries out, starts and jumps during sleep.

Cholera morbus: feet constantly fidgety; on waking child appears frightened, head rolls from side to side; during sleep it cries out, starts and jumps; painless papescent diarrhœa for many days, some colic after stool; emission of flatulence; hydrocephaloid.

Constipation of the newborn.

Spasms; child cross before attack, body hot, restless at night, cries out in sleep, looks afraid and anxious on awakening; involuntary or more frequent urination; body very hot; rolls head anxiously from side to side; child has been cross and irritable for days previous, with hurried motions, distended abdomen; fidgety feet, r. side twitches; pale children during teething; with hydrocephaloid after cholera, infantum, great emaciation and prostration; after disappearance of old eruptions; coma from cerebral exhaustion; loss of sensation of whole body; with mania from mental excitement; somnambulism.

Convulsions during dentition, with pale face and no heat, except in occiput; ushered in with twitching of single muscles, fidgety feet or loud screams; gnashing of teeth; rolling of eyes; sharp cries, caused by pain in head; automatic motion of hands and head, or of one hand and head; coma, pulse coming in long waves; sleep restless, with starting, jumping, screaming out, twitching of muscles and jerking through whole body, wakes frightened, stares, rolls head from side to side.

Male Sexuality

Persistent, strong erections with pain, also pressure in abdomen. 

Easily excited; emission during an embrace too rapid, or difficult and almost impossible. Spermatorrhœa: emissions without dreams; face pale, sunken, blue rings around eyes.

Strong erections (tenth day), [1]. 

Persistent erections, with pain, [32a]. 

Long-lasting, strong erections, with pressure in the abdomen, [3]. 

Penis painfully sensitive when walking, as if the shirt were rough and rubbed it, [10]. 

Female Sexuality

Irresistible sexual desire at night; desire for onanism. 

Nymphomania caused by onanism, menses which were suppressed suddenly appear, with alternate redness and paleness of face, severe pains and pressing in abdomen and back.

Nymphomania, lochia suppressed, scanty secretion of milk, painful sensitiveness of internal and external genital organs.

Sexual excitement in a woman, several times at night, without lascivious dreams (second night), [1]. 

Irresistible desire for onanism, without lascivious dreams, in a woman (seventh night), [1].

Complete loss of sexual desire.

Sexual power lost.

Intellectual

Kent: The mind is slow, and the patient is weak and tired; weak memory; forgetful.

Weak memory, with stinging pains in head. 

Great forgetfulness: forgetful of what has been accomplished during day. 

Mental operations very difficult; difficult to grasp ideas and to co-ordinate thoughts. Repeats all questions before answering them. 

Loss of thought and a saporous condition of mind. 

Difficult to grasp ideas and to co-ordinate thoughts, [1]. 

Imaginative power excited (first day), [7]. 

Disconnected ideas (after sixteen days), [1]. 

Loss of thought and a soporous condition of mind, [1]. 

Forgetful of what has been accomplished during the day, [1]. 

Great forgetfulness, [1], [45].

Neurological

Unconscious; signs of effusion into brain; feet constantly moving; often from undeveloped eruptions. 

Delirium, with attempts to get out of bed; staring eyes; constant trembling of hands and coldness of extremities. 

Echo speech; patients repeat in a monotonous, singing way words and sentences of their neighbors without being conscious of it.

Nervous diarrhœa from depression of nerve-centers. 

Every slight emotional excitement causes trembling. 

Sensation of general trembling without trembling. 

Frequent fainting several times daily, followed by prostration and general numbness.

Fidgety feet; must move them constantly. 

Jerking through whole body during sleep. 

Reveries during sleep.

Generals

Kent: Zinc. has a full and substantial proving, including symptoms of every part of the body. It is an antipsoric, suitable in broken down constitutions, feeble constitutions; enfeeblement characterizes the whole proving.

The Zinc. patient is nervous and extremely sensitive, excitable, trembling, quivering, twitching of muscles, tearing pains along the course of the nerves, tingling, excited on the least provocation; over sensitiveness in one part and lack of feeling in another.

This extreme over sensitiveness is like Nux; which is inimical. The overworked and excitable persons belong to Nux and Zinc. Nux is sensitive to the higher potencies. Further, there is paralytic weakness, emaciation, prostration, full of brain and spinal symptoms.

Slowness: All the functions are slow; eruptions appear slowly.

The whole economy seems to be tired and feeble, so that when a girl approaches puberty and it is time for the menses to be established, but the flow does not appear, she goes into a decline; she begins to manifest choreic symptoms, jerking and twitching, soreness in the back of the neck, burning of the whole spine, creeping and crawling of the extremities, hysterical manifestations of all sorts.

Sensitive to every little noise, to people talking in the room, to crumpling of paper.

"Talking or listening is distressing; much talking of other people, even of those of who he is fond, affects his nerves and makes him morose."

Face: vacant; apathetic; irritable; cadaverous; pinched; unnatural; earthy, as after a long illness; cachectic complexion, bluish white; flushed; pale, alternately red, in brain affections and with vertigo; earthy, with wandering expression; waxy, white or yellow, in typhus; pale, in chronic diseases, with much emaciation; pewter like hue, with scirrhous tumors.