Silver
Argentum, Luna
- Known today as
- The white metal, given as leaf, in solution, and as lunar caustic, silver nitrate cast in sticks.
- Kind
- Mineral, in 1 older authority
- Constituents
- silver nitrate, silver sulfadiazine
- Earliest authority here
- The alchemists
- In other databases
- Wikidata search
Caution. Taken by mouth over time it causes argyria.
Silver: what was it used for?
Lunar caustic burned away warts and proud flesh; silver leaf gilded pills; and silver, as Luna, was the metal of the moon and the brain.
Silver: what does modern science say?
Drops of silver nitrate in the eyes of newborns, introduced by Credé in 1881, prevented blindness from gonorrhoea. Colloidal silver taken by mouth does nothing useful and can turn the skin permanently blue-grey (argyria).
Pharmacognosy & Toxicology
- Constituents
- silver nitrate ChEMBLlunar caustic
- silver sulfadiazine ChEMBLthe burn cream
- Mechanism
- Silver ions bind the thiols and the DNA of bacteria; in the body, swallowed silver is laid down in the skin as silver sulfide, blue-grey for life.
- Toxic dose
- Argyria after grams of silver over months; colloidal silver sold as a cure-all has caused it.
- Standing
- Silver sulfadiazine is on the WHO list of essential medicines for burns; the FDA ruled colloidal silver products unsafe and ineffective in 1999.
- Lansdown, A. B. G. (2006). “Silver in health care: antimicrobial effects and safety in use.” Current Problems in Dermatology 33. Verified against its record · doi:10.1159/000093928
The abstract of each source, beneath its citation. For Club members. About the Club or sign in.
Constituent names open the compound’s record at PubChem, and “ChEMBL” beside a name opens its record at ChEMBL, the European Bioinformatics Institute’s database of bioactive molecules. Where a mechanism line was checked against ChEMBL (ChEMBL 37, read 1 October 2026), the check is shown with the measured value and its source paper, or says plainly that nothing has been measured. Doses are as the references give them, for description only; this is not medical advice. Each source carries the result of its check against Crossref, PubMed, or the authority’s page: see Verification.
Silver: what did the older authorities say?
- The alchemists
- Called it Luna, the moon, second only to gold. See Alchemy.
Sources
- Credé, C. (1881). “Die Verhütung der Augenentzündung der Neugeborenen.” Archiv für Gynäkologie 17. Verified against its record · doi:10.1007/bf01977793
In Symbols of the Psyche
Silver: what it stood for in alchemy and in analytical psychology.
Verification
- Checked
- October 1, 2026
- Passes
- Every sentence read against its sources, in the pass over the remaining 343 entries
- The Standing line checked against the authority it names (EMA, WHO, FDA, CITES, Commission E)
- Every dated or regulatory claim checked by category across the database
- Sources
- 2 cited: 2 verified against its record. 1 with the abstract on file.
- Corrections
- None were needed.
What was checked, how, and what was found is set out on the Verification page. A checked source is one whose record was found; it does not make the entry medical advice.
Cite This Entry
Version 1 · first published September 30, 2026
- Chicago
“Silver.” In Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1. The Thinking Press, 2026–. Last modified September 30, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/silver.
- MLA
“Silver.” Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema, version 1, The Thinking Press, 30 Sept. 2026, thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/silver. Accessed 8 Oct. 2026.
- APA
Silver. (2026, September 30). In B. C. P. Statema (Ed.), Materia medica (Version 1). The Thinking Press. Retrieved October 8, 2026, from https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/silver
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See Also
Nearby in the alphabet
Snail (shelled and boiled, distilled, or eaten) · Silphium (probably a giant fennel (Ferula)) · Snapdragon (Antirrhinum majus) · The sickener (brittle mushroom of wet pine woods) · Solomon’s seal (Polygonatum multiflorum and its relatives) · Shiitake (cultivated in China and Japan for about a thousand years) · Sorrel, syrup of · Shepherd’s purse
Historical description, not medical advice.