Introduction
Nitric acid is a tissue remedy of wide application, but with a particular affinity for the skin and mucous membrane, and especially where the skin and mucous membrane join, with a general tendency top destructive ulcerations, foul odor to all discharges and with sharp., splinter-like pains.
Symptoms
Hahnemann, under whose direction Nitric acid was first proved, says that is acts more beneficially in those of dark complexion and hair (88) than in blondes. “It is also,” he says. “, ore appropriate to chronic patients who are inclined to soft stools, while its is seldom applicable to patients inclined o constipation” (Chr. Dis)
Nitric acid presents many points of resemblance to the lesions of syphilis and, as Hering says, it is useful in “disease depending upon the presence of syphilitic, scrofulous or mercurial poison; broken down, cachectic constitutions,”
In many particulars Nitric acid resembles Mercury, a nd in general it is indicated for 6he bad effects produced by an excess of Mercury (139).
We find in Nitric acid general aggravation from water on washing or bathing (8); there is general emaciation and great weakness, even to trembling (192), with necessity to lie down almost constantly.
The epilepsy calling for nitric acid has the attacks coming on at night or after midnight, beginning like am, a mouse, moving up and down the 1.side.
Many “of the symptom of th drug are relieved buy driving” (Dunham) and it has relieved epileptiform convulsion (66) that would come on at night ongoing to bed and where a long drive would keep off the paroxysm. The vertigo, which is noticed in the morning on rising as well as during the day when walking, is relieved while driving in a carriage.
The Nitric acid patient is easily irritated by trifling occurrence, s is inclined to the peevish, despondent and anxious about himself.
“Externally the head is sensitive, as if contused, withal;liver or in certain spots, as, for example, on the spots pressed on when lying, or by the pressure of a hat” (Dunham).
The headache of Nitric acid is as if in the bones, is “worse in the morning on waking or after rising,” or at night, ” better on lying down or from driving in a carriage” (Hering. There is a failings if the head we constricted by the bad (05), or a feeling as if the head were compressed in a vise extending from ear to ear over the vertex (105).
There is falling out of the hair, “particularly on the top of the head, due to congestion of blood to the head, from nervous headaches, debility or syphilis” (Hering).
On the scalp, we have moist, burning, offensive eruptions, itching more at night and ‘bleeding easily when scratched” (Lilienthal). the eruptions feel sore when laid upon, or from pressure and Nitric acid is of value after the abuse of mercurial ointments. it is of value after the abuse of mercurial ointments. It is of value in eczema, wit crusts and scabs and burning or splinter-like pains, especially eczema at or about the muco-cutaneous outlets (65), as at the angles of the eyes, nose, mouth or anus.
In the eyes it is of value for scrofulous or gonorrhoea ophthalmia (76), with burning pains, and for ulcers on the cornea (77); and it is of great value in chronic syphilitic iritis (74), especially after overdosing with mercury.
It is useful in caries of the mastoid (64), either syphilitic or mercurial.
We have difficult hering, :better when riding in a carriage or train” (Hering), cracking in ears when chewing (640 and obstruction of the Eustachian tube (65).
Nitric acid is useful in acute coryza, with soreness of the nose, dryness and stoppage (39) and a too little used remedy in nasal catarrhs, with a sensation of dryness and instruction anteriorly, the discharge mostly passing in to the pharynx (143).
the nasal discharges are fetid, and in syphilis or diphtheria involving the nose (62) the discharges are excoriating also. The angles of the wings of the nose (149) and corners of the mouth become sore and ulcerated, with soreness, sticking pains and bleeding on touch.
We can think of this remedy in caries of the bones of the face, especially of the malar bones, with soreness and pain on touch as from splinters, and for cracking in the jaws when chewing (123).
In Nitric acid, and especially in a mercurial cachexia the gums are unhealthy and bled easily (84), the teeth turn yellow and become very loose (1870, there is salivation (163), sometimes even a bloody saliva, and a putrid odor from the mouth.
It is a valuable remedy in ulceration of the mouth and inside of the cheeks, with great fetor. The ulcers are shallow and spread rapidly, like the ulcers caused by or calling for Mercury, but when touched they have sharp, splinter-like pains. It is a most useful remedy for canker-sores (14o), with the sharp, sticking pains, and it is especially indicated, as it seems to me, after an over indulgence in sweets.
It is one of the remedies to be thought of where the mucous membrane of the cheek gets between the teeth, so that he bites it when chewing (27); also in ulceration of the sides of the tongue (192), with tough, stringy mucus and sharp, sticking pains, he bites the tongue when chewing.
It is a valuable remedy in syphilitic ulceration of the mouth and throat, mucous patches (141), and in all forms of sore throat for which we use the remedy, there is pain as from a splinter on swallowing (190) and much salivation.
In diphtheria we have nausea and vomiting (due in part to the nauseating character and odor of the discharges), and a feeling of a foreign substance on swallowing, with sharp, cutting pain. It is a remedy to be thought of in rheumatic sore throat (162).
Nitric acid is frequently indicated in troubles of the rectum and anus. There is pain in the rectum during stool as if something would be torn as under, and stitches, sticking as from a splinter (or any other combination of words that will describe a worse pain), for a long time after stool, associated during and after stool with spasmodic constriction of the anus (158).
It is of use for ulceration of the rectum, with severe pain long after the stool and for extensive ulceration following dysentery, especially after the use of local injections.
It is of great value for fissures of the anus (159), with constant oozing of fetid moisture, frequent burning stool (61), followed by raw smarting, as if cut with a knife. If this description does not convey a proper idea of the severity of the pains, we can recall the statement made by a sufferer, who declared that a movement was “followed by a sensation as though the anus were filled with broken glass.”
It is of value for bleeding haemorrhoids (85) and especially for those have ceased to bleed, but remain very painful and pendulous.
If there is constipation, the stools are hard, scanty, perhaps enveloped in mucus (35), with painful burning in rectum after stool.
In diarrhoea and dysentery the discharges and dysentery the discharges are usually offensive and putrid (59) or watery and blood-streaked, with pieces of membrane looking like scrapings of the intestines (60). There is great pain, as of cutting, and burning during stool (61) and lasting for hours after (61), with, in the case of dysentery, great tenesmus (61) and frequent unsuccessful efforts at stool.
The urine contains more or less blood and is strong smelling, like that of horse’s urine (200), and Nitric acid is one of the remedies spoken of in the Handbook as useful in oxaluria (148).
There is frequent urging to urinate, with scanty discharge and intense smarting and burning (194), which Hering describes in this way: “Burning in urethra and desire to urinate, with hope of relieving burning, which, however, is increased.”
It is of value for ulceration of the urethra, with burning and sticking on urinating, and for syphilitic ulceration and erosions of the penis and prepuce, especially when the ulcers spread rapidly, bleed easily, and the pains are sharp and splinter-like. It is of value for condylomata on the prepuce (34), with offensive oozings and bleeding when touched, and it is to be thought of in orchitis (188), with pain in the spermatic cord running up to the abdomen.
In the female we have a yellow, acrid (126), offensive leucorrhoea (126), that follows the menses (126). We have erosions and ulcerations of the cervix (204), and inflammation of the cervix, with excrescences (202) having a watery, offensive, excoriating discharge, and a general tendency to uterine haemorrhage. From these erosions and excrescences we may have persistent haemorrhage, or haemorrhage from the uterus, with pressure downward, pain in the thighs, strong-smelling urine and general weakness and anaemia.
Nitric acid has a cough caused by laughing (41) or crying(41), with great weakness; or fatiguing cough worse the forepart of the night, with suffocation, or with pain in the chest as if bound with an iron band (27), and with a tendency towards tuberculosis. It has been used in some cases of phthisis, with hectic fever, soreness of the chest, haemorrhage from the lungs (27) and offensive (69), bloody, purulent expectoration. There is a chronic cough from the larynx, with stinging and smarting as if ulcerated, and it is useful in phthisis of the larynx (191), even with extensive ulceration.
