DR. MOORE: I will give you just one very short case. You might strike this some time. Nitric acid worked after two other remedies failed. This man, without any inflammation in his throat, could not swallow water. He was given a remedy, but on the next day the could not swallow water, and on the third day he couldnt swallow water, solids, or anything. There was no inflammation of that throat, and Nitric acid cured it like that.
DR. FARRINGTON: I once cured a case of Vincents angina with Nitric acid on the classical symptoms that are contained in Dr. Trevinos excellent paper. The paper was well written and contains a number of very interesting things, and points a few lessons. For instance, he calls attention to the sequences in those remedies which are related, often following Nitric acid, something which at times when we are busy we are apt to overlook.
There was one statement in the paper in which I particularly interested. You will remember he said the inhalation of fumes of nitric acid was irritating, and this established the fact of Nitric acid as a remedy in irritation or inflammation of membranes. A number of times I have thought of this, and I want to see if others of you have had any ideas on the same line. There seems line. There seems to be a remarkable similarity between the chemical or local effects of drugs and their dynamic effects.
Actual nitric acid fumes will cause conditions in the respiratory tract. That has been found in provers, and also in cases where their use is indicated. Arsenicum acid cause a superficial serpiginous, burning ulcer when applied to the membranes. The potencies will cure a similar condition. Kali bichromicum is apt to produce round holes like punched-out ulcers, and we all know how quickly it will heal the ulcers when indicated by the symptoms. Argyrol applied to mucous membrane will cause very superficial ulceration. When treating nasal and other conditions, we know this remedy in potency is best suited to a similar pathological state. I could go on and give some more remedies along those lines.
Dr. Trevino did not mention Ignatia in pain, lasting long after the stool has passed. Otherwise, the two remedies have very little in common. I once cured a man of haemorrhoids with Ignatia, and he had this among other symptoms. He came only once, and got one dose of the 10,000th. Several weeks passed. I remembered the case and thought to myself. “Like all the rest, he thought the condition was surgical and isnt coming back again.”.
He called me up the same day and said, “Doc, I want to thank you for giving me that little bottle of pills. It cured those haemorrhoids in short order. In fact, I took only two or three doses out of the bottle, and then lost it. I hope some poor devil found it who needed it as much as I did.”.
DR. RICE: At one time, in my city practice I made considerable in treating gonorrhoea. I expected to get enough cases of that kind to pay my office expenses at least, because every case I got I got I explained to the man why I could not use injections. By the time I got through with him, he felt so well, the treatment having eliminated all the other poisons in his system at the same time, that he sent me another case. It paid well, and pain my conscience, because I felt surely I was rendering a service to him and to the public.
I did sometimes find occasion for the internal use of Nitric acid. Now and then I had a case where Nitric acid seemed indicated, and I generally found the discharge let up with a snap.
It wounded my conscience because I wondered if it had a styptic action. I am not sure about that yet, whether the Nitric acid had styptic action on the mucous membrane. The author of this paper may have an answer to that, or an idea about it.
DR.BELLOKOSSY: The quickest cure of a wart in my practice was produced by Nitric acid. A girl had a wart on her lip. I gave her Nitric acid and the wart fell off on the third day.
DR.SHERWOOD: I want to cite just two cases several years apart, but very similar, where Nitric acid was the remedy. Both of these cases were elderly men with ulcers on their feet and ankles so pronounced that they couldnt put on their shoes or walk. They were in the house all the time and not at all ambulatory. They were typical Nitric acid ulcers with punched out appearance, and a history of suppressed syphilis. Nitric acid got both of them on their feet.
I would like to call Dr. Moores attention to the fact that he can get some more aphorisms out of the first part of that paper.
DR.BONNELL: Dr. Trevino said Nitric acid was better adapted to dark-haired people. I have found it works as beautifully in some of the light-haired people as in the dark, if you have the symptoms calling for it.
DR. GARCIA-TREVINO: I want to apologize to Dr.Farrington for not including Ignatia. The fact mentioned by him that there is a lot of pain after the stool that lasts for quite a while. That resembles Nitric acid. At the same time, that differentiates the nausea from Nux vomica, although both are very similar. Nux vomica, as mentioned in the paper, has a marked amelioration effect after the stool, while the Ignatia the pain lasts after the stool.
I dont think any homoeopathic dilution will have any styptic effect, for the alcohol, if used that way, on the mucous membranes, unless it is very low potency, and even there I dont know whether it would really have a styptic action.
All these characteristics have remedies. Nux vomica and Pulsatilla should be taken into consideration when the symptoms are there., It doesnt whether they are fair or dark-complexioned people. I think if they symptoms are there the remedy will act. We have seen that in regard to Pulsatilla patients and Nux vomica patients. I think that can very well be overlooked.
