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Materia Medica

Argentum Nitricum

Nitrate of Silver
61 sectionsBoericke · 23Clarke · 33Kent · 5

At a glance

Cardinal features · auto-extracted from Boericke · Clarke · Kent
  • trembling
  • desire for sweets
  • Intolerance of heat
  • Melancholic
  • Time passes slowly
  • Cann ind

Essence

Prologue
Boericke

Nitrate of Silver

  • In this drug the neurotic effects are very marked, many brain and spinal symptoms presenting; themselves which give certain indications for its homeopathic employment.
  • Symptoms of inco-ordination, loss of control and want of balance everywhere, mentally and physically; trembling in affected parts.
  • Is an irritant of mucous membranes, producing violent inflammation of the throat, and a marked gastro-enteritis.
  • Very characteristic is the great desire for sweets, the splinter-like pains, and free muco-purulent discharge in the inflamed and ulcerated mucous membranes.
  • Sensation as if a part were expanding and other errors of perception are characteristic.
  • Withered up and dried constitutions present a favorable field for its action, especially when associated with unusual or long continued mental exertion.
  • Head symptoms often determine the choice of this remedy.
  • Pains increase and decrease gradually.
  • Flatulent state and prematurely aged look.
  • Explosive belching especially in neurotics.
  • Upper abdominal affections brought on by undue mental exertion.
  • Paraplegia Myelitis and disseminated sclerosis of brain and cord.
  • Intolerance of heat.
  • Sensation of a sudden pinch (Dudgeon).
  • Destroys red blood corpuscles, producing anaemia.
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Keynotes

Characteristics (part 1)
Clarke

It was the use of Argentum nit. in olden times in the treatment of epilepsy

which led to the production of the lamentable cases of lead-coloured pigmentation of the skin

called Argyria. Homceopathic experience has proved the applicability of the drug to many cases

of epilepsy and the needlessness of employing a dosage that entails any risk whatever. The cases

of epilepsy calling for this drug are those caused by fright, or occurring at the menstrual period.

For days or hours before the attack the pupils are dilated, and after the attack the patient is very

restless and has trembling of the hands.

Characteristics (part 2)
Clarke
  • Among the leading symptoms of Arg.
  • n.
  • are: Great tremor.
  • Nervous feeling; sensation as if being

squeezed in a vice. Feeling of constriction in various parts as of a band of iron round chest or

waist. A feeling as if the body or some part of the body were expanding. Migraine, with feeling

as if head were enormously enlarged; > tightly bound. Defective co-ordination. Paralyses of

motion and sensation; a peculiar numbness accompanied with hyperesthesia. Sensation of a

splinter sticking in various parts. Burning sensations. Gowers has recorded a case in which the

  • use of Arg.
  • n.
  • for stomach trouble caused (like lead), drop-wrist, gout, and albuminuria.
  • In

allopathic practice the dyspepsia for which it is given is < before food, when the stomach is

  • empty.
  • The opposite condition is the leading indication in homceeopathic practice.
  • E.
  • P.
  • Brewer

(Hahn. Monthly, July, 1883) has recorded a proving, (the prover, a young man, taking on three

consecutive days one grain a day of Arg. n. triturated with sugar of milk), in which a number of

motor and sensory symptoms were elicited, reminding Dr. Brewer of locomotor ataxy, in which

it has been used with success by old-school practitioners. This use also has led to many cases of

argyria. Among the symptoms of this proving were. "Mental operations sluggish; continued

thought required special effort, but exertion of mind did not aggravate the heaviness and fulness

of head. Lower extremities (loins, sacrum, and particularly gastrocnemii) fatigued; as if they

would suddenly fail him. Loss of ambition. Building air castles by day: monstrous dreams by

night." Another peculiar symptom was: chilly down the back beginning close to occiput

extending to extreme tip of coccyx at noon every day; > by warmth; at 5 p.m. chills subsided, no

sweat, but profound sleepiness, without sleep but enchanted with vivid imagination: burning heat

followed. There was burning in one spot in front of rectum, probably in prostate gland.

  • Micturition more frequent, burning in urethra.
  • The headache was > by Acz.
  • r.
  • In a proving by

myself one of the most marked symptoms was a kind of numb sensitiveness of the skin of the

arms—a hypereesthetic-aneesthetic state, increased sensitiveness to contact, but diminished power

of distinguishing sensations. Other symptoms were sore throat with white patches, rheumatic

pains in (left) wrist (which I have since confirmed), and finger joints, with external tenderness of

bony prominences, pain on rising in right sacro-iliac notch. Soreness of muscles of neck and

back. Urticarious spots in various parts. In poisoning cases complete loss of consciousness,

Characteristics (part 3)
Clarke

insensibility, and convulsions have occurred. Some of the notable digestive symptoms are:

"Irresistible desire for sugar." "Fluids go right through him." Belching accompanies most gastric

  • affections.
  • Green stools are remarkable.
  • "Green mucus like chopped spinach in flakes.
  • " "Stool

turning green after remaining on diaper." "Stool expelled with much spluttering." "Stool shreddy,

red, green muco-lymph or epithelial substance." There is a pain in the small of the back, > on

  • standing or walking, but severe when rising from a seat.
  • (Su/.
  • , Caust.
  • ) Arg.
  • n.
  • has irresistible

desire for sugar, which at the same time < Kent relates a case illustrating this. A nursing infant

  • had a grass-green diarrhoea which failed to yield to Merc.
  • , Ars.
  • , and Cham.
  • At last Kent
  • discovered that the mother ate a pound of candy a day.
  • Arg.
  • n.
  • was given and the candy stopped

and the child soon got well. Intestinal catarrh with shreddy membranous discharges is often

cured by Arg. n.

Characteristics (part 4)
Clarke

A mental peculiarity is one of apprehension and fear: when ready to go to church, &c., diarrhoea

sets in. Fears projecting corners of buildings and high buildings. The sight of high buildings

makes him giddy and causes him to stagger; it seems as if houses on both sides of street would

  • approach and crush him.
  • Imagines he cannot pass a certain point (Kali bro.
  • ).
  • When crossing a
  • bridge has an almost irresistible desire to jump over.
  • Impulsion to walk very fast (Lil.
  • ¢.
  • ).
  • Mucous

membranes affected, purulent and bloody discharges; membranous diarrhcea with agonising

  • pains.
  • Epithelium affected (cancers).
  • Most symptoms are < night; very nervous at night.
  • < At

night or in morning on rising (epileptic attacks). Day half more cough, night half more diarrhoea.

  • < On awaking.
  • At 11 a.
  • m.
  • nervous attacks > by stimulants.
  • Chill down back every day at noon.
  • <

In warm room; over a fire; in summer; warmth of bed; > by warm drinks. > In cool open air, >

washing with cold water; < from cold food; < ice creams. Motion generally <; but walking in

open air > back pains, which are < sitting. Lying on right side = pains in abdomen; palpitation.

Heat <; but there 19 also < from uncovering; aversion to uncovering. < Rising from sitting. <

  • Inspiration.
  • < Touching the parts.
  • > Bending double.
  • < Thinking intently.
  • < Riding.
  • > Tight

bandage (headache).—Suited to: Hysteric nervous persons; headaches from mental causes

  • characterised by dulness of head.
  • Women with menstrual disturbances.
  • Cachetic state.
  • Scrawny,

feeble, dried-up-looking women. Guernsey puts it, "withered and dried up by disease. A child

looks like a withered old man." It corresponds in lower potencies to Grauvogl's carbo-

  • nitrogenoid constitution (Su/.
  • , Cupr.
  • ); in higher to the hydrogenoid or sycotic constitution.
  • A

large number of symptoms appear on the left side.

Causation

Causation
Clarke
  • Apprehension, fear or fright.
  • Eating ices.
  • Intemperate habits.
  • Mental strain and
  • worry.
  • Onanism and venery.
  • Sugar.
  • Tobacco (boys).

Mentals

Mind
Boericke
  • Thinks his understanding will and must fail.
  • Fearful and nervous; impulse to jump out of window.
  • Faintish and tremulous.
  • Melancholic; apprehensive of serious disease.
  • Time passes slowly (Cann ind).
  • Memory weak.
  • Errors of perception.
  • Impulsive; wants to do things in a hurry (Lilium).
  • Peculiar mental impulses.
  • Fears and anxieties and hidden irrational motives for actions.
Symptoms — Mind
Clarke

Mental anxiety.—Very impulsive; always in a hurry but accomplishes nothing; in

continual motion; he walks fast—Hurries restlessly to fulfil engagements, fears to be late when

there is plenty of time.—Melancholic; does not undertake anything lest he should not

succeed.—Impulse to throw herself from the window.—Frequent errors of perception; mistakes

distances; fears house-corners.—Time seems to pass very slowly.—Apprehension when ready to

go to church or opera, bringing on diarrhoea. —Easily angered or excited, anger brings on

symptoms, cough, pain, &c.—Profound melancholy; imagines if left alone will die; apprehends

incurable disease of brain.—Nightly nervousness, with heat and fulness in the head.—Nervous,

  • faintish, and tremulous sensation.
  • —Awful faces appear on shutting eyes.
  • —Apathy.
  • —Mental

operations sluggish; thought requires effort.—Complete loss of consciousness—Memory

impaired, cannot find the right word.—Building castles in the air by day: monstrous visions by

night.

Generals

Symptoms — Generalities
Clarke

Insensibility; face and upper limbs convulsed; trismus; pupils

dilated Epileptic attacks caused by fright, or during menstruation (at night, or in the morning

  • when rising).
  • —Chorea-like convulsive motion of all the limbs.
  • —Fatigue.
  • —Tremulous weakness,

accompanied with general debility Expanding sensation, esp. in face, in head, with feeling as if

bones of skull separated; with increase of temperature.—Anzesthetic-hyperesthetic condition of

  • surface.
  • —Sticking sensations in various parts.
  • —Emaciation.
  • —Dropsy; cedema of legs and
  • ascites.
  • —Loss of voluntary motion.
  • —Paraplegia from debilitating causes.
  • —Sensation of splinters

in various parts, esp. in mucous membranes.

Modalities

Modalities
Boericke
Worse
warmth in any form; at night; from cold food; sweets; after eating; at menstrual period; from emotions, left side
Better
from eructation; fresh air; cold; pressure

Head

Head
Boericke
  • Headache with coldness and trembling.
  • Emotional disturbances cause appearance of hemi-cranial attacks.
  • Sense of expansion.
  • Brain-fag, with general debility and trembling.
  • Headache from mental exertion, from dancing.
  • Vertigo, with buzzing in ears and with nervous affections.
  • Aching in frontal eminence, with enlarged feeling in corresponding eye.
  • Boring pain; better on tight bandaging and pressure.
  • Itching of scalp.
  • Hemi-crania; bones of head feel as if separated.
Symptoms — Head
Clarke

Vertigo, with headache.—Morning headache (when he awakens).—Excessive

  • congestion of blood to the head.
  • —Stitches in |.
  • frontal eminence.
  • —Cannot walk, talk, or think, the

head gets so giddy.—Dulness, mental confusion, dizziness, tendency to fall sideways.—Staggers

on stooping; on shutting eyes.—Dizzy at sight of high houses, feels as if they would close or fall

in upon him.—Momentarily blind with mental confusion; buzzing in ears, nausea,

  • trembling.
  • —Digging up, incisive motion, through the |.
  • hemisphere of the brain.
  • —Pressing boring

pains, in small spots; in bones; in |. temple —Hemicrania; epileptiform; periodic; boring pain <1.

frontal eminence, > tight band; from mental emotion or strain, loss of friends, loss of sleep;

sometimes pain so severe he loses senses; paroxysms frequently culminate in vomiting of bile or

sour fluid.—Occipital headache.—Occipital headache decreases, frontal headache

increasing.—Congestive headache with throbbing carotids, must loosen cravat; head feels much

enlarged; as if bones of skull separated, with increased temperature.—Sensation of constriction of

scalp; as if something tightly drawn over skull.—Drawing in bands over surface of brain,

apparently in membranes or sinuses.—Headache, with chilliness—Headache relieved by tying a

handkerchief tightly around the head.—Headache worse in the open air—Aching in one side of

the head, with enlarged feeling in corresponding eye.—Itching, creeping, crawling of the hairy

scalp (as from vermin); roots of hair feel as if pulled upward.

Eyes

Eyes
Boericke
  • Inner canthi swollen and red.
  • Spots before the vision.
  • Blurred vision.
  • Photophobia in warm room.
  • Purulent ophthalmia.
  • Great swelling of conjunctiva; discharge abundant and purulent.
  • Chronic ulceration of margin of lids; sore, thick, swollen.
  • Unable to keep eyes fixed steadily.
  • Eye-strain from sewing; worse in warm room.
  • Aching, tired feeling in eyes, better closing or pressing upon them.
  • Useful in restoring power to the weakened ciliary muscles.
  • Paretic condition of ciliary muscle.
  • Acute granular conjunctivitis.
  • Cornea opaque.
  • Ulcer in cornea.
Symptoms — Eyes
Clarke

Photophobia.—Asthenopia from want of accommodation; even coarser kinds of work

  • strain.
  • —Suddenly becomes far-sighted.
  • —Cloud over |.
  • eye; grey spots and serpent-like bodies
  • before sight; black motes (esp.
  • r.
  • ).
  • —Opacity, of the cornea; ulceration of cornea in

infants ——Acute granular conjunctivitis, conjunctiva intensely pink, or scarlet red; discharge

profuse, inclined to be muco-purulent.—Purulent ophthalmia; pus thick yellow and bland, < in

warm room or from fire, > open air—Ophthalmia neonatorum, pus thick, yellow, profuse and

bland (internally; and locally in 2 gr. to ounce solution); after failure of Puls. and

Merc.—Blepharitis, thick crusts on lids; canthi red as blood; swollen red caruncula (standing out

like a lump of red flesh); clusters of intensely red vessels extend from inner canthus to cornea;

granular conjunctivitis; < by warmth.—Iritis.—Sight and eyes seem to suffer as abdominal

sufferings increase.

Ears

Symptoms — Ears
Clarke

Deafness; ringing; buzzing noises; feeling of distraction (1.); earache —Whizzing in 1.

ear with feeling of obstruction and hard hearing.

Nose

Nose
Boericke
  • Loss of smell.
  • Itching.
  • Ulcers in septum.
  • Coryza, with chilliness, lachrymation, and headache.
Symptoms — Nose
Clarke

Violent itching, obliged to rub until it looks raw.—Coryza with chilliness,

lachrymation, sickly look, sneezing and stupefying headache (over the eyes); has to lie

  • down.
  • —Discharge of (whitish) pus with clots of blood.
  • —Discharge like boiled starch.
  • —Ulceration

of nostrils.—Bruised pains in bones.

Face

Face
Boericke

Sunken, old, pale, and bluish. Old man's look; tight drawing of skin over bones.

Symptoms — Face
Clarke

Sunken, pale, bluish countenance; yellow, dirty-looking.—Sickly appearance.—Dried-

up look.—Prematurely old look.—Hard blotches on vermilion border of upper lip, paler than lip

and sore to touch.—Lips dry and viscid without thirst.

Mouth

Mouth
Boericke
  • Gums tender and bleed easily.
  • Tongue has prominent papillae; tip is red and painful.
  • Pain in sound teeth.
  • Taste coppery, like ink.
  • Canker sores.
Symptoms — Mouth
Clarke

Dry tongue with thirst—Papillz prominent, erect, feeling sore; tip of tongue red and

painful—Tongue white and moist.—Red streak down middle of tongue.—Fetid odour from

  • mouth.
  • —Ptyalism.
  • —Thick phlegm in mouth.
  • —Mouth coated inside whitish grey.
Symptoms — Teeth
Clarke

Gums swollen, inflamed, bleed easily, painful when touched.—Gums tender and bleed

easily; but neither painful nor swollen.—Prosopalgia, esp. in infra-orbital branch of fifth nerve

and nerves going to teeth; pain intense, at its height accompanied by unpleasant sour taste in the

  • mouth.
  • —Face convulsed; jaws clenched.
  • —Teeth sensitive to cold water.
  • —Toothache when

chewing; eating cold or sour things.

Throat

Symptoms — Throat
Clarke

Dark red appearance of uvula and fauces.—Sensation as if a splinter were stuck in

when swallowing, breathing, or moving the neck.—Thick, tenacious mucus in the throat, obliging

him to hawk.—Rawness, soreness, and scraping in the throat —Burning and dryness in fauces and

pharynx.—White patches in throat——Paroxysms of cramp in the cesophagus.—Ulcers: mercurial,

syphilitic, and scrofulous.

Throat
Boericke
  • Much thick mucus in throat and mouth causes hawking.
  • Raw, rough and sore.
  • Sensation of a splinter in throat on swallowing.
  • Dark redness of throat.
  • Catarrh of smokers, with tickling as of hair in throat.
  • Strangulated feeling.

Stomach

Stomach
Boericke
  • Belching accompanies most gastric ailments.
  • Nausea, retching, vomiting of glairy mucus.
  • Flatulence; painful swelling of pit.
  • Painful spot over stomach that radiates to all parts of the abdomen.
  • Gnawing ulcerating pain; burning and constriction.
  • Ineffectual effort at eructation.
  • Great craving for sweets.
  • Gastritis of drunkards.
  • Ulcerative pain in left side under ribs.
  • Trembling and throbbing in stomach.
  • Enormous distention.
  • Ulceration of stomach, with radiating pain.
  • Desire for cheese and salt.
Symptoms — Appetite
Clarke

Irresistible desire for sugar (but it <; in the evening.—Desire for

cheese.—Sweetish-bitter taste —Eating relieves nausea, but < stomach pains.—Warm drinks >;

cold drinks or ices < stomach pains.—Eating or a swallow of wine > head: coffee <-The least

food < pain of gastralgia; flatulence.—Fluids go right through him (in cholera infantum).—Warm

fluids >, cold < pains in stomach.—After heavy meal, epileptic fit—Nausea after each meal, esp.

after dinner.

Symptoms — Stomach
Clarke

Gastralgia, esp. in delicate, nervous women; brought on by any emotion, loss of

sleep, or at menstrual period.—Inflammation of the stomach; gastro-enteritis —Gnawing pain in

  • the |.
  • side of the stomach.
  • —Pressure with heaviness (sensation of lump) and nausea.
  • —Trembling

and throbbing in stomach.—Most gastric complaints are accompanied by violent

  • belching.
  • —Eructations of air accompanied by a mouthful of undigested food (Pho.
  • , Fer.
  • ).
  • —After

yawning, feeling as if stomach would burst; wind presses upwards, but the cesophagus feels

spasmodically closed; hence an ineffectual effort to eructate, with excessive strangulation,

pressing pain in stomach, faintish nausea, confluence of water in the mouth and inability to stir;

the paroxysm ceased after a quarter of an hour, amidst frequent and violent out-rush of

wind.—Vomiting of some fluid, of bile, black vomit; with anxiety in precordia.—The vomited

substance tinged the bedding black —Awakens at midnight with oppression at stomach, as from a

heavy lump, inducing vomiting; in the morning throws up glairy mucus, which can be drawn into

  • strings.
  • —Warmth at epigastrium.
  • —Gnawing ulcerative pain in epigastrium.
  • —Stinging, ulcerative

pain in |. side of stomach, worse from touch and deep inspiration.—Pain increases and decreases

slowly.—Small spot between xiphoid and navel sensitive to slightest pressure; pains radiate in all

directions.—Pain in |. side of stomach below true ribs, < during inspiration and on touching the

parts.—Stomach pains are accompanied by intense spasm of chest muscles and dyspnoea;

excessive accumulation of wind; nervous feeling or sensation as if squeezed in a vice.

Abdomen

Abdomen
Boericke

Colic, with much flatulent distention. Stitchy ulcerative pain on left side of stomach, below short ribs.

Symptoms — Abdomen
Clarke

Sensation as of a ball ascending from abdomen to throat.—Stitches through the

  • abdomen (1.
  • side) like electric shocks, esp.
  • when changing from rest to motion.
  • —Pain in abdomen

as if sore; with great hunger; > after eating, but a trembling sets in its place.—Violent attacks of

pain at irregular intervals; patient rolls on floor; descending colon tender to touch; tapeworm-like

stool passes.—Fulness, heaviness, and distension with anxiety —Flatulence —Griping —Cutting

  • pains.
  • —Constriction as if tightly tied with a band.
  • —Pain in hypochondria.
  • —Intolerance of lacing

round hypochondria.

Stool

Stool
Boericke
  • Watery, noisy, flatulent; green, like chopped spinach, with shreddy mucus and enormous distention of abdomen; very offensive.
  • Diarrhoea immediately after eating or drinking.
  • Fluids go right through him; after sweets.
  • After any emotion with flatulence.
  • Itching of anus.
Symptoms — Stool and Anus
Clarke

Cholera infantum in dried-up, mummy-like children, stools green, slimy,

noisy, flatulent, < at night.—Like spinach in flakes.—Green, slimy, shreddy stools, with severe

bearing-down in hypogastrium; membranous stool like unsegmented tapeworm; blood, slime,

and epithelium; of ten with much flatus; after eating sugar; after drinking; "as soon as the least

drink is taken it goes through"; from any excitement.—Advanced dysentery, with suspected

  • ulceration.
  • —Constipation and dry feeces.
  • —Teenia or ascarides with itching at anus.
  • —Piles with

burning or tenesmus; bleeding.—Burning in one spot in anterior wall of rectum (probably in

prostrate gland).

Urinary

Symptoms — Urinary Organs
Clarke

Nephralgia; pain by touching region.—Urine dark red; contains deposit of

  • renal epithelium and uric acid crystals (esp.
  • after Caust.
  • ).
  • —Quick urging to urinate; frequent and

copious emission of pale urine.—Incontinence night and day.—Urethra from meatus to bladder

hot and burning; < at meatus and behind scrotum.—Urine burning while passing, urethra feels as

if swollen.—Inability to pass urine in a projecting stream.—Oozing of mucus from urethra: thick,

white at night.—Stitches in extremity of urethra; cutting from posterior part of urethra to anus,

when emitting last drop of urine.—Inflammation, and violent burning or shooting pains in the

urethra, with increased gonorrhcea.—Priapism, bleeding of the urethra.—Stricture of the

urethra.—Dysuria, bloody urine and fever.—Ulcerative pain in middle of urethra, as from a

splinter.—Stream of urine spreads asunder.

Urine
Boericke
  • Urine passes unconsciously, day and night.
  • Urethra inflamed, with pain, burning, itching; pain as from a splinter.
  • Urine scanty and dark.
  • Emission of a few drops after having finished.
  • Divided stream.
  • Early stage of gonorrhoea; profuse discharge and terrible cutting pains; bloody urine.

Female

Female
Boericke
  • Gastralgia at beginning of menses.
  • Intense spasm of chest muscles.
  • Organs at night.
  • Nervous erethism at change of life.
  • Leucorrhoea profuse, with erosion of cervix bleeding easily.
  • Uterine haemorrhage, two weeks after menses; Painful affections of left ovary.
Symptoms — Female Sexual Organs
Clarke

Ovarian pains, feels as if an enormous swelling in side

affected —Prolapsus with ulceration of os or cervix; with copious yellow, corroding leucorrhcea

and frequent bleeding from points of ulceration —Menses irregular; scanty (with

asthma).—Menses too copious or too scanty, too soon or too late —All symptoms < before and

during menses.—Coition painful, followed by bleeding from the vagina.—Orgasms at

night —Metrorrhagia —Metrorrhagia, with nervous erethism at change of life; also in young

widows and those who have borne no children; returning in attacks, region of ovaries painful,

with pains radiating to sacrum and thighs.—During pregnancy, stomach as if it would burst with

wind; head feels expanded.—Puerperal convulsions; just after attack lies quiet, but becomes very

restless before another.

Male

Male
Boericke
  • Impotence.
  • Erection fails when coition is attempted.
  • Cancer-like ulcers.
  • Desire wanting.
  • Genitals shrivel.
  • Coition painful.
Symptoms — Male Sexual Organs
Clarke

Chancre-like ulcer on prepuce.—Ulcers on the prepuce; small,

covered with pus; later, spreading, bowl-shaped, with a tallow-like coating.—Impotence;

erections, but they fail when coition is attempted—Want of desire, organs shrivelled.—Coition

painful, urethra as if put oil stretch or sensitive at orifice.—Painful tension during erection,

chordee, bleeding from urethra, and shooting in urethra from behind forward.—Urethra swollen,

hard, knotty, painful—Spasmodic contraction of cremaster muscle, testicle drawn high up.—Pain

in testes and scrotum as from pins and needles, < r.—Orchitis.—Burning in spot in anterior of

rectum (prostate gland).

Respiratory

Respiratory
Boericke
  • High notes cause cough.
  • Chronic hoarseness.
  • Suffocative cough, as if from a hair in throat.
  • Dyspnoea.
  • Chest feels as if a bar were around it.
  • Palpitation, pulse irregular and intermittent; worse lying on right side; (Alumen).
  • Painful spots in chest.
  • Angina pectoris, nightly aggravation.
  • Many people in a room seem to take away his breath.
Symptoms — Respiratory Organs
Clarke

Pure nervous asthma; spasm of respiratory muscles; great dyspncea, <

in crowded room.—Muco-purulent sputa seeming to come from wall of larynx.—Expectoration

purulent, mixed with light blood.—Internal soreness of the larynx and pit of the throat, worse

mornings.—Chronic laryngitis of singers; raising the voice causes cough.—Marked hoarseness,

sometimes loss of voice; feeling as if something clogging vocal cords.—Cough with sense of

soreness in |. side preventing lying on it—Evening cough worse from tobacco smoke.—Cough <

evening and night.—Suffocative cough at noon.—Cough in paroxysms induced by: phlegm in

larynx; irritation under sternum; fit of passion; laughing; stooping; smoking; ascending stairs;

lying down; on awaking. —Hzmoptysis.

Chest

Symptoms — Chest
Clarke

Aching, tensive pain in various parts of chest in small spots Weight as of a stone in

middle of sternum.—Burning in chest; sensation of warmth between scapulz and

sternum.—Violent cramps and pain in muscles of chest.

Symptoms — Heart
Clarke

Palpitation of the heart in paroxysms, with nausea.—Violent palpitation of the heart;

in afternoon with faintish nausea; caused by any emotional excitement or any sudden muscular

exertion; from lying on r. side.—Angina pectoris, intense pain in chest and about heart, can

hardly breathe.—Irregular (intermittent) action of heart (with an unpleasant sensation of fulness),

< when noticing it, > when moving about in open air.

Neck & Back

Back
Boericke

Much pain. Spine sensitive with nocturnal pains, (Oxal acid) paraplegia; posterior spinal sclerosis.

Symptoms — Neck and Back
Clarke

Muscles of r. side of neck sore and stiff—Soreness in lumbo-sacral

region.—Heaviness in os sacrum, extending along pelvis with painful drawing.—Heaviness, with

paralytic sensation, preventing long sitting, and obliging him, when walking, to stretch the dorsal

spine.—Pain in small of back, < rising from sitting; > standing or walking.—Pain in sacro-iliac

symphyses, feeling as if bones were loose there.—Fatigue in back.—Pressure in back at night.

Upper Limbs

Symptoms — Upper Limbs
Clarke
  • Drawing in shoulders.
  • —Pain in |.
  • shoulder and arm.
  • —Rheumatic pain in 1.
  • wrist.
  • —Left arm heavy.
  • —Nightly boring pain in ulna.
  • —Hypereesthetic numbness of arms and

shoulders.—Pain in wrist, and finger joints.—Hands tremble—Numbness of finger tips.

Lower Limbs

Symptoms — Lower Limbs
Clarke

Staggering gait.—Lassitude of lower limbs with dizziness as if

intoxicated —Pain in calves all night; weary as after a long journey. (Paralytic heaviness and

debility, so that he did not know where to put them.).—Heaviness and debility of the

legs. —Limbs, esp. knees, start up at night—Weariness with rigidity (Edema of feet.

Extremities

Extremities
Boericke
  • Cannot walk with eyes closed.
  • Trembling, with general debility.
  • Paralysis, with mental and abdominal symptoms.
  • Rigidity of calves.
  • Debility in calves especially.
  • Walks and stands unsteadily, especially when unobserved.
  • Numbness of arms.
  • Post-diphtheritic paralysis (after Gelsem).

Skin

Skin
Boericke

Brown, tense, and hard. Drawing in skin, as from a spider-web, or dried albuminous substance, withered and dried up. Irregular blotches.

Symptoms — Skin
Clarke

Wart-shaped excrescences.—Skin blue-grey, violet, or bronze to real black.—Bluish-

  • black eruption; (in scarlet fever).
  • —Itching.
  • —Itching pimple —Impetigo—Zona.
  • —Small-
  • pox.
  • —Erysipelas.
  • —Urticaria.
  • —Skin brown, tense, and hard.
  • —Warts.

Sleep

Sleep
Boericke

Sleepless, from fancies before his imagination; horrible dreams of snakes, and of sexual gratification. Drowsy stupor.

Symptoms — Sleep
Clarke

Restless at night; when he does sleep has all sorts of troubled dreams.—Restless,

stupefied sleep, with horrid dreams of serpents, &c.—Prevented falling asleep by fancies and

images.—Wakes in the morning, dreams he is hungry and wakes with flatulence and spasms and

  • twinges.
  • —Soporous condition.
  • —Nightly nervousness with heat of head.
  • —Restless sleep with

stupefaction and headache.

Fever

Fever
Boericke

Chills with nausea. Chilly when uncovered, yet feels smothered if wrapped up.

Symptoms — Fever
Clarke

Chilliness and nausea.—Chills, shifting or constant, are more lasting than the heat

and return quickly on uncovering; both stages without thirst—Chilliness.—Chilly down back, at

noon, extending from occiput to tip of coccyx up back and over shoulder.—Night

sweat.—Morning sweat.—Scarlet fever.

Clinical

Clinical
Clarke
  • Acidity.
  • Addison's disease.
  • Ancemia.
  • Chancre.
  • Dyspepsia.
  • Epilepsy.
  • Eructations.
  • Erysipelas.
  • Eyes, affections of.
  • Flatulence.
  • Gastric ulcer.
  • Gonorrhoea.
  • Hands, swelling of.
  • Headache.
  • Heartburn.
  • Impetigo.
  • Locomotor ataxy.
  • Neuralgia.
  • Ophthalmia neonatorum.
  • Paralysis.
  • Prostate, enlargement of.
  • Scarlatina.
  • Small-pox.
  • Spinal irritation.
  • Syphilis.
  • Taste,
  • altered.
  • Throat, affections of.
  • Tongue ulcerated.
  • Warts.
  • Zona.

Relations

Relations
Clarke
  • Antidoted by: Nat.
  • m.
  • (chemical and dynamic), Arsen.
  • , Milk.
  • Antidotes to Nit.
  • ac.
  • and Arg.
  • nit.
  • : Puls.
  • , Calc.
  • , Sep.
  • ; next in importance, Lyc.
  • , Sil.
  • , Rhus, Phos.
  • , Sul.
  • /t antidotes:
  • Am.
  • caust.
  • , effects of tobacco.
  • /nimical: Coff.
  • c.
  • (it increases the nervous headache).
  • Follows
  • well: Bry.
  • , Spig.
  • (dyspepsia); Caust.
  • (urethral affections); Spongia (goitre); Verat.
  • (flatus).
  • Js
  • followed well by: Lyc.
  • (flatus).
  • Similar to: Arg.
  • met.
  • (A.
  • met.
  • acts on cartilages, Arg.
  • nit.
  • more

on mucous membranes, skin, bone, and periosteum, and is suited to herpetic patients); to Aur.,

  • Cup.
  • , K.
  • bich.
  • , Lach.
  • , Merc.
  • , Merc.
  • cor.
  • , Merc.
  • iod.
  • , Nat.
  • m.
  • , Nit.
  • ac.
  • , Thuj.
  • In complaints from
  • pressure of clothes, like Calc.
  • , Bry.
  • , Caust.
  • , Lyc.
  • , Sarsap.
  • , Stan.
  • In congestive headaches, like
  • Glon.
  • and other Nit.
  • ac.
  • compounds.
  • In fish-bone sensation in throat, Nit.
  • ac.
  • , Hep.
  • (Hep.
  • < by
  • cold; Arg.
  • n.
  • < in warm room).
  • Puls.
  • is its nearest analogue.
Relationship
Boericke

Antidote: Nat mur.

Compare: Ars; Merc; Phos; Pulsat. Argent cyanatum (angina pectoris, asthma, spasm of oesophagus) Argent iodat (throat disorders, hoarseness, gland affected). Protargol (gonorrhoea after acute stage 2 per cent solution; syphilitic mucous patches, chancres and chancroids, 10 per cent solution applied twice a day; ophthalmia neonatorum, 2 drops of 10 per cent solution).

Argent phosph (An excellent diuretic in dropsy).

Argent oxyd (Chlorosis with menorrhagia and diarrhoea).

Posology

Dose
Boericke

Third to thirtieth potency.

Best form an aqueous solution 1 to 9, 2 or 3 drops doses. This solution in water preferable to lower triturations; unless fresh, these readily decompose into the oxide.

Kent's Lecture

Lecture (part 1)
Kent

Everywhere tve find ulceration, but particularly upon the mucous

ntembrane. The throat has ulcers in it ; ulceration of the eyelids, and

of the cornea ; ulceration of the bladder. Ulcers of the uterus, of the

vagina and of the external soft parts. This tendency of ulcerate seems

rather strange, peculiar that it should have in its pathogenesis such a

tendency, when the old school has been using it to cauterize ulcers, and

yet it heals them up. We know that Phosphorus will burn and it

intensifies the tendency to ulcerate, makes the ulcer go deeper, while

Argentum nitricum sets it Healing. Upon mucous membranes we find

red elevations, granulations, enlargement of vessels, purplish aspect.

Sensitive ulcers. The complaints in W’^omen come on before and during the menstrual period. It is a favorable time for all her complaints to be aggravated ; if she have Argentum nitricum symptoms

they are likely to be at their worst at this time. She suffers from most

violent dysmenorrhoea, from nervous excitement, from hysterical manifestations, and an unusually increased flow. A tendency to hsemorrhages belongs to this remedy. The ulcers bleed ; there is bleeding from

the nose, bleeding from the chest, the urine is bloody ; leucorrhoea

copious, menstrual flow copious ; menorrhagia ; bleeding from the mucous membranes generally, from the uterus. Vomiting of blood. It

has cured prolonged and most inveterate ulceration of the stomach,

when there has been vomiting of blood.

The aggravation at the menstrual period is a strong feature and she

is free from symptoms during the interim. The palpitation, the trem-

AflCKNTUM NITRICUM

hling, the coldness of the surface, though desiring cold open air, blueness of the lips, coldness of the extremities, blueness and coldness of

the lower extremities to the knees and of the hands and arms to the

elbows, and yet the patient wants cool things, wants something cold.

This may not be seen at any other time. Here is a striking feature.

“Patient cannot lie on the right side because it brings on so much palpitation.'’ We have plenty of remedies with palpitation worse lying on the

right side are rare {Ahimen, Badiaga, Kalmia, Kali n,, Lil, t,, Platina,

Spong,). It is uncommon, strange, rare and peculiar. It is such a

strong feature in this remedy that to a great extent it becomes quite

general, because it is a heart symptom and is intermingled with the

general symptoms. With this sensitiveness he is compelled to get into

some other position ; must get up and walk, because of lying on the

right side. The patient will say he throbs from head to foot while

lying on the right side. Do not forget in this medicine all these general things when we come to apply them in their particulars and the

particulars in the generals. Do not forget that this medicine is one

of the most flatulent medicines in the books. He is distended to bursting ; gets scarcely any relief from passing flatus or eructations.

Lecture (part 2)
Kent

He is possessed with the distressing idea that all his undertakings

■must fail. When walking he becomes faint with anxiety which makes

him walk faster. Everywhere you will find the intellectual symptoms

predominant.

The headaches are of a congestive character ; considerable throbbing,

ameliorated by cold, and tight bandaging. Headache from mental exertion, from excitement, with vertigo, nausea and vomiting. Pains in

the right side of the head, jagging, cutting, stitching, pulsating. Head

feels much enlarged.

The eye symptoms are too numerous to mention. They are of a

general character such as we find in catarrhal conditions with ulceration, relieved by cold. All of the eye symptoms are worse in a warm

room, worse from sitting by the fire. Wants cold applications, cold

washing. Intense photophobia ; aversion to light, and this is worse in

a warm room ; wants it cold, wants it dark. There is much swelling

and tumefaction of the blood vessels of the eye, and redness, and it has

a raw denuded excoriated appearance. “Chemosis with strangulated

vessels.” “Cornea opaque.” “Ulceration of cornea in new-born infants ; profuse purulent discharge from the lids," and this is what the

“Regulars" in former days and almost up to date have been using for

the eyes, treating them with Argentum nitricum. Photophobia: after

long looking at fine sewing, fine print. In one who has suddenly taken

on far sightedness, it has come on as a congestive condition ; not of

old age but something that should be cured. All at once he cannot

see print at the usual distance but must hold it away off ; if it occurs

i2i

in some one twenty-five years of age or in a child. At close distance

it is indistinguishable. Such a disturbance of accommodation producing far sightedness it has caused and cured. “CEdcma of lids/' etc.

CEdema is a word which runs through the remedy. That is to say,

it has a dropsical state wherever dropsy may occur.

The face is the next place we find particulars worthy of note,

‘Tace: sweat stood in drops on his face.” “Face sunken, pale, bluish.”

“Looks prematurely old.” “Face blue, heavy breathing, pulseless.”

Then come the throat symptoms. Another feature of this remedy

is its general tendency to produce warts. There is a tendency to favor

the growth of warts and in the throat tliere are little wart-like growths ;

polypoid growths in the tliroat and about the genitals and anus ; hence

Its great use in sycotic constitutions. It has all the discharge necessary to its use in the sycotic constitution.

Lecture (part 3)
Kent

“Felt as if he had a stick in the throat when swallowing.” At once

you will sec its close relation to Hepar, In inflammatory conditions

of the throat with ulceration. In Argentum nitricum he wants to be

in a cold room, wants cold air, and to swallow cold things. In Hepar

he wants warm things to drink, warm clothing, warm room, and cannot put even his hand out of bed or his throat will begin paining him.

Things, you see, just exactly opposite, but they botlr have “sticks” in

the throat. In dry chronic catarrh Alumina and Natrum muriaticum

have “sticks” in the throat ; .but in red throat with tumefaction and

pain these two remedies give no relief, the former two are better.

“Sticks” in the throat like fish-bones. Nitric acid, Hepar and Argentum nitricum are the most striking remedies for the fish-bone sensation. Many remedies have sticking in the throat, but these arc the

most prominent. We know how Argentum nitricum has been used

for ulceration in the throat, and here it comes in as one of the most

  • useful remedies in congestion of the throat of long standing.
  • Catarrhs with loss of voice.
  • Warty growths, condylomata, etc.
  • Loss

of voice, tumefaction of the mucous membrane round about the vocal

cords and paresis of the vocal cords. Condylomata on the vocal cords.

“Loss of appetite” and refuses drink. This is another feature.

Desires sugar. He feels tliat he must have it and it makes him sick,

brings on eructations, increased flatulence, sour stomach. He cannot

digest it ; it acts like a physic and brings on a diarrhoea. So marked

is the aggravation from sugar that the nursing infant will get a green

diarrhoea if the mother eats candy. Then is it astonishing that the

baby can get a dynamized dose from the mother, when the dynamized

dose can travel like lightning, and sugar takes all day to be digested

and dynamized and fed as poison to the baby ? I remember a case that

I figured and figured on. The baby had Mercurial stools, sure enough,

they were grass green. Well Chamomilla has grass green stools and

i6

12:2

argentum NITRICUM

Lecture (part 4)
Kent

Arsenicum and Mercurius and lots of remedies have grass green stools.

Routinist that I was in those days I could not get anything but Mercurius out of it, and although the baby had gotten Merc,, Ars, and

Cham, there was no relief, until I found that the mother had been eating candy. When she was asked if she ate sweet things, sugar, etc.,

she said, “Oh, no.” “Why, yes, you do,” said the husband ; “I bring

you home a pound of candy every day. What do you do with it ?’

“Oh, that was nothing,” she replied. But the baby did not get well

until it got Argentum nitricum and the mother stopped eating sugar.

^'Irresistible desire for sugar.*' Quite a number of medicines have

craving for sweets, but many of them can eat sweets with impunity.

It is always a peculiar thing when one of the articles of diet, such as

milk, sugar, salt, starch, etc., and the things of the table make sick.

When it is said that “I cannot cat a leaspoonful of anything with

starch, egg or sugar in it without being sick,” it is always strange and

peculiar, because it is not something that comes in only as a craving

and affecting the stomach, but it affects the whole patient. The patient says: “1 become sick,” and hences it becomes a general. When

the patient gets a diarrhoea from eating sugar it is not merely a local

and particular symptom, because the whole patient is sick before the

diarrhoea begins ; the diarrlioea is the outcome. Hence as it is a general it is necessary that it should be examined into.

“The vomited substances tinge the bedding black.” Incessant vomiting of food. He sometimes spits up food by the mouthful until the

stomach is empty. Eructations of air accompanied by a mouthful of

undigested food, like Phosphorus and Ferrum. Spitting it up ; welling up in mouthfuls.

“Eructations relieve.” “Flatulence passes upwards, in quantities.”

Frequent eructations. Eructations do not always relieve. It is more

like China in its eructation. The eructations of Cargo veg, relieve

for some time and he feels better. This is the way with Carbo veg, ;

he is distended almost to bursting and he cannot get up any wind, but

finally after much pain and distension it wells up in empty eructations

and then he gets relief. With China he is distended, and every little

while getting up gas, but with no relief. It docs not seem to help, and

sometimes patients will say they seem to get worse after it. So it is

  • with Argentum nitricum at times.
  • It evidently has both.
  • “Most gastric ailments are accompanied by belching.
  • ” “Belching difficult ; finally

air rushes out with great violence.” “Nausea after every meal; nausea

with troublesome efforts to vomit.” I have seen these Argentum

nitricum patients vomiting and purging in the same moment, not vomiting one second and purging the next, but gushing out both ways with

great exhaustion like cholera morbus, so relaxed, prostrated and weak.

•'Vomit; streaked brown, flocculent, like coffee grounds.”

Lecture (part 5)
Kent

The stomach, liver and abdomen are full of pain. The abdomen

distended with all this troublesome flatulence. Inflammation of the

stomach, ulceration of the stomach, most troublesome diarrhoea. Diar*

rhoea with copious flatus. Stool with copious flatus in nursing children,

with tormina and viscous sanguinolent stools and tenesmus. “Diarrhoea of children after weaning.*' Another feature in connection with

the diarrhoea and dysentery is that casts are passed with the stool, like

diphtheritic membrane or deposit ; casts like the rectum, strings of

membrane, come with the stool. Stools of green, foetid mucus with

noisy flatus at night.

''Urine passed unconsciously and uninterruptedly.’* “Urging to

urinate ; the urine passes less easily and freely.” “Bleeding of the

urethra ; painful erections ; gonorrhoea.” It has most painful gonorrhoea with painful erections in the male. In the female the vagina is

extremely sore, and the external soft parts arc swollen ; tumefaction.

Vagina feels sore on urinating ; bloody discharge. In the male, orchitis

from suppressed discharge. In the female, ovaritis, inflammation of

all the pelvic organs. Great soreness all over the pelvis. Bleeding

  • from the vagina.
  • Ulceration of the uterus.
  • Coition is painful or impossible.
  • “Pains like sticks or slivers in and about the womb,*' etc.

This sensation prevails wherever there are ulcers. “Prolapsus with

ulceration of the os or cervix/* Haemorrhage of short duration ; shooting pains through abdomen and stomach. Metrorrhagia. Complaints

of nervous women and at the menstrual period. Menses suppressed

or scanty. Complaints during pregnancy.

Under the symptoms of the heart and pulse: “Anxiety with palpitation and throbbing through the whole body.” “Violent palpitation

from the slightest mental emotion or sudden muscular exertion. Palpitation obliges her to press hand hard against heart for relief. Heart’s

action irregular, intermittent,” etc.

Pain in the lumbar region comes on while sitting, but is better when

standing and walking. Pain in the back from flatulence. Sore pain

  • in the spine.
  • Pain in back at night.
  • Great weight in the lumbar region.
  • It is a very useful remedy in locomotor ataxia.

Great restlessness. The nervous symptoms are very numerous.

Periodical trembling of the body. Chorea, with tearing in the legs.

Convulsions preceded by great restlessness. Neiwous, faintish, tremulous sensation, etc.

The sleep symptoms are quite general. Distressing nightmares.

The dreams are horrible. Wakens in excitement and with starting.

All sorts of strange, horrible things in sleep. Dreams of vicious and

violent things, and that everything is going to happen to him. Dreams

of departed friends, etc.

On waking in the morning limbs feel bruised ; aching in the chest,

Classical Posology

Acute
  • 30C or 200C · repeat every 1–4 h depending on intensity
  • Stop on improvement · reassess in 24–48 h
  • For sensitive / elderly / paediatric: prefer LM1 or 30C
Constitutional
  • 200C or 1M single dose · wait 4 weeks
  • Alternative: LM1 daily × 10 days · ascend on retest
  • Hering's-Law follow-up adapts the next script
Citations: Organon §246 (interval / repetition) · §161 (plussed water) · §282 (LM ascension) · Kent on selection · Vithoulkas on second prescription. Open Repertify for the case-specific dose with the rule cited inline.
For practising licensed homeopaths

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