Nitricum acidum

-TESTE A, GROUP REMEDIES,  GROUP II,MERCURIUS SOLUBULIS
 – Nitric acid, (eau seconde, in French, when diluted with water.)
 – This acid, which it is impossible to render completely anhydrous, were it ever so much concentrated, is a colorless liquid, of a strong and disagreeable odor, excessively caustic, alterable by light, and, when  concentrated, giving out a white vapor ; boiling at 86 ; and coloring organic matters yellow and destroying them.
 – It was discovered by Raymond Lulle.
 – For the arts, this acid is obtained by the decomposition of the nitrate of potash by means of sulphuric acid.
 – But before it can be used for medicinal purposes, it has to be purified, that is to say, freed from all traces of sulphuric and muriatic acid, with which it is frequently mixed.
 – This is accomplished by treating it successively with small quantities of the nitrate of barytes and the nitrate of silver, and distilling it afterwards in a glass apparatus.
 – Empirical applications.
 – Nitric acid has but rarely been employed internally as a medicine.
 – Surgeons used it formerly as a caustic, and some employ it as such even now, but without suspecting that its good effects, provided good luck helps them out, (as in the treatment of warts, callous ulcers, dry caries and periostitis,) are due to the absorption of this powerful agent.
 – This is, however, so true, that Professor Lallemand, of Montpellier, has seen indolent periostitis speedily cured, and has cured it himself, by exciting a slight inflammation on the skin by means of nitric acid.
 – Fr. Hoffmann recommends nitric acid for pernicious petechial fevers. *
 – Hull and Batemann, in England, have used it with success in inveterate jaundice. *
 – “But, in France, it is especially Alyon,” says Alibert, “who has proposed its internal use, and who has praised it as a very powerful remedy for syphilis.
 – He relates a number of cases which show that this acid exercises a very powerful action on the vital forces, that it facilitates the urinary secretion, etc., and, that it combats with particular success old and inveterate syphilitic disease.” *
 – Several English physicians or surgeons, among others Scott, Beddoes, Geach, Hammick and Sandford, have confirmed Alyon’s experience by authenticated facts.
 – Even now a sort of lemonade is prepared of nitric acid in England and India, whose anti-syphilitic virtues are much commended.
 – Wedekind recommends this acid for the mercurial and scorbutic foulness of the mouth.
 – Pereira, of Bordeaux, assures us that he has used it with the best success in chronic leucorrhoea.
 – Homoeopathic applications.
 – Nitric acid seems to agree more particularly with individuals of a brownish complexion, a dry constitution, and especially with persons afflicted with chronic diseases, who are habitually troubled with soft stools.
 – “It can scarcely ever be employed,” says Hahnemann, “in the case of persons who are disposed to constipation.”
 – “Chronic syphilis, ulcers, obstinate ophthalmia, general or partial atrophy, some forms of phthisis, neuralgia, chronic rheumatism, diseases of the bones ; and lastly, and perhaps principally, the various affections caused by abuse of mercury ; these are the diseases for which this drug has been principally given.
 – According to Hahnemann, it has been used with success in the following affections :-
 – “Sadness, peevish mood ; uneasiness concerning the result of one’s sickness, with fear of death ; excessive irritability ; quarrelsomeness and caprice ; aversion to work ; vertigo when sitting or walking ; vertigo which obliges one to lie down ; sick headache ; tearing pains in the forehead, vertex and occiput ; throbbing headache ; rush of blood to the head ; itching of the hairy scalp ; falling of the hair ; paralysis of the upper eyelid ; pressure in the eyes ; stitches in the eyes ; suppuration of the eyes ; difficult dilation of the pupils ; black points which float before the eyes ; stitches in the ear ; swelling of the left lobule ; discharge from the ear ; stoppage of the ear ; hardness of hearing ; buzzing in the ears ; beating in the ear ; cracking in the ear ; crusts in the right nostril ; nose-bleed ; disagreeable smell when breathing through the nose ; fetid smell in the nose ; pimples in the face ; pale face ; chapping of the lips ; ulcerations of the vermilion border ; looseness of the teeth ; bleeding of the gums ; heat in the throat ; smarting pain in the throat ; bitter taste in the mouth, even after a meal ; sweetish taste in the mouth ; thirst ; aversion to meat ; inability to digest milk ; nausea after eating fat ; seat during and after a meal ; sense of fulness in the stomach after eating ; lassitude after diner ; acid eructations ; desire to vomit ; starts after drinking rapidly ; stitches in the pit of the stomach ; tensive pain under the false ribs ; frequent pinching in the abdomen ; cutting colic ; stitches in the abdomen when touching it ; smarting pain in the hypogastrium ; swelling of the inguinal glands ; inguinal hernia of children ; accumulation of wind in the belly ; emission of wind morning and evening ; gurgling in the abdomen ; borborygmi ; constipation ; desire to go to stool ; irregular and difficult stool ; too frequent stool ; dry stool ; itching of the anus ; old pils ; difficult emission of urine ; incontinence of urine ; fetid smell of the urine ; excoriation at the gland ; sycosis ; relaxation of the scrotum ; want of sexual desire ; want of erections ; frequent nocturnal emissions ; leucorrhoea.
 – “Suppressed sneezing ; stoppage of the nostrils ; dryness of the nose ; coryza ; dry stoppage of the nose ; hoarseness ; laryngeal phthisis ; cough in the day-time ; cough in the evening, after lying down ; cough causing one to vomit ; asthma ; cough in working ; nodous induration of the breast ; atrophy of the breasts ; pain in the kidneys ; pain in the back ; stiff neck ; swelling of the cervical glands ; stitches in the shoulders ; pressive pain at the arm joint ; roughness of the skin on the hands ; syphilitic tetters in the palms of the hands ; numbness of the fingers ; white spots on the finger nails ; itching at the thighs ; uneasiness in the legs,  in the evening ; coldness of the legs ; pain in the thighs,  on rising from a chair ; weak knees ; cramps and stiffness in the calves in walking, after having been seated ; twitching in the calves ; stitches in the heel, on pressing the foot to the ground ; fetid sweat of the feet ; tearing pains in the upper and lower extremities ; liability to taking cold, whence come pinching and cutting pains in the abdomen ; pain in former cicatrices, during a change in the weather ; acne punctata ; tingling and numbness of the ends of the fingers, even when the weather is only moderately cold ; itching eruption like urticaria, in the open air, even in the face ; brownish-red spots on the skin ; warts ; pain in the corns and chilblains ; weakness, weariness in the morning ; lassitude so as to tremble ; chronic lassitude and heaviness of the feet ; difficulty of waking in the morning ; frequent waking ; restlessness in the night ; waking with a start ; sleep full of dreams ; disturbing dreams ; lascivious dreams ; pains during sleep ; constant coldness ; fever, in the afternoon, coldness and heat ; dry skin ; night-sweat ; fetid night-sweat.*
 – The known antidotes of nitric acid are Camph. Merc. corr. and Calc. carb.