Argentum nitricum
Silver nitrate · Silver nitrate, hellstone, devil’s stone, lunar caustic · Mineral
Argentum nit. is best suited to people who are extroverted, cheerful, and impressionable. Suggestible and impulsive, they may have difficulty in controlling their far-ranging minds and emotions, and readily laugh, cry, lose their tempers, or become anxious. They may be nervous, phobic, and superstitious. Motivated people who think, talk, and act rapidly, they are always in a hurry, and are frequently to be found in careers that require quick thinking and a good memory, or where the emphasis is on performance.
Typical physical symptoms include a “sensitive” digestion, a lack of physical control, with awkwardness and tremors, and a tendency to feel the heat. Argentum nit. is used for certain nervous, mental, and digestive problems where these key physical and mental symptoms are evident.
Key symptoms
- anxiety
- impulsiveness
- phobias
- craving for sweet foods, which aggravate symptoms
- digestive problems with flatulence
- tendency to feel hot
Worse (aggravation)
- Warmth; intolerance of heat
- Mental exertion; unusual or long continued mental effort
- Sweets; after eating
- Anxiety and hurry
- Left side
Better (amelioration)
- Cold air and cold applications
- Pressure
- Hard study and motion
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 anæmia.
Mind
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.
Head
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.
Eyes
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.
Nose
Loss of smell. Itching. Ulcers in septum. Coryza, with chilliness, lachrymation, and headache.
Face
Sunken, old, pale, and bluish. Old man's look; tight drawing of skin over bones.
Mouth
Gums tender and bleed easily. Tongue has prominent papillæ; tip is red and painful. Pain in sound teeth. Taste coppery, like ink. Canker sores.
Throat
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
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.
Abdomen
Colic, with much flatulent distention. Stitchy ulcerative pain on left side of stomach, below short ribs.
Stool
Watery, noisy, flatulent; green, like chopped spinach, with shreddy mucus and enormous distention of abdomen; very offensive. Diarrhœa immediately after eating or drinking. Fluids go right through him; after sweets. After any emotion with flatulence. Itching of anus.
Urine
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 gonorrhœa; profuse discharge and terrible cutting pains; bloody urine.
Male
Impotence. Erection fails when coition is attempted. Cancer-like ulcers. Desire wanting. Genitals shrivel. Coition painful.
Female
Gastralgia at beginning of menses. Intense spasm of chest muscles. Organs at night. Nervous erethism at change of life. Leucorrhœa profuse, with erosion of cervix bleeding easily. Uterine hæmorrhage, two weeks after menses; Painful affections of left ovary.
Respiratory
High notes cause cough. Chronic hoarseness. Suffocative cough, as if from a hair in throat. Dyspnœa. 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.
Back
Much pain. Spine sensitive with nocturnal pains, (Oxal acid) paraplegia; posterior spinal sclerosis.
Extremities
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
Brown, tense, and hard. Drawing in skin, as from a spider-web, or dried albuminous substance, withered and dried up. Irregular blotches.
Sleep
Sleepless, from fancies before his imagination; horrible dreams of snakes, and of sexual gratification. Drowsy stupor.
Fever
Chills with nausea. Chilly when uncovered, yet feels smothered if wrapped up.
Modalities
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.
Relationship
Antidote: Nat mur.
Compare: Ars; Merc; Phos; Pulsat. Argent cyanatum (angina pectoris, asthma, spasm of œsophagus) Argent iodat (throat disorders, hoarseness, gland affected). Protargol (gonorrhœa 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 diarrhœa).
Dose
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.
Mind
We shall find by examining the symptoms of this remedy that the intellectual feature predominates, as in the metal; that the affections are disturbed only in a limited way. There is a predominance of mental symptoms.
First of all, disturbance in the memory, disturbance of reason, he becomes most irrational in his explanations of his actions.
He is irrational and does strange things and comes to strange conclusions; foolish things.
He has all sorts of imaginations, illusions, hallucinations. He is tormented in his mind by the inflowing of troublesome thoughts, and especially at night his thoughts torment him. to the extent that he is extremely anxious and this puts him in a hurry and in a fidget and he goes out and walks and walks, and the faster he walks the faster he thinks he must walk, and he walks till fatigued.
Nitrate of Silver. Lunar Caustic. Ag NO3. Trituration and solution.
Clinical
Acidity. Addison's disease. Anæmia. Chancre. Dyspepsia. Epilepsy. Eructations. Erysipelas. Eyes, affections of. Flatulence. Gastric ulcer. Gonorrhœa. 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.
Characteristics
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. Homœopathic 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.
The Silver Nitrate (AgO,NO5)
Acute or chronic diseases fro unusual or long-continued mental exertion. Always think of Argentum nit. on seeing withered, dried-up, old-looking patients (thin, scrawny, Sec.). Emaciation, progressing every year; most marked in lower extremeties (Am. m.); marasmus. Apprehension when ready for church or opera, diarrhoea sets in (Gels.). Time passes slowly (Can. I.); impulsive, wants to do things in a hurry; must walk fast; is always hurried; anxious, irritable, nervous (Aur. Lit.). Headache: congestive, with fullness and heaviness; with sense of expansion; habitual gastric, of literary men; from dancing; hemicrania, pressive, screwing in frontal eminence or temple; ending in bilious vomiting; < from any exhaustive mental labor; > by pressure or tight bandaging (Apis, Puls.). Acute granular conjunctivitis; scarlet-red, like raw beef; discharge profuse, muco-purulent. Ophthalmia neonatorum: profuse, purulent discharge; cornea opaque, ulceration; lids sore, thick, swollen; …
Mind
Always hurried, time passes too slowly, must walk fast, etc.
Mind
Impulsive; time passes too slowly; is in a hurry about everything.
Mind
Apprehension when getting ready for church or opera; diarrhoea set in (Gels.).
Head
Vertigo with great debility of the limbs, and trembling.
Sight and Eyes
Cornea opaque; ulceration of cornea in new-born children, profuse purulent discharge from the lids.
Sight and Eyes
Acute granular conjunctivitis; conjunctiva internally pink or scarlet red, discharge profuse and inclined to be muco-purulent.
Sight and Eyes
Blepharitis, if the eyelids are very red and thick, and swollen, especially if attended by granulations.
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Sensation of expansion of the body, especially of the face and head, with feeling as if bones of skull separated.
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Purulent ophthalmia, with intense pains which are better in the open air.
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Intensely pink or scarlet red, profuse mucopurulent discharge.
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Canthi red as blood, the caruncula swollen standing out like a lump of red flesh, clusters of intensely red vessels extend from inner canthus to cornea.
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Bloody, mucous stools, with masses of epithelium connected by muco-lymph, severe bearing down in the hypogastrium, advanced dysentery with suspected ulceration.
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Prolapsus uteri, with ulceration of the os or cervix.
Phatak's chapter on Argentum nitricum is available in the app.
Read Phatak in the appClassical texts are in the public domain. Educational reference only — not medical advice.
