Nitrum. Nitre.b Saltpetre. Nitrate of Potassium. Potassic Nitrate. KNO3. Trituration. Solution.
Clinical
Asthma. *Chest, pain in. Colic. Diabetes insipidus. Dysentery. Dysmenorrhoea. Enuresis. Gastritis. Headache. Heart, affections of. Herpes preputialis. Meniere’s disease. Menorrhagia. Nose, bleeding of. Peritonitis. Phthisis. Pleurisy. Pneumonia. Polypus. Rheumatism. Vertigo.
Characteristics
*Kali-n. is known in old-school practice principally as a “refrigerant diuretic,” and as the active agent in the well known “nitre papers,” which are burnt for producing fumes to allay attacks of asthma. It has also been used in rheumatism, and for incontinence of urine in children. It has been extensively proved by homoeopaths, and symptoms have been added from cases of poisoning, so that its characteristics are well defined. It is almost equal to *Kali-ca. in producing stitching pains, and it is like it in having a cough at 3 a.m. The pains produced by *Kali- n. are very severe _ stitching, cutting, lancinating, tearing, and pressing. And there is, as with many other *Kalis, much external sensitiveness _ of scalp, of abdomen, of testes. That its anti-asthmatic properties are homoeopathic is abundantly shown in the respiratory symptoms it produces. Its “diuretic” properties are utilized homoeopathically in diabetes insipidus, and its use in enuresis must come in the same category. *K.n. acts with great intensity on the abdominal and pelvic organs, producing most painful colics, diarrhoea, and dysentery, in the male sexual sphere, excitement and pain in tests and cords, in the female, menorrhagia with flow of *ink-like blackness. This is very characteristic. Another characteristic of *Kali-n. is worse from eating veal, or effects of eating it _ headache, diarrhoea, etc. The mental state of *Kali-n. is chiefly one of peevishness, fretfulness, and *ennui. There are many curious symptoms in the nose: “The pain-like contraction in the eyes, forehead, and face concentrates in the tip of the nose,” ” Swollen feeling in right nostril, which is painful on pressure,” “sore pain in upper part of right nostril with external sensitiveness “, these two last symptoms led to the cure of a large nasal polypus in a girl. In a poisoning case there was in the period of recovery intense vertigo with tinnitus, which should indicate *Kali-n. in some cases of Meniere’s disease. Easy intoxication by wine or beer was noted by several provers. A peculiar connection symptoms is a sour taste *in the throat. Another peculiar symptoms is in with the asthmatic state. The breathlessness is so great that the patient though thirsty can only drink a sip at a time between the breaths. Allen thus defines the asthma of *Kali-n.: Asthma with excessive dyspnoea, faintness and nausea, with dull stitches or with burning pain in chest, rather free expectoration. A solution of saltpetre as an application was an old remedy for inveterate mange in cats. Nitre with Sulphur and Charcoal forms gunpowder. A teaspoonful of this in hot water was a favorite remedy for gonorrhea among soldiers in the days when black powder was used. In the lower triturations gunpowder has cured ascarides in adults. In some experiments made by myself with gunpowder 2x, severe herpes facialis involving right eyebrow and right side of nose was developed. The most characteristic worse is from veal, worse from wine or beer, worse from a slight draught of air (headache). worse After washing in cold water (eye). worse 3 a.m. (cough). worse Lying with head low (dyspnoea), worse in morning, afternoon, evening, after midnight. Walking worse many symptoms. Worse Breathing, worse by coffee. Better Lying down, lying right side, uncovering head (Pain in peri rectal region). Suited to: asthmatic constitutions and chest complaints.
Relations
*Antidoted by: Smelling Nit., Sp., Dulcamara, Ipecac. relieved the cough. Smelling Camph. intensified the sufferings. *Follows well: Aconite in dysentery, and is *followed well by Nux in the same. Also follow well: Belladonna, Calcarea, Pulsatilla, Rhus, Sepia Kali-n. *antidotes the renal symptoms of Causticum *Compare: Arnica, Drosera, Natrum mur., Nit ac.
Causation
Eating veal.
SYMPTOMS.
Mind
Excitement after a glass of wine as if he had taken too much. Anxiety and agitation. Despondency, out of humor, uneasy. Ennui, lachrymose mood, sad expression. Fretful, peevish. Disinclined to think or work. Half stupor. Discouragement and fear of death.
Head
Confusion almost like intoxication. Vertigo, on sleeping, tends to fall forwards, to right and backwards after drinking beer. Fainting fits with vertigo in morning on standing, better on sitting down, afterwards obscuration of sight with great weakness and drowsiness, pain in small of back and constriction in abdomen, staggering gait with vertigo. Vertigo and tinnitus. Headache in vertex on rising. Headache, after eating veal. Headache, with contraction of eyelids, from one evening to another, insupportable on stooping head. Headache, alternately with cramp-like tearing in joints of fingers. Stunning (stupefying) heaviness of the head, in morning, as after intoxication. Pressive pains in head, worse by coffee, and better by motion of a carriage. Headache with heat, worse towards evening. Pains in right frontal sinus with stopped catarrh. Pressive headache: in forehead towards root of nose, on either side, in vertex as if a stone were lying on it. Headache on vertex as if the hair were being pulled. Violent pain right side of head from a slight draught of air. Coldness in occiput with pains in head. Compression in occiput, producing rigidity in surrounding parts. A feeling of contraction in head, which seems to extend to nose. Cramp-like drawing in occiput and nape, which causes head to be thrown back. Stinging pain in head. Lancinating headache. Pains in occiput are better by unbinding hair. Painful sensitiveness of scalp. Scurfy spots on head. Profuse falling out of hair.
Eyes
Burning in eyes, with lachrymation and photophobia, worse in morning, after washing with cold water. Transient blindness. Cloudiness of sight. Coloured circles before eyes. In evening, candles appear surrounded by a rainbow-like halo. Everything appears black before eyes (after smelling Camphor).
Ears
Shooting in ears, in evening, worse by lying down on ear. Tension, shootings and tearing behind ears, behind right ear. Inflammation and swelling of lobe of right ear, with burning and jerking pain. Tingling in ears. Tinkling and ringing in ears. Chronic deafness, from paralysis of auditory nerve. Vertigo and tinnitus.
Nose
Burning in nose, with digging, and clawing pain, worse by touch. The nasal bones are painful, especially to the touch. Inflammation of extremity of nose, with shooting pain. Swelling of interior of nose. Swollen feeling in right nostril. Ulcers in the nostrils covered by a scurf. Epistaxis, with acrid blood (sharp, like vinegar). Violent coryza, with obstruction of nose, and loss of smell.
Face
Pale and sickly complexion. Face sunken, cold nose. Muscles of face convulsed, jerking. Heat on face without rapid pulse. Redness and tension in cheeks with worse of the headache. Tearing in bones of face. The pain-like contraction in eyes, forehead and face concentrates in tip of nose.
Teeth
Toothache, with lancinating drawing, or tearing pains in teeth and head. Shooting in carious teeth, when touched. Pulsative toothache, at night, worse by cold things. Swelling of gums, of an inflammatory or scorbutic character, they bleed readily.
Mouth
Fetid breath. Burning blister at tip of tongue. Crawling on tongue. Tongue loaded with a white coating. Taste: disagreeable, nauseous, disgusting, sourish, in throat in morning on rising.
Throat
Sore throat, with shooting pain and inflammation of velum palati, and uvula (during deglutition). Impeded deglutition from tension and cutting in the larynx. Loss of speech. Nocturnal pain in throat, as if it were contracting, with obstructed respiration.
Appetite
Want of appetite, with burning and continued thirst. Appetite, principally in evening. Ravenous hunger returned between 10 and 11 a.m., and alternated with cutting pain in region of right umbilicus. Ravenous hunger without real appetite. Cannot drink for want of breath, drinks in sips. Painful sensation in upper orifice of stomach.
Stomach
Nausea, as if about to vomit, especially at night. Heaving, ineffectual retching after each dose of 30th, mouth gets sore, feels altogether poorly (Cooper). Retching, and vomiting of mucus, mixed with blood. Pains in stomach, with a sensation as if something were turning about in it. Gnawing, spasmodic weakness, and pressure on epigastrium. Faint like weakness at stomach pit. Violent cramps in stomach, with contractive pain(especially after eating veal). Shootings in stomach and epigastrium. Sensation of coldness, or of burning in stomach. (Inflammation of stomach.) _Severe gastric pain recurs after every meal for years after a single large dose (Fraser).
Abdomen
Exceedingly violent pain in abdomen after eating veal, esp at right side. Excessive distension of abdomen. Griping about umbilicus, and beneath short ribs left side, better by emission of (fetid) flatus. Griping and cutting in abdomen before normal stool. Stitching and sticking pains, abdomen swollen and very tender to touch, coldness of lower extremities, stiff feeling in affected parts as if made of wood (peritonitis). Cutting pains, which disappear towards evening. Shooting pains in abdomen. Incarceration of flatus, especially in afternoon and evening. Very loud rumbling in abdomen.
