Nitri Spiritus Dulcis nit-s-d.

Homœopathic Materia Medica

William Boericke · Homœopathic Materia Medica · 9th edition

Common name

Sweet Spirits of Nitre

General

Sensorial apathy in low fevers when there is stupor, difficulty of arousing patient, is met by this remedy. Dry skin, nausea, flatulence. Salty taste. Ill-effects of salt (halophagia) (Ars; Phos). Catching cold in stormy weather. Acute nephritis following Scarlet fever. Dropsy. Is an excellent diuretic.

Face

Prosopalgia, with photophobia. Burning in cheeks, and vomiting, followed by lassitude. Boring in facial bones; in angles of lower jaw. Very sensitive to cold.

Respiratory

Very rapid breathing by going only a short walk. Painful constriction beneath sternum.

Modalities

Worse, from mental disturbance, during winter and spring.

Relationship

Increases the action of Digitalis.

Compare: Phos ac; Lycop.

Dose

A few drops of the pure spirits in water every two or three hours.

A Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica

John Henry Clarke · A Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica · 1st edition (1900-02, three volumes); homeoint.org / Médi-T HTML digitization

General

Spiritus ætheris nitrosi. Nitrous Ether. Sweet Spirit of Nitre. [A mixture of alcohol, water, and ethyl nitrite (C 2 H 5 NO 2 ): it contains no "nitre" (Kali nit.)]. Dilution.

Clinical

Diarrhœa. Gall-stones. Mouth, sore. Prosopalgia. Tibiæ, pains in. Typhoid. Warts.

Characteristics

Nit. spi. dulc . has been proved by Lembke. It has been found to be an antidote to several medicines (an instance is given under Nat. m.). It was recommended by Hahnemann for hospital typhoid with apathy, and has been used with success in typhoid fevers with symptoms of cerebral paralysis; in diarrhœa and sore mouth of salt caters. Poisonings with N. s. d . give a perfect picture of the typhoid state. It has been used as a remedy for incarcerated gall-stones, given beaten up with yolk of egg, and applied outwardly in the same form. The symptoms of N. s. d . go from below upward. They are much < on passive motion, riding in carriage. Catching cold in stormy weather = prosopalgia. Cold < . Walking < breathing and heart. < Afternoon. Among the effects of salt cured by N. s. d . are: Sore mouth; scurvy; bloody diarrhœa; hands covered with warts. < From cheese. In fevers Hahnemann advised that N. s. d . should be given thus: a few drops dissolved in an ounce of water, a teaspoonful every three hours.

Relations

Antidote to: Nat. m. (crude or in potencies); Nat. c.; Phyt. Antidoted by: Calc., Carb. v., Caust., Con., Kali c., Nat. c., Nat. m., K. nit., Op., Sep. Incompatible: Dig., Ran. b. Compare: Lyc. ( < afternoon; fulness after meals). Coloc. ( < from cheese). Hell., Phos. ac. (typhoid, sensorial apathy, stupor ─ Phos. ac. has apathy more pronounced than N. s. d., Hell. most of all).

Causation

Cheese. Salt. Stormy weather.

Mind

Complete apathy, without desire for anything. ─ Delirious and incoherent in manner; dizzy as if intoxicated; when roused could answer questions, complained of headache, and said he found it difficult to walk straight of late. ─ Excessive ill-humour, irascibility, passion, and quarrelsome disposition, with tendency to weep, dislike to labour and conversation.

Eyes

Black spots and rings float before eyes; pupils contracted. ─ Stitches in eyes and lids; burning on margins. ─ Pupils somewhat dilated, acting feebly.

Face

Sensation as of a cloud over upper part of face. ─ Haggard look. ─ Paleness of face, with eyes sunken, and surrounded by livid circles. ─ Chronic soreness at corners of mouth (in salt eaters). ─ Boring and pressure in bones of face.

Mouth

Tongue dry. ─ Heat in mouth; sour taste. ─ Cankers after eating cheese. ─ Accumulation of water in mouth.

Throat

Sensation of contraction in throat, with pain, as of a plug, in gullet.

Appetite

Want of appetite.

Stomach

Continued nausea and loathing. ─ After a meal, vomiting of sour matter and mucus, followed by headache. ─ Vomiting and purging. ─ Pyrosis. ─ Contractive pain and aching in stomach, with sensation of fulness, immediately after a meal.

Abdomen

Shootings, cuttings, and burning pains in abdomen. ─ Gall-stones.

Stool

Epidemic dysentery with lethargy. ─ Bloody diarrhœa after purging (from salt). ─ Constipation marked.

Urinary Organs

Urine very scanty.

Male Sexual Organs

Stitches in glans.

Female Sexual Organs

Catamenia scanty and irregular.

Respiratory Organs

Inhalations intermit. ─ Stertorous breathing. ─ Breathing slow, regular; on walking a short distance it becomes very hurried; if persisted in, quick, difficult, painful, and a most distressing sense of painful constriction is felt under sternum. ─ Short, dry cough.

Chest

Cramp rising up in œsophagus, extending to upper chest wall. ─ Pressure in and under sternum.

Heart

Pulse 60, small, hard. ─ Violent, tumultuous beating, < walking; frequently in evening on lying down.

Neck and Back

Violent pressure in nape and cervical vertebræ. ─ Sensation as of hot water creeping through back from below upward.

Upper Limbs

Weakness, heaviness, stitches through shoulders, arms, hands, and fingers. ─ Nails blue.

Lower Limbs

Boring, pressing pains in lower limbs. ─ Boring in tibiæ. ─ Stitches in toes. ─ Nails blue.

Generalities

Great fatigue; a recumbent position can alone mitigate and tranquillise it. ─ Excessive emaciation. ─ Swelling of veins. ─ < Afternoon. ─ Very sensitive to cold.

Skin

Shiverings and acute drawing pains in the bones. ─ Skin and tongue dry.

Fever

Chilliness: internal with cold hands; frequent; creeping, under skin, from small of back to lower limbs. ─ Heat: in head and face; nape and occiput; with swollen veins; from cervical spine into occiput; in head and face with chilliness in back and cold hands; in back; with inclination to perspire. ─ Typhoid with sensorial apathy and semi-paralysis of brain; wild, staring eyes. ─ Adynamic fevers, with nervous symptoms such as shootings, jerkings, &c.

The Guiding Symptoms of Our Materia Medica

Constantine Hering · The Guiding Symptoms of Our Materia Medica · 1879–91

General

Sweet Spirits of Nitre. C 2 H 5 NO 2 .
Alcoholized nitric ether is colorless, perfectly limpid, of a strong and agreeable smell, a sweetish, aromatic taste. It should be kept in well-stoppered vials, filled completely. --Am. Hom. Pharm.
Provings by Lembke (Zeit. für Hom. Klin., vol. 4, p. 145, and Neue Zeit. für Hom. Klin., vol. 17 ; p. 36).
CLINICAL AUTHORITIES.
- Prosopalgia , Liedbeck, Rück. Kl. Erf., vol. 5, p. 187 ; Allg. Hom. Ztg., vol. 73, p. 66 ; Soreness of mouth , Georgii, Rück. Kl. Erf., vol. 5, p. 203 ; Diarrhœa , Liedbeck, Rück. Kl. Erf., vol. 5, p. 424 ; Allg. Hom. Ztg., vol. 73, p. 66 ; Typhoid , Hahnemann, Fielitz, Rück. Kl. Erf., vol. 4, p. 758 ; Hering's Cond. Mat. Med., p. 751.

Sensorium

Lethargy.
Sensorial apathy, a sort of half paralysis of mental organs ; can be aroused, when he answers slowly but relevantly, and again goes into a stupor. θ Typhoid fever.
Lies indolently without sleeping or speaking ; scarcely answers ; appears to hear without understanding what is said or without allowing it to make any impression upon him. The few words he says he whispers, but not irrelevant ; he appears to feel almost nothing and to be almost immovable, and yet not quite paralyzed.
Vertigo with dulness ; while sitting, upper part of body sways to and fro.

Inner head

Confusion, fulness, heaviness or violent boring pains in forehead.
Drawing, tearing pains or pressure and heaviness in head.
Boring or pressure in temple ; heaviness.
Stitches in vertex.
Pressure, heaviness and heat in occiput.

Outer head

Drawing or horripilation on scalp.

Sight and eyes

Black spots and rings float before eyes ; pupils contracted.
Stitches in eyes and lids ; burning in margins.
Twitches in right upper lid.

Upper face

Sensation as of a cloud over upper part of face.
Prosopalgia after catching cold during stormy weather ; both sides affected ; photophobia ; burning heat in cheeks ; vomiting followed by lassitude ; at times attacks accompanied by pains in arms and back ; if pain is confined to right side it is less severe, but vomiting is <, often thirteen times in twenty-four hours ; if pain is on l. side it is very severe and vomiting is > ; eye sympathetically affected, pupil contracted, eyelid hanging, shortness of breath and wheezing before an attack, especially while eating ; least mental disturbance brings on or aggravates attack ; attacks more frequent and severe during Winter and Spring ; very sensitive to cold.
Boring and pressure in bones of face ; stitches in muscles.

Lower face

Boring in lower jaw, in angles.
Twitching in middle of left upper lip.
Chronic soreness in corners of mouth ; patient eats much salt.

Teeth and gums

Tearing drawing pain in teeth.

Taste, speech, tongue

Taste : salty on tip of tongue ; of lye.
Cutting, burning and stitches in tongue, fine stitches in tip.

Inner mouth

Cankers after eating cheese.
Much mucus in mouth ; salivation.

Palate and throat

Increased mucus, dryness in throat.
Cramp extending from elbow upward in œsophagus.

Eating and drinking

After eating cheese cankers in mouth.

Hiccough, belching, nausea and vomiting

Eructations of air.
Qualmishness, nausea, vomiting.

Scrobiculum and stomach

Paroxysmal cutting deep in stomach, flushes of heat and hot sweat.
Heaviness, fulness and oppression in pit of stomach.
Pressure in stomach : extending up œsophagus ; as from a dull instrument.
Aching, contracting pain from eating too much salt, fulness in stomach after a meal, with sour or slimy vomiting ; loss of appetite ; heartburn ; acidity.
For more than ten years has suffered from an affection of stomach supposed to be cancer ; passive motion like riding greatly aggravates his suffering ; eats too much salt and salted food.

Hypochondria

Incarcerated gall stones (with yolk of egg beaten up applied inwardly and outwardly).

Abdomen and loins

Rumbling in abdomen ; cutting in umbilical region.
Colic.
Stitches in left side below navel, extending towards bladder.

Stools and rectum

Bloody diarrhœa after purpura caused by excessive use of salt.
Epidemic dysentery with lethargy.

Urinary organs

Frequent desire to urinate, urine clear.
Increased urination ; diuretic effects.

Male sexual organs

Violent cutting stitches in tip of urethra.

Voice and larynx. trachea and bronchia

Tickling in larynx ; short, dry cough.
Stitches in larynx and constriction.

Respiration

Inhalations intermit.
Breathing slow and regular ; on walking a short distance it becomes very hurried ; if attempt is persevered in it becomes quick, difficult and painful, and a most distressing sense of painful constriction is felt underneath sternum.

Cough

Short, dry cough.

Inner chest and lungs

Pressure and stitches in chest.
Cramp rising up in œsophagus ; pressure behind sternum.

Heart, pulse and circulation

Violent beating of heart ; feeling of pressure.
Small intermitting pulse.

Neck and back

Violent pressure in nape of neck and cervical vertebræ.
Pressure and stitches in region of spine.
Sensation as if hot water creeping through back from below upward.

Upper limbs

Painful weakness in left shoulder and in several fingers.
Stitches in shoulder joints, muscles of arms and finger joints.
Violent pain in right shoulder.
Pressure in clavicles, shoulder joints, shoulders, muscles of arms, wrists and fingers.

Lower limbs

Persistent, pressive pain in left hip joint.
Boring, pressive pain in lower extremities.
Boring in left hip, tibiæ and feet.
Drawing, pressure and stitches in knee.
Violent pressure in right leg, ankle and malleoli.
Tearing, drawing, boring in feet.
Stitches in toe joints.

Limbs in general

Pressure, boring and stitches in muscles and joints of extremities.
Drawing in calves and scapulæ.
Wandering pains in limbs.

Rest. position. motion

Lies in bed motionless.
While sitting : upper part of body sways to and fro.
Walking : a short distance, breathing becomes hurried.

Nerves

Loss of muscular power ; laming of muscles.
Exerts a stimulant action upon nervous system ; has the same action upon disturbed innervation as the so-called anti-spasmodics.

Temperature and weather

After catching cold during stormy weather : prosopalgia.
Cold : very sensitive to.

Fever

Chilliness : internal, with cold hands ; frequent ; creeping under skin, from small of back to lower limbs ; followed by heat ; in back and limbs.
Heat : in head and face ; in nape of neck and occiput ; with swollen veins ; from cervical spine into occiput ; in head and face, with chilliness in back, and cold hands ; in back ; with inclination to perspire.
Sensorial apathy, a sort of half paralysis of mental organs ; lies in bed motionless, and without sleeping or speaking ; will hardly answer when urged to do so ; appears hardly to feel anything, and yet there is not complete stupor. θ Typhoid.
Wild, staring eyes ; hears nothing ; dry, brown lips ; desires nothing, unconscious of natural necessities, great prostration ; murmuring and delirium during sleep ; cannot be wholly aroused from her apathy, and appears to be unconscious of touch. θ Typhoid.
Adynamic rather than sthenic fevers ; fever with nervous symptoms, such as startings, jerkings, etc.

Attacks, periodicity

In twenty-four hours : vomiting thirteen times.
For more than ten years : suffered from an affection of stomach supposed to be cancer.
During Winter and Spring : attacks of prosopalgia more frequent and severe.

Locality and direction

Right : twitches in upper lid ; pain on side of face less severe ; violent pain in shoulder ; violent pressure in leg, ankle and malleoli ; crawling in forepart of tibia.
Left : pain on side of face very severe ; twitching in middle of upper lip ; stitches in side below navel ; painful weakness in shoulder ; pressive pain in hip joint ; boring in hip ; stitching in axilla.
From below upward : cramp in œsophagus.

Sensations

As of a cloud over upper part of face ; pressure as from a dull instrument in stomach ; as if hot water was creeping through back from below upward.
Pains : in arms and back.
Violent pain : in right shoulder.
Violent boring pains : in forehead.
Tearing, drawing, boring : in feet.
Drawing, tearing pains : in head ; in teeth.
Cutting : in tongue ; deep in stomach ; in umbilical region.
Boring : in temple ; in bones of face ; in lower jaw ; in left hip, tibiæ and feet.
Boring, pressive pain : in lower extremities.
Violent cutting stitches : in tip of urethra.
Stitches : in vertex ; in eyes and lids ; in muscles of face ; in tongue ; in left side below navel towards bladder ; in larynx ; in chest ; in region of spine ; in shoulder joints, muscles of arms and finger joints ; in knee ; in toe joints ; in muscles and joints of extremities ; in skin of l. axilla.
Fine stitches in tip of tongue.
Wandering pains : in limbs.
Aching, contracting pain in stomach.
Cramps extending from below upward in œsophagus.
Drawing : in scalp ; in knee ; in calves and scapulæ.
Persistent pressive pain : in left hip joint.
Violent pressure : in nape of neck and cervical vertebræ ; in right leg, ankle and malleoli.
Pressure and heaviness : in head ; in occiput.
Pressure : in temple ; in bones of face ; in stomach ; in chest ; behind sternum ; about heart ; in region of spine ; in clavicles, shoulder joints, shoulders, muscles of arms, wrists and fingers ; in knee.
Painful weakness : in left shoulder and in several fingers.
Soreness : in corners of mouth.
Burning heat : in cheeks.
Burning : in margins of lids ; in tongue.
Heat : in occiput ; in head and face ; in nape of neck ; from cervical spine to occiput ; in back.
Dryness : in throat.
Constriction : in larynx ; painful underneath sternum.
Fulness : in forehead ; in pit of stomach.
Heaviness : in forehead ; in pit of stomach.
Confusion : in forehead.
Twitches : in right upper lid ; in left upper lip.
Crawling : in skin and forepart of right tibia.

Touch. passive motion. injuries

Passive motion like riding greatly aggravates affections of stomach.

Skin

Crawling in skin and forepart of right tibia.
Stitches in skin of left axilla.
Warts from having used too much salt.

Stage of life, constitution

Young girl, otherwise healthy, suffering two or three years ; soreness in corners of mouth.
Boy, after recovery from purpura, caused by excessive use of salt ; diarrhœa.
Woman, æt. 33, unmarried, blonde, anemic, five years ago had pneumonia and measles, and was bled much ; prosopalgia.
Man, æt. 50, small stature, smoker, suffering ten years ; affection of stomach.
Woman, æt. 55, weak during typhoid ; stupor.

Relations

Antidoted by : Calc. ostr., Camphor , Carbo veg ., Caustic ., Conium, Kali carb., Natr. carb ., Natr. mur ., Nitrum, Opium, Sepia .
Incompatible : Digit . and Ran. bulb .