Argentum nitricum
as H.C. Allen recorded it in Keynotes and Characteristics with Comparisons of Some of the Leading Remedies of the Materia Medica, 1899
This is one author on one remedy. The few symptoms that, when genuinely present, point at one remedy and not its neighbours. Read Argentum nitricum in every book at once →
Keynotes
Argentum nitricum
The Silver Nitrate. TlgO, NO^.
Acute or chronic diseases from 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 extremities (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., Lib).
Headache : congestive, with fulness 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; > hy 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, ulcerated ; lids sore, thick, swollen; agglutinated in morning (Apis, Mer. s., Rhus ) .
Eye strain from sewing, < in warm room > in open air (Nat. m., Ruta) ; diseases due to defective accommodation.
Craves sugar; child is fond of it, but diarrhoea results from eating (craves salt or smoked meat, Cal. p.).
Belching accompanies most gastric ailments.
Flatulent dyspepsia : belching after every meal ; stomach, as if it would burst with wind; belching difficult, finally air rushes out with great violence.
Diarrhoea : green mucus, like chopped spinach in flakes; turning green after remaining on diaper; after drinking; after eating candy or sugar; masses of muco-lymph in shreddy strips or lumps (Asar.) ; with much noisy flatus (Aloe).
Diarrhoea as soon as he drinks (Ars., Crot. t., Throm.).
Urine passes unconsciously day and night (Caust.).
Impotence : erection fails when coition is attempted (Agnus, Calad., Selen.).
Coition : painful in both sexes ; followed by bleeding from the vagina (Nit. ac.).
Metrorrhagia : in young widows ; in sterility ; with nervous erethism at change of life (Lach.).
Great longing for fresh air (Amyl., Puls., Sulph.).
Chronic laryngitis of singers ; the high notes cause cough (Alum., Arg. m., Arum).
Great weakness of lower extremities, with trembling; cannot walk with the eyes closed (Alum.).
Walks and stands unsteadily, especially when he thinks himself unobserved.
Convulsions preceded by great restlessness.
Sensation of a splinter in throat when swallowing (Dolich., Hep., Nit. ac., Sil.) ; in or about uterus when walking or riding.
Chilly when uncovered, yet feels smothered if zurapped up; craves fresh air.
Prevents excessive granulation in ulcers.
Relation. — Natrum mur. for the bad effect of cauterizing with nitrate of silver.
Coffea increases nervous headache.
Boys’ complaints after using tobacco (Ars., Ver.).
Similar: to, Nat. m.. Nit. ac., Lach., Aur., Cup.
After Ver. ; Lyc. follows well in flatulent dyspepsia.
ice cream ; unusual mental exertion.
Amelioration. — Open air; craves the wind blowing in his face ; bathing with cold water.
The 200 or loooth potency in watery solution as a topical application in ophthalmia neonatorum has relieved when the crude Silver nitrate failed.
What the other books say about Argentum nitricum
The same remedy read by a different author. They disagree, and the disagreements are where the remedy becomes recognisable.
- Argentum nitricum in Boericke — The concise clinical Materia Medica that most Indian colleges teach from, in full.
- Argentum nitricum in Farrington — Lectures that teach remedies in families, by comparing them with each other.
- Argentum nitricum in Kent — Kent teaching a class, one remedy at a time — fewer remedies, far more on each.
- Argentum nitricum in Boger — A compressed key — the generals and the characteristic modalities, with very little narrative.
Search every book at once, take rubrics from Kent and Bönninghausen, and practise on a patient who answers back — free account.
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Cite this page. H.C. Allen. Keynotes and Characteristics with Comparisons of Some of the Leading Remedies of the Materia Medica. 3rd edition (1910). Philadelphia: Boericke & Tafel. Argentum nitricum — Keynotes, pp. 41–44. HomeopathyWorld, https://homeopathyworld.in/materia-medica/books/allen/argentum-nitricum. Published 1910: public domain in the US (before 1931) and in India (author died 1909). Replaces B. Jain's 2005 "rearranged and classified" edition (© the publisher), per the owner's decision of 13 Sep 2026. Reproduced as the author wrote it; a historical reference for students and practitioners, not medical advice.