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ANGELIKA BOLTE AND JÖRG WICHMANN
¦ NATRIUM NITRICUM
SPECTRUM OF HOMEOPATHY
71
THIRD ROW OF THE PERIODIC TABLE ¦
SILICIUM SERIES
with a single element but rather with a salt. The expressions
listed above revolve around the question: who am I really? Am
I different than the others? Am I like my girlfriend? – This is
the language of the third period, which is concerned with the
formation of identity in relation to a counterpart. The path of
the third row leads from identification with the you (
Natrium
)
via the conscious holding back of one’s own demands for the
sake of harmony (
Magnesium
) to the position of being against
everyone else (
Chlor
). In this case we can very clearly see the
attitude “I want to be like you!” – the trademark of
Natrium
in the third period.
So here the remedy we are seeking is a salt that must have
both a
Natrium
and a Nitrogen component. With this analy-
sis based on the sensation method, we arrive at the remedy
Natrium nitricum
, which is chemically sodium nitrate or Chile
saltpetre. This is the sodium salt of nitric acid, NaNO
3
. It is
familiar as a food additive E251 (curing or pickling salt) and
especially as a fertilizer. Its most important natural source is
guano, the excrement of seabirds on the South America coastal
islands. Guano contains 7-8%, occasionally up to 60% nitrate
as potassium nitrate (saltpetre) or above all sodium nitrate
(Chile saltpetre).
SALTPETRE
Saltpetre (from the Latin “sal petrae,” “cliff salt“) is the common
name of several frequently occurring nitrates.
Types of saltpetre:
Ammonium saltpetre
ammonium nitrate
(combustible saltpetre)
Barium saltpetre
barium nitrate
Chile saltpetre
sodium nitrate
Potassium saltpetre
potassium nitrate
Calcium saltpetre
calcium nitrate
Homeopathically significant nitrates: NO
3
compounds:
Silver nitrate
–
Argentum nitricum
– Arg-n
Nitroglycerine
–
Glonoinum
– Glon
Potassium nitrate –
Kalium nitricum
– Kali-n
NH
2
Hg
2
NO
3
+ Hg
2
O –
Mercurius solubilis
– Merc
Potassium and sodium nitrate both occur in guano and were
both used as the explosive ingredient of gunpowder, the most
important premodern explosive.
Further less significant nitrates:
Bismuthum subnitricum
– Bism
Cobaltum nitricum
– Cob-n
Plutonium nitricum
– Plut-n
Materia medica:
With repertorisation we would surely not have
come across this minor remedy. There is nothing enlightening in
the usual materia medicae. To reinforce the selection of such an
unusual remedy, let us take a look at the proving symptoms of
Nat-n
in the area of digestion. So we find in
Allen‘s Encyclopedia
(vol VI) under “Abdomen” and “Stool”:
“Distension and feeling of heaviness in the lower abdomen, with
emission of much flatus (...) Painless rumbling in the bowels.
Flatulent troubles, (...) Some pain in the intestines (...) followed
by three successive attacks of diarrhoea, with relief of the pain
(…) The stool always consisted of isolated faecal masses, evacu-
ated with great exertion; and during the last days of the proving
he had a constant desire to go to stool.”
This is a good fit to our patient’s symptoms. And in
Leeser
: “The
Stuttgart provers observed a series of digestive disorders such
as distension, sour eructations with the tendency to diarrhoea
or soft stool, with difficulty passing stool or a feeling of incom-
pleteness. This occurred with the 30th, 6
th
and 3
rd
potencies,
(…) with the 3
rd
, mushy and diarrhoea-like stools.” (translated
from Leeser’s
Lehrbuch der Homöopathie
, Bd. 2, Mineralische
Arzneistoffe, Heidelberg 1988, p. 343).
Prescription and progress:
The patient was given a single dose
of
Natrium nitricum
200C and experienced rapid resolution of
her colitis, which she had had for some time before casetaking
and which was resistant to other forms of treatment. Her health
stabilized and her digestion normalized. She felt more at ease
and less prone to feeling rushed. A few months later she again
started to gain weight, for the first time in several years. For a
year now she has been free of acute attacks and is very con-
tented with her progress.
Comments:
According to our observations, we presume that
the miasm in this case was typhoid because the patient, de-
spite many years of setbacks, is optimistic that she can again
become healthy – the psoric aspect of the reaction dynamic
(“miasm”). In addition we experience a high degree of urgency
in the treatment attempts (not so much just in the complaints,
since this is the sensation of
Nitrogen
), in which she keeps
changing course and applying a lot of pressure – the acute
aspect of the dynamic. Both aspects together depict a reac-
tion dynamic that we would call typhoid according to the
sensation method.
For an additional insight into the substance saltpetre, from
which we derive our remedy
Natrium nitricum
, see this
short trailer depicting the unimaginably tough life of the
men who “harvest” the guano:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dff6hXics64 or search YouTube for “360 GEO
Guano.” The daily life of these workers is pared down to a
little contact with their families plus much time spent digging
out the birds’ excrement. This corresponds to our case history:
a little family life and being frequently tied to the place where
excretion takes place.