Uranium nitricum

Volume I — Special Symptomatology

(Uranic Nitrate.)

Pharmacology. — The metal uranium is obtained from pitc7iblends ; the nitrate may be obtained by treating the metal or any of its oxides with nitric acid. It crystalizes in lemon-yellow prisms.

The solutions of this salt possess the power of lowering the refrangibility of the rays of light, which fall upon it, producing the peculiar phenomenon called fluorescence.

Efflorescent in dry and deliquescent in moist air; soluble in 0.35 parts alsolute alcohol, and in 0.5 of water.

Officinal Preparations. — "The best preparation is a recent aqueous solution, prepared with carefully distilled water, (by artificial light,) and then preserved in glass stoppered amber vials." (Blake.) (Triturations.) " It is an extremely acrid drug ; two drops of the 1 + being sufficient to kill a full-grown cat." (Blake.) A trituration (by artificial light,) with coarse sugar of milk is reliable."

Analogues. — Arsenicum, Mercurius cor., Kali bicliromicum, Plumbum, Phosphorus, Argentum (dr. blake), Uelonias (?), Eupatorium purpureum ( ? ), Nitric acid ( ? ). (hale.)

[The following is a condensation of Dr. Blake's admirable monograph, prepared for the " Hahnemann Materia Medica," English, and containing my first paper on the remedy. (Hale.)

Mental Symptoms.

• Ill-temper and humor; he is cross with everybody

• General malaise ; he feels cross and disagreeable.

Head and Sensorium.

Head heavy on waking; general languor; aching at occipital protuberance, occipital and frontal headache.

Woke with occipital headache; vertigo twice in the evening.

In the evening pain shooting from right orbit to occipital protuberance.

Frontal headache for two days.

Dull aching in right temple, immediately after taking it. Slight pain over left eye, with contracted feeling in the throat,

and eructations, followed by diuresis. Heavy, burning pain in right side of vertex; fullness of head

and sensation of blood flowing to that part, before eating. Giddy, faint, flushing of upper body during the catamenia. Headache in the left temple, with feeling as if he had taken

cold, though there had been no exposure. Severe pain at posterior edge of right and left temporal bone,

lasting from 2 to 4 p. m. Pathological. — Brain never affected. Medulla oblongata not once affected. (Black.) Spinal cord, lower portion slightly congested.

Eyes.

Pain over left eye (a characteristic symptom). Left eyelid inflamed and agglutinated.

Nose.

Dry coryza; left nostril stuffed.

Itching in nose; small scab in right nostril; purulent discharge from left nostril. 0 Scabbing of the inner nostril — chronic. (J. If. Blake.)

Face.

Acne on forehead.

Mouth.

Small, painless ulcer on buccal aspect of left cheek, opposite left anterior upper molar, more tender in evening, lasting a week.

Copious salivation.

Red spots on hard palate, which feel raw.

Throat.

Cutting feeling at back of fauces.

Nausea, Vomiting.

Vomiting, with much nausea, during catamenia; no appetite Intermittent vomiting, with great thirst, for four days, then death.

Occasional vomiting, vomits white fluid.

[Vomiting did not appear in the animals in which ulceration was found. j Stomach.

Tasteless and putrid eructations, with excessive flatulency in

stomach and bowels. Loss of appetite during catamenia. Very thirsty, with dislike for meat.

For two days intermittent attacks of pain, radiating from the left side of the ensiform cartilage; aggravated by fasting; slight constipation, with occasional twisting, gnawing feeling, rather lower down, relieved by food.

• Dyspeptic feelings a quarter of an hour before dinner, with gnawing, sinking at cardiac end of stomach; but without hunger or faintness.

Pathological. — Ulceration of the stomach has been produced in three out of ten rabbits; this seems to be a specific effect, for it appears even when the drug was introduced under the skin of the leg. The ulceration was near the pyloris; even in non-ulcerated rabbits, the mucous membrane of pylorus was diseased. Stomach: Mucous coat thickened and softened. Hemorrhagic spots. (?)

° Ulceration of the stomach. {Dr. Drysdale, British J ournal of Homceopathy, vol. xxviii.)

° H cematemesis from gastric ulcer. {E. F. B.)

Abdomen.

Woke at 2 a. m., with an urgent desire to evacuate bladder and rectum; borborygmus; small, soft stool.

Constipation, with excessive flatulency in stomach and bowels.

Sharp colic and tenesmus, raw feeling in rectum. Tight feeling around waist; pain all over abdomen.

Pathological. — Ascites in animals. Ulceration of duodenum. Enteritis.

[May be useful in extensive cutaneous burns, with ulceration of duodenum. {Blake)']

Bladder and Urine.

Burning in the urethra; with very acid urine.

Desire to urinate again immediately after voiding urine.

Chlorides increased, all other constituents remain unchanged.

Micturition increased in frequency (12 times in 24 hours), preceded by pain over left eye; contracted feeling in throat, and eructations.

Sore feeling in pubic region.

Average daily quantity of urine increased by three ounces. Urinary tenesmus.

[Dr. Blake, in remarking on the results of the provings, says: "The results put glycosurea quite out of the court, as a condition theoretically calling for this medicine." It did not cause the urine to contain sugar in a single instance. In animals it caused " kidneys pale. Tint of medullary layer deepened. The peri-renal tissue was infiltrated with reddish, jelly, like material. Bladder greatly distended, full of pale, alkaline urine, with copious flocculent deposit. Bladder full of acid, albuminous urine." Dr. Blake says "It ought to be useful in Bright's disease and kindred renal maladies; in contracted kidneys, with gastric disturbance; in irritable conditions of the renal plexus of the sympathetic." It seems singular that it should have cured veritable cases of "sugar diabetes," which it undoubtedly has done. It is homoeopathic, however, to diabetes generally, as wit. ness the following:]

0 Diabetes with albuminuria. (?)

[A corpulent, temperate old man, had constantly increasing debility and emaciation; oedema of the legs; great pain and weariness in legs; crawl ing and formication in the limbs; clammy state of mouth and tongue; tongue coated with white fur; sensation of dryness in mouth and fauces, with intense thirst; severe acid dyspepsia; burning, cramps, and faintness in pit of stomach; bowels constipated, faeces pale, odorless and dry; constant desire to urinate; enormous quantities of urine (16 pints in 24 hours). Perspiration and breath have a sweet odor. Skin dry and hard, and he has night sweats. Pulse 90, small. Greatly relieved by the lsttrit., (cent.) which kept him comfortable several months. (Hale.)]

Brightfs disease (?) Profuse urination — nocturnal — since six months, in a man of 40, accompanied by burning and scalding; milky at times — often straw-colored, foetid; voids 10 or 12 pints in 24 hours; he is dispirited, morose; constipation; dry mouth; saliva tenacious; tongue coated white; good appetite, but distress after eating. A constant sensation of faintness at stomach, even after a hearty

meal; debility; renal pain, etc. Cured in three weeks by Uranium nit. 2 x . (Hale.)

° Bright1 s disease: Urination profuse, painful, pale, milky, with ammoniacal odor; nocturnal urination frequent; great debility; night sweats; constant pain and soreness in lumbar region; legs ache and feel heavy and weary; worse toward evening; almost complete loss of sexual power; sexual organs cold and relaxed, and sweaty; afternoon fever; great thirst; canine hunger; bloated abdomen and constipation. Cured by the 2 x trit. (Hale.)

° Diabetes insipidus, (Hysterical diuresis?) A delicate nervous female, had sudden attacks of diuresis, followed by scanty and dark colored urine, and fever. The diuresis was much relieved, and was not followed by the usual fever. (2 x trit.) (Hale.)

0 Diabetes: (Sugar was found in the urine.) Constipation; distressing thirst; canine hunger; tongue red and angry; loss of sleep; all greatly improved under Uranium 2 x . (Dr. Lowder.)

0 Diabetes. In three cases of glycosurea, one was cured, and in two the sugar was reduced one-half. (Dr. Curie of Paris.)

° Diabetes: Two cases greatly improved under the 6th and

12th dil. (Dr. Jorenet.) c Diabetes: In two cases the specific gravity decreased; in

one from 1042 to 1030, in the other from 1<)39 to 1031;

the thirst, hunger and quantity of urine decreased greatly.

(Dr. Baehr, Science of Therapeutics.)

[Drs. Dudgeon and Miller, of England, used the Uranium nit., in five cases, unsuccessfully.]

0 Diabetes: (Saccharine.) Five caces all improved under the medicine. (Dr. Hughes, British Jour, of Horn., vol. 2S.) [Dr. Drysdale has found it useful in one case (lb., Vol. XXV.)] ° Incontinence of urine at night, and frequency during the day, in a young girl who had been troubled from infancy. Cured by the 3d and 1st. (Dr. Cook.)

Cough and Chest. Pain at lower angle of left scapula, aggravated by taking a deep inspiration.

Double hydrothorax and congestion of the lungs. Pathology. — Cough, with purulent discharge from left nostril;

loss of appetite and great prostration; lung infiltrated

with gray tubercle; no vomica.

Back, Kidneys and Loins. Stiffness in the loins.

Increased frequency of micturition; twelve times in twentyfour hours.

Pressure on loins caused a rabbit to fall on left side, as if moribund, then to defecate.

Upper and Lower Extremities.

Pain at lower angle of left scapula, aggravated by taking a deep inspiration.

"White vesicles on hands and legs, with red areolae; they burn and itch.

General Debility and Languor.

Head heavy on waking; general languor, with aching at occipital protuberance. Extreme languor on rising from bed, with fishy odor of urine. Great prostration and drowsiness during the catamenia. Debility and cold feeling, with vertigo. 0 Obstinate sleeplessness — in diabetes.

Fever.

Shivering alternately with heat at night, and great restlessness. Prostration, somnolence, and shivering, during the day; restless at night at the menstrual period.

Volume II — Special Therapeutics

Nearly twenty years ago I happened to see a brief notice that a French physiologist had observed that in animals poisoned with the Nitrate of uranium the urine was found to contain sugar.

Having several cases of saccharine diabetes on hand just at that time, I procured, with considerable trouble, a few grains of the salt, and triturating up to the third, gave it to my patients. The results were so satisfactory that I published them some time after. This led to the use of the remedy, and my own favorable reports were confirmed. Afterwards several English physicians, notably Drs. Blake and Drysdale, made provings and experiments on animals with the drug. These experiments were published in an admirable monograph by Dr. Blake. The symptoms, as arranged by him, are to be found in Volume I, “Materia Medica,” together with a brief enumeration of the curative results of its clinical use.

One unexpected result of Dr. Blake’s experiments was the failure to find sugar in the urine of any of the animals poisoned with Nitrate of uranium ! Nor was it found in the urine of the provers !

But it caused albuminuria, and in nearly every case (of poisoning) the kidneys were seriously affected. The urine was increased in quantity, and was voided more frequently.

Dr. Blake, in commenting on these experiments, says :

The results put glycosuria quite out of the court, as a condition of theoretically calling for this medicine. He adds, however : It ought to be useful in Bright’s diseases, and kindred renal maladies ; in contracted kidneys with gastric disturbances ; in irritable conditions of the renal plexus of the sympathetic. It seems singular that it should have cured cases of sugar diabetes, which it undoubtedly has done.

We cannot properly assert that a medicine will not cure certain diseases because the symptoms of those diseases are not found in its pathogenesis. We do not know that any drug has been fully proved. A more extended and exhaustive proving may evolve the very symptoms which we have looked in vain for.

The many cases of diabetes (saccharine and insipidus) cured by the Uranium, abundantly prove that it is useful in maladies of that nature.

But it has other curative powers. It ought to be useful in some cases of neuralgic headache. Dr. Blake says it will cure ulceration of the mucous membrane of the nose. It is indicated in certain kinds of dyspepsia and in cardialgia.

It caused ulceration of the stomach in three out of ten rabbits ; this seems to be a specific effect, for it appeared even when the drug was introduced under the skin of the leg. The ulceration was near the pylorus; even in non-ulcerated rabbits, the mucous membrane of the pylorus was found diseased. Dr. Blake suggests its probable usefulness in extensive cutaneous burns with ulceration of the duodenum.

When we consider how generally severe irritations of the duodenum will cause hepatic derangements, does it not occur to your mind that some of the irritations of the liver which may be caused by Uranium might result in glycosuria?

I believe Dr. Blake does not mention the appearance of the liver in animals killed with this drug.

Dr. Drysdale reports a case of ulceration of the stomach cured by the Uranium ; and another physician claims to have cured with it <c haematemesis from gastric ulcer.”

Dr. Cook, of Buffalo, reports curing a case of incontinence of urine in a young girl who had been troubled from infancy.

You will find in Vol. I a brief resume, of the cases of diabetes cured by the use of Uranium, and I have given the authorities as far as possible.

Do not use the drug lower than the 1st centesimal or 3d decimal. Make or obtain a careful analysis of the urine of your patient before prescribing it, and watch the changes in the urine daily. In this way only can you gain definite knowledge of its value in renal diseases.