The Acids

By Joy Lucas RSHom.

Fluoricum acidum - hydrofluoric acid, made by distilling calcium fluoride with sulphuric acid.
Gallicum acidum - derivative of tannic acid obtained from oak apples.
Lactic acidum - milk acid.
Muriaticum acidum - hydrochloric acid.
Nitric acidum - nitric acid.
Oxalic acidum - hydrogen oxalate.
Phosphoric acidum - phosphoric acid.
Picricum acidum - tri-nitro carbolic acid.
Sulphuricum acidum - sulphuric acid.

What dominates ALL the acids is WEAKNESS.

And each acid has its own particular area of weakness:

Fluoric = sexual; skin; bones; glands.
Gallic = lungs; blood;
Lactic = joints; nerves; digestion, mind.
Muriaticum = blood; digestion; skin; mucous membranes; muscles.
Nitric = mind; blood; digestion; skin; bones.
Oxalic = lungs; muscles; bones; nerves.
Phosphoric = mind; sexual; nerves; bones.
Picricum = sexual; nerves; mind.
Sulphuricum = mind; digestive; lungs; blood.

Where the weakness, exhaustion, passivity and apathy prevail you will also find the opposite - activity, hurriedness, aggression from whence the diseased state might have begun or encountered en route.

So there is also a degree of feeling separated or isolated, an attempt to bring together the polar opposites, which in turn exhausts even more.
A failed state exists but many of the acids are very reactive in their emotional outlook.

One could make the analogy that in liquid form the acids appear subdued but when mixed with another liquid, say water, the result is often explosive, bubbling up, vicious, burning, spitting, corrosive.

ESSENCE - KEYNOTES - MIASMATIC INFLUENCE - COMPARATIVE REMEDIES.

FLUORIC ACID - syphilitic in nature this remedy is all to do with relationships and breaking them.
The family is especially involved.
They have total aversion to the family but behave well with strangers.
Everything in their life is incompatible and there is a hunger to break away.
There is a physical hunger for food as well, and a sexual hunger (the male is always ogling the opposite? sex).
This remedy particularly highlights the hurriedness, always to be on the move and they have great energy to do this, fuelled by materialistic desires and also by their fears and anxieties (running away from them?).
They have tremendous fear of suffering themselves but also are extremely sensitive to the sufferings of others.
This fear won't show itself straight away as they might present as arrogant, fearless and self satisfied and come with some more minor complaint.

Hurried and walks fast.
Aversion to family - ok with strangers.
Great fear of suffering, and anxious about their own health Very hot.
Desires stimulants - alcohol, spicy food, sex - overall a big appetite for all these.
Warm drinks = diarrhea.
Love cold bathing.
Distorted nails.
Teeth decay.
Hair loss Constipation (gets very anxious about this).
Copious and painful menses and gets very anxious if they are delayed - more hurriedness (although this comes across as a male remedy don't discount female).
Varicose veins.
Caries of bones.
Cracks everywhere - mouth, tongue, skin, nipples, even cracks in their relationships which is significantly related to separation and isolation.

You might think of Sepia or Nux Vom, Silicea especially for some of the physical sx and it is a complementary remedy.

Related to Calc sulph; Puls; Sul-ac;

GALLICUM ACID - more of a mixed miasmatic influence often being used to treat such things as piles, urticaria, hay fever, copious menses, halting bleeding, night sweats.

Again there is the weakness coupled with extreme restlessness, rudeness, cursing, swearing - which is a kind of spitting of the lively acid mixture.
Jealousy is the main motivating emotion, and where there is jealousy the throat is nearly always involved.
Great dryness of mouth and throat, phlegm in throat, decayed teeth, strange taste in mouth (this acid is an astringent and perhaps that is the reason why).
Fear is also a strong emotion - very frightened to be on their own, they need to be looked after and know that someone is watching them.
Purulent expectoration from lungs.
Lung affections > evening and lying down.
There are contractive pains in the rectum making expulsion of stool difficult.

The hemorrhagic tendencies would make you think of Phosphorous to compare and I would include Lachesis and maybe some of the other snakes also regarding the pronounced emotional symptoms.

LACTIC ACID - tubercular in its influence and not surprisingly a more female remedy often being used for morning sickness and breast problems.
Prominent diabetes remedy.

Again that mixture of indolence, easily discouraged, great weakness of memory - thinking is difficult, easily confused and when they can think clearly there are terrible tormenting thoughts, but they can be contemptuous, sarcastic, restless and nervous.
Acids really hurt - they smell bad and they burn - so you will always encounter this 'nasty' side of them.
The smell with this acid is SOUR.
Lactic acid can get so confused you find the rubric 'believes all she says is a lie' - it isn't a purposeful lie, i.e.
malicious, but just because their mind is in a mess.
They don't like external stimuli such as noise and smells - it confuses them even more

We are all familiar with joint and muscle pain due to a lack of lactic acid - lots of pain swelling and stiffness < motion.

Constant nausea and sourness of stomach especially during pregnancy or diabetes > eructations.
Mouth dry, hot and sore.
Varying appetite but always very thirsty.
Burnings in stomach from gas and eructations.
Lots of mucous and always hawking.
Very sweaty feet - might present with this along with morning sickness.

Bryonia comes to mind with the joint and muscle pains (in fact Bry antidotes).
Worth comparing with lots of other morning sickness type remedies.

MURIATIC ACID - again mixed miasm with a more psoric/syphilitic tendency because they are so anxious and fearful.
Used to be called the "Spirit of Salt" because it is made from salt and sulphuric acid.
It is a powerful disinfectant so expect BURNING anywhere.

Burning, bleeding, cracking, ulcerations, all accompanied with dryness - there is an obvious low state of health here that is slow and progressive.
It has some strange sensations - mainly physical - (the weakness of this acid is mainly physical) - they always slide down to the end of the bed - as if hair stands up on end, as if brain loose, as if mouth glued with mucous.

Low fevers and great prostration but also very restless (again this mis-matching of energies).
The burning heat occurs during the fevers but they are averse to uncovering.
They will probably tell you that they don't like to be a burden, they like the idea of suffering in silence, but if you get to talk to a friend or family member they will say the opposite (these opposites occur all the time) - they will be described as moaners, irritable and always going on about their sufferings.
You can picture the scenario of an elderly mother who comes to be treated and brings her daughter to help - they will disagree about everything because they see it all so differently.

There are delusions about time with this remedy so it might be thought of for elderly people always thinking of the past and mixing it with the present.

Urinates and stools at the same time, cannot help it, possibly due to prolapse of rectum.

Usually Baptisia and Bryonia are compared but the Natrums will come to mind with the cracking and dryness and somewhat closed mind.

NITRIC ACID - mainly syphilitic in influence (Sankaran says Cancer miasm because there is a sense of death and danger about this remedy), this is one of the better known acid remedies.
We still have the same exhaustion and weakness involved, much of it on the emotional level and if we continue with the fizzing and bubbling of the acid mix we get the sense of the need for expansion and space which this remedy needs - they need enjoyment, love, appreciation and will literally exhaust all avenues to get this.
If they don't get this fulfillment it is then that we get the well known picture of Nitric acid emerging.
They become resentful, tense, suspicious, unforgiving but don't want to give up until exhausted.
Depending on the scale of pathology in which they present you will either get a more relaxed person or an extremely tense and spiteful one.

There is great fear about death and danger, they feel it will be in there lives at any time, even expecting it.
Great anxiety about their health which leads to the contrasting 'sympathetic to the suffering of others'.

Very chilly, lots of cracks and ulcers like most of the acids, warts, likes to eat fatty things (to balance the acidity?), and they crave strange substances such as earth.
Discharges are acrid and offensive.

The acrid remedies are worth comparing such as Merc. or Kreos. Sometimes easy to confuse with Nat Mur.

Nitric acid and the acids in general:

In Nitric acid (as with all the acids) we have the theme of separation and the need to re-create a fusion of the separate ends - to complete the circle.
This is a potential fulfillment which is somehow being thwarted.

Irresolution. There is constant chaos, processing, thinking, organizing, cleaning -- a form of irresolution which you get with all the acids - never completing, never getting the ends of the separated circle to join up, but going round and round and round, forever "twirling." I have likened this irresolution to the fizzing and bubbling that many acids can produce (especially when added to water) - forever shifting -bubbles making room for even more bubbles (bubbles = circles).
This is all about expansion.
The person is living a life which does not allow them to expand and be fulfilled.

Abusive behavior. When Nitric acid is scorned in any way (when a separation is enforced) they burn, hurt, explode, can become really nasty.
But if they are cherished and loved they can have enormous sympathy for others who are suffering.
But if constricted and not allowed to enjoy life and expand we then have the typical and well known remedy picture of Nitric Acid.

OXALIC ACID- gastro-enteritis and motor paralysis sum up this acid.
Violent reactions which leave one totally exhausted.
Excruciating burning and neuralgic pains.
Think of fruits such as rhubarb and strawberries and many of the sour fruits which have oxalic acid in them - people with rheumatics often cannot eat these foods as it aggravates the conditions.
Limbs are weak, trembling and numb.
The mind is much more actively able than the body.
Easily excited and appear very cheerful (we might say over the top, too reactive, inappropriately so), even bordering on insanity depending on the scale of pathology.
As the body closes down the mind over compensates and becomes unusually lively - representing the concurrent theme of being separated - the mind and body won't operate on the same level.

Think of the link with food and agg.
and you can make a connection with Arsenicum for comparison.

PHOSPHORIC ACID - of mixed syco-syphilitic influence, this is another well known acid which affects the emotions, nerves, sexual energies and bones.
The exhaustion finds itself first in the emotional level then progresses to the physical.
Apathy is what you witness first.
They will have been through so much, so many adverse circumstances that they can no longer apply themselves.

Ailments from...........: can be shock, grief, unhappy love, bad news, injuries, loss of fluids etc, but whatever it is it is likely to have ravaged the system and they will have suffered in silence.
Sometimes they are so weak they can't talk you properly although the phosphoric element of wanting to communicate will make they try.
Often they go into a kind of stasis.
They settle for how bad things are as this then requires no effort to make better - they don't go backwards or forwards.
They fear the failure AND the effort.

A great many symptoms follow through the Phosphoric influence - bone pains, hemorrhages, profuse lienteric stools, lots of distention, short sleep >>>, intolerance of noise, hair falls out (common with all the acids) sees colors, and in keeping with the themes of the bubbling acid mix they love juicy and fizzy drinks.
They crave the refreshing quality of them.
There is also sexual weakness, weak memory, the mind becomes hazy and they cannot complete anything.

With the emotional etiology of this remedy it is worth comparing Ignatia, Nat Mur and Sepia.

PICRIC ACID - again a mixed miasmatic influence and very similar to Phos-Ac but instead of starting on the emotional plane and going to the physical, this acid begins in the mental sphere, then goes to the emotions and lastly to the physical plane.

Exertion of the mind is intolerable to them.
It is still a struggle with adverse conditions leading to collapse but the etiology is different.
Intellectual achievement (or the lack of it) will be the beginning, perhaps a disappointment in this area - a failure to succeed? Sometimes this is because intellectually they have their "heads in the clouds." A common saying but we can match this with delusions such as "as if arms reach the clouds" or "as if tongue seems to reach the clouds" or "as if forehead extends to the clouds."

Yet again extended beyond their limit = collapse and then the complete reverse of intellectualism resides = can't concentrate, unable to think, complete aversion to mental work.
Then, when it goes to the emotions, they cannot keep relationships going, they become sexually weak and then finally the physical pathology is located in the back, kidneys, there is anemia, burning pains, even paralysis.

With this is mind, compare with Gels; and Phos.

SULPHURIC ACID - this is psoric-sycotic and one of the most hottest and hurried remedies in the Materia Medica.
So the resulting weakness and exhaustion is easily imagined.

Anxiety motivates the rushing (which identifies the psoric influence).
The anxiety is like the constant fizzing and bubbling of the acid mix - hot burning acid.
Anxiety to complete the work, eating, walking, writing.
Remember the themes of separation in the acids - Sulphuric acid is so anxious and hurried to complete - to make the ends of the circle come together - this is the motivation.
But of course the circle is never ending, never completed, so they end up chasing their tails.

They will tell you how serious and industrious they are, or you will certainly feel that about them, but they are so restless they never finish anything (this is Sulphur and Irresolution).

You still have the sour, acrid and burning discharges, as with many of the acids.
The digestion and blood vessels are effected (they can't keep up!).
They crave stimulants, there is easy hemorrhages anywhere - eyes, nose, copious menses.
Pains increase gradually and end abruptly.
Even though hot they are actually > warmth and hot drinks.
The hair falls out, there is colic and black stools and hemorrhoids (also common to the acids).
Surprisingly they can be quite taciturn and really take their time when answering - if not they become completely incoherent.

Sulphur, Nux Vom and Lachesis would be worth comparing.