Opium


Opium homeopathy medicine – drug proving symptoms from Encyclopedia of Pure Materia Medica by TF Allen, published in 1874. It has contributions from R Hughes, C Hering, C Dunham, and A Lippe….


   Common names: Opium, Mohnsaft.

Introduction

Papaver somniferum.

Natural order: Papaveraceae.

Preparation: Tincture of the gummy exudation from the unripe capsules.

Mind

Emotional. Delirium. Delirium. Sometimes delirium. Delirium and rage. Raging delirium, with distortion of the mouth. (* Caused by applying Opium to the temples.-HAHNEMANN. *) Violent delirium, with red face, glistening eyes, and great physical activity.

Furious delirium (fourth day). He rolls about the floor in delirium, burning with anger, threatens, does not recognize his friends, with swollen head and face, reddish-blue swollen lips, with protruding, inflamed eyes. While delirious he talked about all sorts of things with open eyes, and afterwards remembered them only as in a dream. Talked of his business, cast up columns of figures, and started up at any noise (after three hours); much better (after six hours). Her laudanum was left off for three days, and, in addition to the other symptoms, she appeared to see the most frightful animals and other objects. Delirium lasted twenty-four hours. His joyfulness and mental bliss increased until he became irrational and delirious. (* From large doses.- HAHNEMANN. *) Evidently delirious, but, by persevering in our endeavors, he became capable of giving very pertinent answers, though the uttered the, with much labor and difficulty (after half an hour). Made delirious attempts to resist any treatment, but soon relapsed into unconsciousness. Delirium with the spasms.

He said many disconnected things, and pointed with his fingers to masked people who seemed to approach him. At one time he broke into loud laughter; at another he started up in affright on account of fancied swordsmen, who threatened to stab him; became angry if any one argued with and thought him delirious; however, he blamed himself while in delirium for his folly. (* From Opium given for dysentery-like diarrhoea.-HAHNEMANN. Render “fechtern” swordsmen.-HUGHES. *) She was tormented while wake with an apparent vision of ghosts, spectres, and chimeras, that constantly collected about her bed and distressed her very much, while she talked deliriously. (* This always happened whenever Opium was taken as a palliative for her ailments-palpitation, vomiting, hiccough, cardialgia, colic, trembling, or convulsive movements.-HAHNEMANN. Revised by Hughes. *) The moment of ecstasy usually commences in about three- quarters of an hour; he then becomes and altered being the expression of countenance is horribly wild; he exhibits his delight in a thousand different ways-he gesticulates, he talks. Some of them, compose, excellent verses, and address the bystanders in excellent language; at last they return to their homes, each processing some imaginary bliss which “the dull reality of life” could never give. Those who encounter the, divert themselves at their expense, and made them chatter nonsense; they are, however, too happy to pay attention to anything but their own reveries. Even the loud laugh and the hootings which accompany them home produce no effect; they are wrapped in an elysium, from which they are only to be awakened by the miserable reaction which must, sooner or later, recall them to existence. An agreeable reverie, at the end of three-quarters of an hour, or an hour at most, never fails to animate these automatons, causing them to throw themselves into a thousand different postures, but always merry. This is the moment when the scene becomes most interesting; all the actors are happy, and each retires home in a total state of irrationality, but likewise in the entire and full enjoyment of happiness not to be procured by reason. Disregarding the ridicule of those they meet, who divert themselves by making them talk absurdly, each imagines and looks and feels himself possessed of whatever he wishes. The reality of enjoyment often gives less satisfaction. Hot, anxious, and intoxicated; she talked of all sorts of things; took her words back at one time; started up in fright; at another angrily seized the hands of those about her. (* Effects of Opium administered for indescribable pains, which threatened to end in convulsions.-HAHNEMANN. *) Intoxication (ninth day). Opium-eaters are always indolent and intoxicated. Intoxication and vertigo after sleep. A kind of intoxication that prevents his keeping upon his legs. Feeling of intoxication waking from a nap (eighth day). Intoxicated appearance (after two hours). Appearance of most profound intoxication (after half an hour). When taken in larger doses than those which cause liveliness it causes intoxication. A half intoxicated and excited condition, so that I came near being run over by a carriage, and at another time of running into a horse, though I had seen it coming from some distance (second day). Dizzy intoxication; he reels to and fro.

Great excitation. Reeling to and fro, with dull, stupid expression of countenance (after two hours). Considerable state of excitement (after two hours and a half). It appeared to his attendants that an excited state of mind remained for some days afterwards. Confusion of mind. Mind in a state of great confusion; at one moment she was sensible of her crime, called fro assistance; at another she resisted the means used to save her (after one hour). Conscious of being possessed of two persons of another self besides his real self, the Opium man dose things which the real self considers wrong, and it is not always sure which will conquer the other. Frightful imagery. The patient was susceptible of the excitant rather than the soporific quality of the drug, and his emotional nature quickly responded to it in manifestations of passional excitement, which threatened alternately self-destruction and injury to others. I made my way home as fast as possible, dreading at every step that I should commit some extravagance. He acts absurdly. The patients has vision. In walking I was hardly sensible that my feet touched the ground; it seemed as if I slid along the ground; impelled by some invisible agent, and that my blood was composed of some ethereal fluid which rendered my body lighter than air. The most extraordinary visions of delight filled my brain all night. He seems to be flying or floating in the air, and to whirl with everything about him. Sensation as if he had been taken to heaven; vivid, lovely fantasies float before his vision like a waking dream, which the slumber drives away. Lovely fantasies, far superior to any known happiness in one who had previously been tortured by pains. Much confused for a time with involuntary turns of laughter. He describes his sensations “as the faint, exquisite music of a dream,” but he had only pleasurable feelings when his eyes were open; if they were closed they vanished. It appeared to him as if external objects only were acted on by the imagination, and magnified into images of pleasure. In walking he was hardly sensible of his feet touching the ground; it seemed as if he slid along the street implied by some invisible agent, and that his blood was composed of some ethereal fluid which rendered his body lighter than air. I had no longer the same pleasure when I closed my eyes which I had when they were open; it appeared to me as if it was only external objects which were acted on by the imagination and magnified into images of pleasure; in short it was ” the faint, exquisite music of a dream” in a waking moment. Not sleepy, but so quiet that he seemed in heaven. (* From a moderate dose taken on account of intolerable pains from stone.-HAHNEMANN. *) Constant quiet contentment of mind, as if in heaven. Without pain he passed the whole night in the most extreme contentment of mind. (* He had taken a grain the evening before on account of a distressing pain.- HAHNEMANN. *) Not seldom there is an unusual condition of self-satisfaction and an unusual quiet of mind. The most agreeable sensation that allows her to think, with mental rest and forgetfulness of all trouble. He was inoffensive and even amiable in his deportment, and employed himself constantly in the daytime in drawing what he called maps of the different apartments in heaven, which he said, he visited every night. The mental activity of Opium is more like a dream without sleep. Mental quiet. Under the influence of emotions, strong sensations, and any particularly strong attention and exertion of the mind, the effects appear later than usual, are less in degree, and of shorter duration. If it so happened that the cause which disturbed my mind was removed, then all the effect would almost instantly made their appearance and take their usual course. Calm, pale, deathly (after two hours). Uttered three or four distinct but feeble wails or cries, the first sounds since admission into hospital (third day). A faint cry or whine would escape the child when extreme measures were employed to arouse it. Opium-eaters are inconstant; they often promise what they soon refuse to abide by (every one avoids the, and wishes to have nothing to do with them). Moods. While smoking they are loquacious at first, and the conversation highly animated; but as the opium takes effects the conversation droops, and they frequently burst out into loud laughter from the most trifling causes, or without any apparent cause at all, unless it be from the train of thought passing through their excited imaginations.

TF Allen
Dr. Timothy Field Allen, M.D. ( 1837 - 1902)

Born in 1837in Westminster, Vermont. . He was an orthodox doctor who converted to homeopathy
Dr. Allen compiled the Encyclopedia of Pure Materia Medica over the course of 10 years.
In 1881 Allen published A Critical Revision of the Encyclopedia of Pure Materia Medica.