Gila monster. Heloderma suspectum. *N.O.. Helodermide of the Lacertilia. Trituration of sugar of milk saturated with the venom. Solution of the venom in alcohol.
Clinical
Brain, base of, affected. Cerebrospinal meningitis. Coldness. Headache. Heart failure. Locomotor ataxy. Neuralgia. Numbness. Paralysis. Paralysis agitans.
Characteristics
The information we possess of the action of *Heloderma is contained in vol-v. to xi. of *Hom. *Recorder, including some remarkable and important provings by Dr. R. Boocock. The name given to this remedy by the *Recorder is *Heloderma horridum, but as there is no little confusion between two species, I prefer to name the remedy *Heloderma simply. The first notice of the remedy is in vol., v. p. 163, in letters from Dr. Charles D. Belden, who supplied Messrs. Boericke and Tafel with a living specimen and also poison obtained by himself. Dr. Belden calls his specimens *”H. horridum or *Suspectum.” Now Dr. Belden writes from Arizona, and the river Gila (pronounced “Hee-la “) from which the lizard takes its name “Gila Monster” is an Arizona river, and the Arizona lizard is *Heloderma suspectum. Heloderma horridum, the “Crust lizard,” which is also called “Gila monster,” is a Mexican lizard and is generally regarded as harmless. At any rate it is agreed that there is one lizard that is poisonous, and that lizard is a *Heloderma, and our remedy is the poison obtained therefrom. “An ugly, disagreeable-looking creature, the head long and blunt, eyes black and bead-like, tail half the length of the body, thick-set and club-like. The entire body cases in a thinly coated armor, marked curiously with yellow and black.” It is sluggish and slow of movement when kept in the dark, but may develop great activity when brought into the sunlight. It is most tenacious of life, the only vulnerable part seems to be at the junction of the head with the spine, a blow on which will kill it. Of the bite of the reptile Belden says: “This animal does not bite frequently, but when it does it is understood that the result is a benumbing paralysis, like that of *paralysis agitans, or to *locomotor ataxy. There is no tetanic phase.” The venom is alkaline in reaction. Numbers of cases of bites are on record. A dog bitten in the nose “uttered fearful howls, and when, after great difficulty, he was released, had symptoms like ‘blind staggers,’ began turning around in a circle, and died in twenty minutes.” A young miner bitten in the leg, through in robust health at the time, at once began to lose flesh, became melancholy, and died in a few months like one in rapid consumption. *Helod. has the reputation of being fatal to drinkers, and to affect the temperate less severely. This, says Belden, is borne out somewhat by the recovery of Mr. Vail, of Tucson, a man of temperate habits, after a bite, and the death, after lingering several months, of a man bitten whilst drunk. This lingering nature of the action of the poison is markedly different from the snake poisons, which generally kill quickly if at all. An Indian woman bitten in the leg, survived, but the leg shrivelled, and she became a semi-idiot, though she lived over thirty years after. The writer of an article quoted by the *Recorder from the New York *Sun relating her case, thus describes the effect: Where the person survives an hour or two after the bite, the agony is described as awful to witness. The poison goes through the human system with lightning rapidity, and causes unspeakable pain and excruciating agony from head to foot. Though paralysed, every muscle, bone, sinew, and nerve is keenly alive to intense pain. The sufferer’s head seems as if it would split open. Very few persons bitten can speak after the first fifteen minutes, but unconsciousness seldom comes until a few minutes before death. Mr. Vail says his suffering was intense, the pain proceeding from the wounded part to the head and back. Immediately after receiving the wound, which was on his index finger, both wrist and finger were tightly bandaged. Two hours later the wound was cleansed and dressed and the bandages reapplied. For three days those intense pains would shoot toward
the head and spine on loosening the bandages in the least degree. After three months the only perceptible result was a swollen tongue which seemed then unwilling to resume its proper size. The treatment he received was profuse sweating by administration of *Jaborandi. Experiments on animals seemed to show that death occurred rather from heart failure than from respiratory failure. This much was known when Dr. Robert Boocock, of *Flat bush, made his proving which has given the remedy a definite place in the homoeopathic materia medica. The first experience was with a solution of the 6x trituration, one drachm in four ounces of alcohol. Of this he took three or four drops. He was seized with an internal coldness from the heart as if being frozen to death internally and had no way of warming himself. “Coldness from within outward.” The coldness of this remedy is more intense than that of any other. “Arctic coldness,” the prover called it. The coldness was at times followed by sensations of heat and burning. Dr. Boocock’s observation of the cold sensations of *Helod. was confirmed by a young clerk in the employment of Messrs. Boericke and Tafel, who took six doses of *Helod. 6 out of bravado. The second night he awoke, and the impression that he was under the influence of *Helod. flashed on his mind. He felt a cold sensation creeping down his body and legs, and was in a *very cold clammy sweat. This lasted all the rest of the night and he could get no more sleep. It began to pass off by morning, and he felt no more of it. The constricting sensations of the serpent venoms were produced by *Helod., also the numbness and darting pains and the sensitiveness to external pressure. Many of the symptoms came on in the night waking the prover from sleep (like the ” worse from sleep” of *Laches.). The tremors, spongy feeling of feet on walking, pains in back and limbs, bear out Belden’s commendation of *Helod. in locomotor ataxy and paralysis agitans. Dr. Boocock gave great relief with the medicine in a case of the latter, and E. E. Case effected great improvement in a case of locomotor ataxy in an auburn-haired woman, 55. She had the classical symptoms of the complaint and “tingling, creeping sensations in legs as if from insects, was worse lying in bed at night, worse from exposure, from touch. Arms numb. Legs insensible to battery. Tongue dry and cracked. Swallowing difficult.” Under *Helod. 900, and later, 45m, after the appearance of an eruption, she recovered a fair degree of health and usefulness. C. E. Johnson reported to Dr. Boocock (*H.R., ix. 141) the relief of a woman who had many of the symptoms of the proving (and had been pronounced incurable), complaining especially of the intense coldness. She received *Helod. 200, and the coldness disappeared almost completely. Boocock cured a case of “blue hands,” remaining long after diphtheritic paralysis, and he restored two patients apparently moribund. In one case the breathing was slow, “tongue cold and slate-coloured, breath cold.” The other case was that of a woman, 65. In the act of dressing, strength suddenly left her, mouth fell open, tongue and breath cold, and she was apparently dying and felt so. There was intense pain at the back of the head.” *Helod. 200 was given, as in the other case, and she made a good recovery. The weakness Dr. Boocock experienced in the proving he compared to that of *Gelsemium, only *Gelsemium did not dry up the mouth and secretions as *Helod. did. The modalities noted were worse from cold with desire for warmth. Worse After sleep, at night. better From stretching.
Relations
*Compare: Lachesis, Crotal., etc., Camph. (coldness), Argentum nitricum, Alumina (locomotor ataxy), Antim tart. and Mercurius (paralysis agitans), Gelsemium, Conium, Hdrphb.
SYMPTOMS.
Mind
No inclination for exertion in any way. Unable to confine his mind to any object. Difficulty in remembering the spelling of simple words. In spite of very severe symptoms, not alarmed, passively indifferent. Depressed, feels very blue.
Head
Vertigo and weakness when moving quickly. Dizziness, with inclination to fall backward. Giddiness and cold pressure from within skull. Sensation of heat in head, heat on vertex. Headache over right eyebrow. Pressure in head and scalp, pressure in skull as if too full, mind clear all the same. Soreness and stiffness in occiput, extending down neck, sore spot in various parts of head. Intense pain over left eyebrow, through eye to base of brain and down back. Very violent headache over right temporal bone, as if a tumour forming and pressing within skull, whole right side affected, producing numbness down left side of body. Aching at base of brain. Sharp, digging pains. Benumbed feeling all over head. Burning feeling in brain, head hot and full as if not room enough in skull. Throbbing on top of head, head sore and bruised. Sensation of band around head. Cold band around head. Sensation as if scalp was drawn tight over skull. Bores head in pillow. Awakened suddenly with a jerking in head. Central part of frontal bone so queer as to awaken him.
