A tincture (or trituration) is made of the seeds of Strychnos Ignatia, Lindl.
General Effects
It contains a large amount of strychnia, and most of its toxic properties are due to that alkaloid, but the other elements contained in it determine marked peculiarities, especially extreme sensitiveness of the nerves, symptoms of hysteria, neuralgia and a peculiar form of fever.
Allies.-Nux-vom., Chamomilla, Silicea, Lachesis, Gelsemium, Zincum met., Pulsatilla Lycopod., Staphysagria
Generalities
Trembling; with twitching and spasms. Twitching in various parts of muscles, here and there after lying down. Convulsions; so that he could not stand, (<) jaws, causing risus sardonicus, without other symptoms. Frequent change of position at night, lies now here, now there. Constant motion of body, looks as if in a doze, it is irksome to look or to open mouth to talk, respiration light and slow.
Tearing in r. arm and on r. side of head from cold air. Deeply sticking, burning pain in various parts. Pains as if beaten in joints of neck, back and shoulders at night when lying on either side, (>) lying on back. Tingling pain, (<) head. Pain here and there in spots on touch, as, for example, on ribs. Pains renewed after dinner, in evening after lying down, and in morning after waking. Crawling in all bones. Weight, congestion and orgasm of blood in whole body in morning on waking, with melancholy.
Weariness in morning on waking; in afternoon, overpowering sleep at 2 P.M., unrefreshed by two hours’ sleep; in evening; on walking, it seems as if his breath would fail, is qualmish at pit of stomach, and then coughs; from slight exertion; after dinner, (<) 2 to 4 P.M., with sleepiness (after stool), with yawning; as from weakness about pit of stomach, with nausea and necessity to lie down; so that he had no desire to dress himself and go out, has no pleasure in anything, but prefers to lie. Unwillingness to move, shirking of work. Stiffness of knee, ankle, thigh and sacrum in morning on rising; S. of knees and loins, motion causes pain. Faintness. Insensibility. Aggravation from coffee (Chamomilla, Nux-v.) and smoking tobacco (Nux-v., Pulsatilla, Staphysagria).
Clinical The general characteristic conditions of the Ignatia patient are extremely important, since they are almost always unexpected in character, for example, if the patient has fever he is not thirsty and wants to be covered, if he is cold he wants to be uncovered, the headache in the forehead is relieved by stooping, the irritation to cough increases with coughing; this “contrariness” is a general characteristic of Ignatia, both mentally and physically. Extreme sensitiveness to pain (Chamomilla). General tendency to faintness and debility, with nervous prostration and excitability. Numerous phases of hysteria and of neuralgias in various parts of the body, spasms in children from teething or from worms, or from fright. Chorea especially in children who have been frightened. Epilepsy originally caused by fright. Hysterical paralysis. In all the phases of hysteria there is a changeable mood, often flushing of one or the other cheek (Chamomilla), tendency to scream, or to tear, or to bite, or to cry.
Mind
Fancies that he cannot proceed, that he cannot walk; F. at night, which fatigue the mind. Weeping. Howls, cries and is beside herself on account of trifles; cries aloud if one hesitates to do what she wishes, remonstrates with her or tries to persuade her, or if others wish something different from what she wishes. Cries aloud if improper things are refused. Walks about perplexed and stupid. Unreasonable complaints about noise. Sensitiveness, delicate conscientiousness. Inconstant, impatient, irresolute, quarrelsome, in attacks. Changeable mood, alternations of joking, merry mood, with lachrymose mood. Anger at slight blame or contradiction, and this makes him angry with himself; A. at slight contradiction. Ill humour; from headache; towards evening, and discontented, obstinate; and absorbed in himself. Thinks of vexatious things contrary to his will.
Anxiety; as if he had committed a crime; preventing talking; so that he cannot express himself clearly. Tendency to be frightened (Stramonium). Dread of trifles, (<) things coming near him. Four of thieves on waking after midnight; F. that she will have an ulcer in her stomach. No self-confidence. Sad towards evening; S., earnest, cannot be induced to talk or be cheerful, with flat, watery taste to food and little appetite. Indifference to every- thing. Boldness. Busy, restless; after exerting brain, (<) morning, unable to do anything as rapidly as he wishes, whereupon anxious behaviour, mistakes in writing and talking and awkward actions; hurrying, with Dullness of sense and rush of blood to face. Merry, jesting. Thoughts difficult to fix; from affection of head. Fixed idea, which he pursues in his thoughts or talks about with earnestness and exhaustiveness; fixed ideas in evening before and after lying down, as, for example, of music. Memory weak.
Clinical Melancholia, the result of grief, sits with a vacant stare. Many mental symptoms following depressing emotions, especially grief, such as sighing, despondency, hysterical laughing or crying.
Head
Inclined forward. Laid upon table. Stitches through head. Tearing after midnight when lying on side, (>) lying on back. Aching; in morning, (<) eating (Nux-v.); in morning, (>) rising; in afternoon and evening, with heaviness; at 2 P.M., (<) above eyes; with every beat of arteries; (<) stooping; (<) talking; (<) reading and paying strict attention to a speaker; extending into l. eye, when eyes burn and water, lids swollen. Meibomian glands secrete much mucus; extending below orbits and into cheeks; (<) in r. side of forehead, extending into r. eye, sensation as if ball would be pressed out, burning in eyes, lachrymation and much mucus; external, head sore to touch. Jerking pain on ascending; J. pain (<) opening eyes. Throbbing pain. Paroxysmal pain as from pressure of something hard on surface of brain, this and all other headaches (>) coffee (Chamomilla). Aching after midday nap, as if there were too much brain or blood in head, (<) reading and writing. Pain as if head would burst from talking or speaking loud, (>) sitting still, reading and writing. Pain as if bruised; in brain in morning on waking, changing on rising to pain as if a nerve of a tooth were crushed, then changing to a similar pain in sacrum, the headache always renewed on thinking. Sudden pressure now in one place, now in another in evening, and at night, next morning he was unrefreshed, the P. increased to real pain, which lasted till 3 P.M.
Confusion; in morning on waking, with discomfort of head; in morning on waking, lasting till after dinner, continued next day, changed to pain in forehead and eyes, so that movement of lids and eyeballs was painful, pain (<) ascending steps or any violent exertion; (<) thinking and speaking, with pain in r. side, (<) occiput; then pain in vertex, then extending into l. eye and whole head; as before coryza; like intoxication, at times becoming a pain in forehead, (<) r. half, so that thought was difficult. Heaviness; in morning on waking; as if filled with blood, with tearing in occiput, (>) lying on back, especially by bending head forward, (<) sitting erect. Seems too full of blood, nose internally sensitive to air, as before nosebleed. Hollow feeling. Intoxication; from beer; as from brandy, with burning of eyes. Vertigo; all day till 10 P.M., with sticking in head; with staggering; changing to pain in r. half of occiput.
Forehead.-Sticking, (<) above brows; S., with pain in r. side of occiput; extending outward, and in temples. Tearing in F. and behind l. ear, (>) lying on back, (<) raising head, with hot, red cheeks and hot hands. Pain; from towards noon till 2.30 P.M., with pressure in eyes; till sleep in evening, and around orbits; (<) sunlight; beneath r. bone; above r. brow; in r. half, involving r. eye, which was sensitive to light, (<) in eye by moving it, (>) towards evening; extending to different places in head; in r. half, afterwards extending to l. side; in r. side, extending to l., then over whole head; extending to different places in head, (<) evening, (>) night’s sleep; extending downward on sides; from 2 P.M. till evening, extending at times more to r., at times more towards l. eyeball, (<) motion of body; in sinciput, extending into nasal cavities, and every ten minutes sensation as before violent coryza, when after ten minutes the nose was better the sensation extended to other parts of head, and so alternated; P. above root of nose, compelling him to bend head forward, then nausea; drawing P. above r. orbit at root of nose, renewed by stooping low; cramplike P. above root of nose, in region of inner canthus. Stupefying intermittent pressure beneath l. eminence. Digging beneath r. eminence and on r. side of frontal bone. Dullness in sinciput in forenoon, amounting at times to real pain. Throbbing above r. brow.
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.