A tincture is made of the “Calabar bean,” Physostigma venenosum, Balfour.
General Action
This ordeal person produces muscular tremors and tetaniform spasms of voluntary and involuntary muscles, as well as vasomotor spasms, followed by diminished reflex and paralysis. It also produces violent vomiting and purging. Death occurs usually from failure of the respiration. One of its most marked effects if the contraction of the pupil, which is supposed to be due top a paralysis of the sympathetic fibres. Its most marked ally is Muscarine.
Allies. Agaricus-mus., (Opium), Nux-vom., Tabac.
Generalities
Tremblings in front of body, with wavelike motions up and down in it, but in back of body paralysis, numbness and pain as when the nerve of a tooth is being killed; T. in paroxysms, first in legs, sometimes general, at the least thing that startles, once in hands, then soreness in pit of stomach; T. and shuddering, beginning in head, running down through pit of stomach, womb and whole body, the chief sensation in the head was the one in the middle of forehead, and in l. eye a pain with muscae volitantes. Nervous motions down through body and through arms at 3 P.M., with palpitation, next day with weakness at pit of stomach. Convulsions and twitchings ((<) back). Twitching of mouth, eyebrows and between brows at 8 P.M., with throbbing between brows and numbness from between eyes down through nose. Hinders voluntary motions as well as causes involuntary motions.
Lancinations in l. hypochondrium, l. thigh, l. index, at 9.50 A.M., then sharp pain in region of liver, passing towards sternum. Darting pains wandering from one place to another. Occasional sharp pains in different parts. Twinging pain in various parts. Strange indescribable sensation through system. Feeling as if he had taken cold; and soreness and stiffness, all over body. Discomfort in morning. Floating sensation on raising, my foot when walking, and when the foot touched the ground an unpleasant sensation that caused shuddering. Pulsation through whole body when sitting still, (<) chest, each beat of heart was distinctly perceptible in chest and temples. Soreness around waist at 6 P.M. Sudden access of vigor at 6.30 P.M., and the symptoms that followed came like a reaction. Restless; at 10 P.M., in bed. Constant desire to change from side to side. Disinclination to move. Aversion to the usual cold bath; to the usual bath, and discomfort after bathing.
Weakness; of r. side; in forepart of day ( which was sultry), with uncommon mental activity, in forenoon; at 8 A.M.,; 9 A.M.; (<) groins; at noon, (>) 10 P.M., with headache; at 1 P.M.; in afternoon, with fulness on forehead and tendency to ache, (<) r. side; at 4 P.M., with leucorrhoea; at 8 P.M.; 9 P.M.; 10 P.M.; after stool; on ascending stairs; on walking; when walking in the street, with stupidity and vertigo; and whole frame seemed loosened; with stupidity and feeling as after carousing; with torpor; with necessity to lie down and desire to have the doors shut; at 6.30 P.M., as if every nerve were unstrung, even to eyes, which felt as if all power to see were going from them; extending from head through back and legs, with thrilling in legs, slight exertion caused lameness and weakness in small of back; muscular with fibrillar twitchings; nervous, tremulous, at 7 P.M., (<) l. arm.
Faintness. Collapse after the vomiting. Shock of nervous system, amounting to collapse in the worst cases. Paralyzed feeling in while l. side. State like the effects of an overdose of Aconite. (Old ailments return with renewed force). Aggravation from motion; from mental activity and exercise; on l. side. Amelioration in open air; and from walking; of palm, by walking, but I had not the strength to walk far; from closing eyes and quiet; in warm room, from not moving; from odor of camphor; from Arnica (selected because the pain was caused by hard pressure on lower end of sternum).
Clinical Traumatic tetanus. Chorea. General emaciation. Numerous cases of tetanus in horses. Paralysis agitans. Congestion of the spinal cord, with tetanic spasms.
Mind
Foolish actions, said it made him crazy. Exhilarated in morning, gloomy towards noon. Nothing was right, too many things in the room, continually counting them. Irritable. Nervous, cannot endure pain, sensitive during the filling of a tooth. Anxiety about friends at home. Not the usual flow of spirits, and it was an extra to speak. Disinclined to speak to some of his friends. Dull and sluggish all day; at 8 A.M., confused feeling, stupid. Felt no alarm where some of my friends saw some reason for it. Uncommon activity. Exhaustion, cannot remember anything. Difficult to concentrate thought; D. top work.
Head
Drooping listlessly. Darting pain; in various parts, (<) motion. Aching; in morning, with epistaxis, l. side; in morning, (<) over l. eye, (<) afternoon and till 10 P.M., with warm sweat on head; at noon, could not put my mind on anything nor remember anything, a mental exhaustion; in afternoon, (<) towards evening, (>) 10 P.M., with a strange and confused feeling; in evening and next morning; at 8 P.M.; in brain on waking, (<) l. side; after drinking new milk; (<) motion, with confusion of head; (<) walking; (>) mental application, (<) walking in open air; preventing study; congestive, all the forenoon; tensive, and brain and scalp feel tight; burning at 7 P.M.; bruised, in brain all day, (<) heavy step or misstep; heavy, bruised, in brain all day till evening, (<) l. temple, with general fatigue and sensitiveness to cold or change of temperature.
Pressure encircling it with sleepiness. Constriction as from a bandage about it; C. as if a tight cap were pressed suture as from fulness in longitudinal sinus, and aching in temples. Fulness at times, almost to faintness. Heaviness at 8 A.M.; at 2 P.M., with pain in eyes and heat in head and face; (<) motion, with darting through temples; with Dullness and fulness; with confused, feverish feeling alternatively in forehead and vertex. Brain confused on waking from midday nap. Stupid feeling; at 7 P.M. Solid feeling; brain feels tired. Constant desire to move it from side to side. Sensation as if brain rolled about in skull. He felt as if he had drunk a glass of liquor, confusion of head, vertigo, legs weak, staggering, at night frequent waking, with terrible thoughts, fear that he was becoming crazy, that he might get up and do some mischief. Vertigo; at 3 A.M.; at 1 P.M. on moving, with faintness and muscae volitantes; at 4.30 P.M., with nausea; in evening, if people stepped in front of her in the doorway; at night; when reading; on getting up after dinner; when walking; on descending stairs, with dim vision and unsteady gait; with weakness and faintness; with wavering sensation in brain when walking, with feeling as if head fell forward, and stumbling on going up and down stairs; with the peculiar torpidity of Opium and Indian hemp.
Forehead. Darting pain, (<) motion, and in temples. Sharp pain in supraorbital region, running off towards nose. Pain; over r. eye; in morning on waking, by noon pain in whole cerebrum, fulness of bloodvessels of brain and contracted to eyelids, causing an effort to open or close them; in l. side at 10 A.M., with heat in abdomen and nausea, the pain in heavy at 11, pain over whole head from 4 till 10 P.M. with nausea and general sweat, headache next day with lame, bruised feeling in region of kidneys; at 2 P.M.; in evening; over r. eye all the evening; at 8 P.M., with chills and fever, next day at 10 A. M hot and dry skin, at times in afternoon extending to vertex; across top at 5 O’clock, (<) till going to bed and sleep; on waking, in sinciput and over l. eye, waking me at 3 A.M.; deep-seated, with desire to rub it; sudden, over r. eye at 2 P.M., with pulsation in occiput; as if something hard were tightly bound on it, all the forenoon, with dizziness when walking; weary, over r. eye; stupefying, (<) over l. eye. Burning pain from 9 A.M. till going to bed at night; at 1 P.M., and pain at 4 P.M. on eating, exercise or mental exertion. Heavy pain over eyes in morning on waking, (>) rising. H. pain before rising; in l. side on waking, afterwards extending over head, (<) l. side of forehead at 1 P.M., next day headache preventing study, (>) 10 P.M., third day H. pain in l. frontal eminence, extending deep into brain, preventing study; over eyes at 5 P.M.; over eyes at 8 P.M.; (<) motion; H. oppressive pain at 10 A.M., with inability to express my thoughts clearly. Constriction around F. and temples, changing to oppressive pain over l. orbit and extending to forehead and temples, (<) reading. Fulness, with tendency to ache and with fatigue, afterwards heavy aching, (<) r. side. Sensation of rush of blood in F. and temples.
Temples. Shooting from r. to second bicuspid. Darting pains, (<) motion. Pain; (>) supper; in T. and forehead at 11 A.M., in church, with intermittent tension in skin of forehead and nose, making it difficult to close eyes, in evening the sound of the organ caused headache, (<) forehead and temples, same headache on following days, sometimes (<) warm room, especially after being in open air, with such sleepiness that efforts to keep awake caused nausea; with pressure out ward in forehead; through T. as from rush of blood to head, at 4 P.M., with throbbing of arteries on side of neck; heavy, in r., becoming pulsative and occasionally darting and quivering. Throbbing in arteries and carotids. Numbness at 4 P.M., with crawling over head.
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.