A tincture is made of the fresh root of Phytolacca decandra, L.
General Action
It produces sore throat, even diphtheritic; inflammation of the kidneys, with numerous symptoms of general lithaemia, pains in tendinous parts (periosteum and tendons), heart symptoms, etc. Its action on the mammary glands is pronounced and important.
Allies. Petrol., Mercurius, Rhus-t., Colchicum, Wyeth., Lycopodium
Generalities
Increased secretion of tears, saliva, bile, urine and menses. Convulsions. Opisthotonos, general rigidity, hands clenched, feet extended and toes flexed, eyes bleared and dancing, pupils contracted, lower lids drawn down, teeth clenched, lips everted and firm, pulse 85 and soft, respiration difficult, mucous rales, later general rigidity with convulsions of face and neck (chin close to sternum), then partial relaxation, then return of symptoms, afterwards twitching of muscles, (<)lower limbs.
Pains are sometimes followed by itching and burning. Pains transitory; P. in joints, and bones of face and head, preventing sleep and proceeding from the “nodes,” (<)frontal bone, and resembling those of periostitis; P. always came with its full force at once and so continued till it ceased, then drowsiness and stupor or even sleep; all neuralgic, (<) motion and pressure, they are pressing and shooting, sometimes sore, drawing and aching; shooting inward and upward. General soreness at 7 A.M.; S. in muscles (Rhus-t.); of throat, lungs and stomach; with stiffness (Petroleum, Rhus). Throbbing through whole system.
Weakness; in afternoon and evening; at night, with the headache; on rising and walking, with intoxicated feeling; and could speak only in a whisper; with indisposition to move; with trembling on motion; with discomfort; with the vomiting and purging; as between chills and fever of ague. Faintness.
Aggravation general at night and in wet weather; in morning, of symptoms in stomach, throat and mouth; at 11 A.M., of all symptoms except pains in bowels, most symptoms begin to subside at 10 P.M.; on motion and in open air, except headache, which was (>) open air; in r. side of head and neck, r. limbs, r. side of chest; on r. side, in several instances symptoms first on l. side and either pass over to r. or the next symptom was on r. side. Amelioration when eating. especially of throat symptoms (Ignatia); of pain in open air; after breakfast, of many symptoms, especially about head and throat, while heat and many many abdominal symptoms are (<) afternoon; when lying, of all symptoms except scraping and excoriation of throat and expectoration of tenacious saliva.
Clinical Subacute rheumatism. Convulsions (uraemic).
Mind
Cheerfulness increased. Loss of personal delicacy, disregard of surrounding objects and no disposition to adjust their persons under any circumstances. Indifference to life in morning on waking, with disgust for the business of the day. Gloomy. Irritable. Dread of movement. Desire to bathe in cold water, could hardly keep him dashing water over himself. Half stupor all the time and sleep as soon as the paroxysm of cramping had passed.
Head
Thrown backward. Aching; all day; after breakfast, through the forenoon, (<) walking or riding; sometimes in whole head, sometimes in temples, with vertigo, sometimes in occiput; from walking, with nausea; (<) looking down and stooping; (<) after dinner, especially in forehead; with nausea; moving about, generally in side at a time, (<) r. side; as if it would burst, at 3 P.M. Soreness internally; sore pain over H. as if sick-headache were approaching, (<) r. side and in damp weather. Dullness; with disturbed feeling in stomach. Heaviness; with burnt feeling in back of tongue; at 11 A.M., extending through shoulders and chest, later in the day through legs, with vertigo. Vertigo; with dim vision; with nausea; with heavy headache and indisposition to mental exertion.
Forehead. Aching; over eyes; in tuberosities; in r. side, in region of time and mirthfulness; at 7 A, m., and in temples; in F. and temples at night, with lassitude; after dinner, (<) glabella; above one brow, with nausea; with nausea, cool sweat on forehead and weakness, the nausea and headache (>) supper, but returned; with acute hearing; with gaping; extending backward from F.; heavy, after dinner. Painful pressure on F. and upper part of eyes. Constriction Fulness, with constant gaping. Heaviness; and Dullness. Drawing above root of nose.
Temples. Shooting in r. pain; in r. Pain; in l., then burning in skin, in l. region of time; with pressure outward; through T. when leucorrhoea began; drawing, in r. Pressure, with constriction in praecordia, as before seasickness. Heaviness.
Vertex. Pain, with dryness; P. beginning at 5 P.M., when riding, (<) motion, which caused vertigo, P. (>) night by sleep; P. on stepping from a high step to the ground, with bruised sensation in brain. Heaviness.
Throbbing pain in r. side. Pain in occiput; in l. region of combativeness; bruised.
Clinical Headache, syphilitic. Dull frontal pain, with sensation of soreness in the brain or a feeling as if the brain were bruised on stepping down. Headache (wet weather.
Eyes
Sunken; and surrounded by livid circles. Inflammation and lachrymation. Shooting from l. to vertex; at intervals. Sandy feeling. Pain; and subjective soreness. Smarting; of l. Sensation as from horse-radish. Burning in l., with smarting and lachrymation. Twitching sensation about E. aggravation in l.; A in eyes and lids in morning, but vision is worse in evening. Lachrymation,(>) open air; L., with running of water from nose. Pupils dilated.
Smarting in internal canthus in evening, (<) l., (<) gaslight. Itching of internal canthus, with pain in ball on slightest pressure. Lids agglutinated at night; A. in morning, and oedematous; reddish-blue swelling, (<) l., (<) morning, cannot close eyes without pain in forenoon, (>) afternoon; feel granulated, and edges have a scalded feeling as if raw, the same next day, with sandy sensation in lids; feeling as if sand were under l., causing lachrymation from the eye; soreness on closing; feeling as if coals of fire were on them. Pain along lower half of r. orbit. Pressure around eyes in afternoon as if eyes were too large. Photophobia; in morning. Long-sighted. Vision dim. Diplopia on suddenly raising eyes to look at a higher object; D., with twitching; not only two but four and five reduplications, always in the same horizontal plane, (<) the next evening.
Clinical Blepharitis, with styes and tumors, the lids thickened, indurated, dark red and tender; ulcerated, with formation of crusts (similar of Graphites). Granular lids. Suppurative choroiditis, with inflamed hard swelling of the lids, hypopyon. Threatening suppuration of the cornea.
Ears
Shooting in r. Pain, (<) r. Irritation in one Eustachian tube. Obstruction i l. Eustachian tube, with rushing sound in l. ear, and feeling as if hearing were dull, but it is sensitive to the most minute sounds. Hearing increased, (<) r. ear.
Clinical Neuralgia of the ear, especially right side, shooting pains when swallowing.
Nose
Pustule in nostril. DRawing about root. Feeling in N. and eyes as if a cold were coming on. Smarting in nostril at 9 A.M., after riding three hours in an open carriage, with stinging. Burning, then dryness in throat, which soon caused soreness, then watery discharge from nose, which increased until nose became stuffed. Tickling in r. nostril. Stoppage of r. nostril; of one nostril at night; S. when riding, so that he must breathe through mouth. Sneezing. Coryza; fluent. Discharge of mucus sometimes from one nostril, sometimes from the other; from one while the other is stopped.
Clinical Nasal catarrh, with pain at the root of the nose and stoppage of one nostril.
Face
Pallor; alternating with almost purple redness; with blue, sunken and suffering look; and hippocratic appearance. Red. Sickly-looking, sclerotica and face dark yellow. Expression as if suffering from cholera. Eruption of l. side of upper lip. Pain in upper jaw; at 11 A.M., and in teeth; in jaws, as if he could not move them.
Mouth
Shooting in r. molars. Pain in teeth, with soreness and elongated sensation. Irresistible inclination to bite teeth together. Tongue feels rough, with blister on sides, red tip (Rhus-t.). pain in root on swallowing; T. coated white; coated yellow and dry; T. and lips dry; T. and roof of mouth tender and hot; T. yellow and swollen; pain in root of R. and i fauces; smarting towards tip, with coldness. Swelling of soft palate; and tonsils, with congestion, r. tonsil half as large again as l. Ulcers on inside of r. cheek, as from Mercury. Constant flow of thick, ropy, tenacious secretion from M., throat and salivary glands, Saliva yellowish, metallic-tasting; S. cold, sticky, stringy; no. S. Salivation (Mercurius); in morning. Palate dry in morning. Taste like nuts; metallic; bitter, leaving smarting and coldness towards tip of tongue.
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.