A tincture is made of the fresh root.
General Action
It is powerful respiratory poison, producing asphyxia; it paralyzes the heart and vasomotor centres and causes a low temperature (cold sweat and collapse). In large doses it produces convulsions. It excites vomiting, but not purging unless given in toxic doses.
Allies. Belladonna, Hyoscyamus, Coccul., Ferrum, Phosphorus
Generalities
Tremor. Inability to control voluntary muscles. Spasm. with shrieks, body bent backward, arm rigid and thrown over head, face dark blue, breathing suspended, spasm repeated. Pains flying about in temple and l. trochanter major; in second joint of r index, then in r. angle of lower jaw, then in l. heel, then in middle of l. neck, then in r. heel and l. knee; in l. humerus just above elbow, soon changing to region of l. nipple, then to middle of l. humerus, then to l. shoulder-joint, (>) 9 P.M. by eating; in different parts between 5 and 6 P.M., in l. chest, r. shoulder over clavicle, in head of l. tibia and three or four inches above the same, in tendons of r. popliteal space, in outside of r. arm l. ulna, r. wrist, head of l. radius, back of first joint of l. middle finger and second phalanx of l. great toe. Distress.
Clothes would not fit me, seemed as if they scratched me somewhere and I could not relieve myself, constant twitching of different parts from trying to relieve the rubbing sensation; (<) sitting. Obliged to grasp the rails for support when walking. Muscular action interrupted after walking or jumping. Weakness; at 1 P.M., with trembling; with heavy pain in head; sudden. Faintness; on rising suddenly from reclining, with pallor. Stiffness of voluntary muscles, (<) temporal and extensors of head. Aggravation in morning on waking; in afternoon and evening. Amelioration from hot, strong coffee.
Clinical Inflammatory rheumatism. Effects of sunstroke. Most violent convulsions; epilepsy; hysteria; hystero-epilepsy; chorea, with violent congestion. Threatening tetanus. Has been used for poisoning by opium.
Mind
Delirious; and quarrelsome, striking and kicking with r. hand and foot (Hyosc.), at times these movements appeared involuntary, the delirium became happy and comical. Fear of death. Thought it probable that I should die, but was not alarmed. Depression and prostration. Stupor when not vomiting. Lethargy between the vomiting spells, with slow and difficult respiration. Unconsciousness.
Clinical Furious delirium, with screaming, howling and striking. Delirium, with incessant muttering, dilated pupils, red streak down the tongue, etc.
Head
Aching; at 4 P.M.; with full, heavy feeling in eyes; (with vomiting every ten or fifteen minutes); which stopped at temples and took a diagonal course across head; (central congestive), (<) noise and motion; heavy, with occasional painful throbbing in temples; heavy, at 7 P.M., with weakness, (<) lower limbs. Confusion; in afternoon and evening. Fulness in morning, with heaviness; (F. and congested feeling, with pain in forehead and nausea). Queer feeling. Vertigo; in morning on rising (Phosphorus); in morning, (>) closing eyes and resting head, with photophobia (Belladonna); on rising from bed, with vomiting (Coccul.); on rising from a seat or bed; with nausea (Coccul.); with nausea, then heat of surface; in attacks, with nausea and pain in bowels.
Forehead. Aching; over eyes; over r. eye; in morning on waking, (>) stool; at 6 P.M., with cold hands and feet, skin of head hot and moist; with contractive pain in skin of forehead; with vomiting and hiccough; with cold hands and feet; extending on l. side to occiput, all day after 1 P.M., (<) lying, especially lying on occiput; numb, constricted, pressing back to ears, sensation as if membrana tympani would break; drawing, at 2 P.M. Sharp drawing over l. eye, with contracted feeling in skin of forehead. Indescribable sensation rising towards crown and grasping, as it were, vertex and occiput, at night after a short sleep. Heaviness; over l. eye at 2 P.M. on stooping.
Neuralgic pains in temples; in r. temple close to eye at 10 A.M. Pain in r. temple and over r. eye and in r. malar-bone just under eye; in r. mastoid process; in l. side of head; at junction of l. parietal and temporal bones in forenoon; in l. side extending backward; in l. side back to temple; in l. side to temple in forenoon; in occiput.
Clinical Intense congestive headache, with throbbing stupefaction, double vision, numbness of the limbs, nausea, vomiting, etc. Cerebral apoplexy. Indicated in cerebral hyperaemia.. Cerebro-spinal meningitis.
Eyes
Glassy. Shooting in l., stopping suddenly. Pain in r.; in l. when riding in an omnibus; with cold feet. Lachrymation; with full feeling in lids as if he had cried much. Pupils dilated (Belladonna, etc.). Heaviness of lids, with soreness and sleepiness. Aching in upper part of r. orbit; over r. eye gradually extending to forehead. Dim vision; on becoming erect, with partial syncope; (<) while vomiting; (with green circles around gaslight). Vision impaired; dazzling; unsteady; of a green circle around candle (Phosphorus), which, as vertigo came on and I closed eyes, turned to red. Blindness if he attempted to walk, with faintness.
Ears
Fulness in l., with audible beating in carotid. Ringing in r. at 2 P.M., moving quickly makes me deaf. Humming, with sensitiveness to noise, ears feel cold, with spells of deafness. (Noise).
Clinical Acute inflammation in the middle ear (Ferrum, Phosphorus).
Nose
Pinched and blue at 2 P.M. Catarrh and sneezing. Profuse mucus at 2 P.M., next day at 1 P.M.
Face
Flushed (Belladonna). Pale; with cadaverous look; and gray. Blue; and hippocratic. Sunken. Stinging in r. jugum malar at night. Lips and mouth dry all day; lips dry, with thick mucus in mouth. Jaws rigid. Pain in r. angle of lower jaw.
Mouth
Tongue feels scalded; feels scalded, red in centre, coated yellow at base; feel scalded, with red streak in centre, coated yellow; coated yellow along centre in morning; (coated yellow, (<) along base and centre); red on edges, grayish from tip half way back, back part gray, with red spots of the size of a pin’s head, strawberry tongue; bleached; bleached at centre and tip in morning, with red edges; white in centre, bright red at tip and edges. Speech lost; almost lost. Burning, and in throat; acrid B. Salivation; at 2 P.M., next day at 1 P.M. Taste flat in morning; flat, bitter in morning; bitterish, reminding one of the odor of spermatic fluid; (bitter to food); like lime-water to water.
Clinical The dry, red stripe through the centre of the tongue, especially when associated with a bloated, livid face, seems quite characteristic.
Throat
Submaxillary glands swollen, sore to touch. Burning; and in oesophagus and stomach. Dryness causing short, dry cough; D. and heat in T. and fauces, which finally reached stomach. Numbness of fauces. Symptoms of globus hystericus. Inability to swallow. Sensation of a ball in oesophagus; rising as far as top of sternum, as from a gradual tonic contraction of stomach. Burning pain along oesophagus, with inclination to swallow.
Clinical Acute inflammation of the oesophagus, with fiery burning pains.
Stomach
Ravenous appetite in morning on waking; at noon. Aversion to food, and after eating a little supper dyspepsia, partially (>) a glass of whisky. Thirst in morning after rising after rising, with nausea; T. temporarily (>) drinking a little. Eructations of wind; acrid, sour E. Hiccough; with spasms of upper part of oesophagus at 2 P.M., next day at 1 P.M.; with salivation and discharge of mucus from stomach and nose. Nausea; (>) eating; (>) empty eructations; with desire for stool; with desire for stool, some wind passed but not much faeces; with drawing pain in lower part of chest. Retching; with pain; ineffectual.
Vomiting; in morning on rising; with cold sweat (verat-alb.); with running from nose and eyes; with salivation and sweat; with collapse; with pain and weakness; without effort or nausea; without nausea, but with a sense of rising in oesophagus, which might be compared to the rumination of animals, feeling as if muscular fibres of stomach contracted gradually and steadily upon its contents until they were expelled, the diaphragm and abdominal muscles remaining inactive; of bile; of bile and then of mucus and dark blood, then retching, moaning and fear of death, (>) Arsenicum; white, ropy mucus; thick, glairy mucus and water; dinner, then thick, glairy mucus; food. mucus, etc.; food and contents of stomach, then glairy mucus; (food if ever so little is taken).
Spasm, and in respiratory organs. Cramp as if muscles were contracting, (>) bending forward, then pain in abdomen as if retracted. Twisting tearing, (<) motion. Neuralgic pains in cardiac portion at 7 P.M. Excruciating pain in lower part, with feeling as if the warm tea, etc., that I took to provoke vomiting went under the pain increasing the constriction; sharp P. in epigastric and umbilical regions at 11 A.M., passing down to pubes; sharp flying, in epigastric; and umbilical regions in evening. Pain in epigastrium; at 9 P.M. Feeling in epigastrium as if a full dose of calomel were operating. Distress; in epigastrium, with sickness. Tightness. Feeling as if slowly contracting and forcing contents into oesophagus, causing sensation of a ball rising to top of sternum. Sensation of waves rising into chest at night on waking. Uneasiness; in epigastrium, Dyspepsia. Glow.
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.