Ipecacuanha - General symptoms - T.F. Allen

GENERAL

General

Intense tearing pains, especially in the right eye, extending but a little way towards the temple.

on opening the right lids, which were swollen, a copious gush of tears.

the conjunctiva of the bulb was injected and infiltrated.

the tunica vaginalis swollen, the cornea dim as if infiltrated.

on close examination there were noticed a number of small depressions.

the Irisseemed congested and had a dull look, the pupils contracted, reacting but little or not at all in the light.

vision completely lost.

after eight weeks these symptoms appeared in the left eye after again pounding Ipecac., but this time associated with nausea and inclination to vomit.

a third time, after several months, after pounding Ipecac, he was awakened in the night by tensive pains in the eyes, lachrymation, loss of vision, etc.

a fourth time after pounding Ipecac, he experienced a slight biting and pressing pain in the eye, light blinded him and increased the pain, the conjunctiva became red and chemosed, and again there was copious lachrymation.

this time the right eye was most affected, vision was lost.

with the left eye the patient saw fiery rings with rainbow colors,.

Very numerous small papulae and vesicles, seated on a deep-red base of irregular extent (after about thirty-six hours, or sooner).

they become flattened in a short period, and assume the pustular character.

many of them run together, are confluent, the part feels hot to the hand of another, and a tingling sensation, never amounting to pain, is experienced by the patient.

the eruption endures pretty vividly for a few (three) days, during which the pustules become covered with a scablike scale and fall off, leaving no mark.

they never ulcerate,.

Burning heat over the whole surface of the body, which was found to proceed from a kind of erysipelatous eruption, covering every portion, similar to what is seen after exposing the naked skin to the burning sun.

the patches were circular, and varied from the size of a six pence to that of the palm of the hand, considerably elevated, with thick rounded edges, and of a fiery color (after one hour),.

Immediately in the throat and stomach a totally indescribable sensation, but as intolerable to be borne (if life could have been sustained under it), as if I had taken a drink of melted lead.

it was so overpowering that I was unable to think of any method of relief, but in the most distressing agony leaped out of bed and rolled over the floor, from side to side of the room.

at length I was urged to drink copiously of warm water, which produced some vomiting and some mitigation of my intense suffering.

the distress slowly subsided, and settled into one of my worst attacks of asthma,.

When expectoration became free, and mucus was formed in great quantities by the mucous membrane of the bronchia, in the morning, after resting through the night from the cough, expectoration would commence freely on stirring about a little, and mouthfuls would be thrown up, which any person at first sight would have pronounced to be a mass of small, nearly transparent worms.

on close examination I discovered it to be thickened mucus which had collected in the small ramifications of the bronchial tubes during sleep, and was actually discharged so as to be real casts of those tubes.

this would sometimes be thrown up in such quantities, in the morning, that it really surprised me that sufficient air could have passed through the lungs for the purposes of life while sleeping,.

Instead of the ordinary wheezing, the muscles of respiration seemed tetanically convulsed, producing a condition not unlike what is denominated "holding the breath," with slight sighs or catches at intervals barely sufficient to keep the wheels of life from ceasing altogether (in two instances).

on the first occasion relief was obtained by swallowing two drachms of Eth. Sulphur ^sulph.

on the other, where the interrupted breathing had continued fearfully long, and where swallowing was impossible, inhaling the fumes of burning paper previously saturated with Nitras. potass. alleviated the symptoms almost instantaneously,.

In about the usual time for an emetic to operate, there seemed to be a simultaneous effort to breathe, cough, and vomit, while neither of these functions was performed in any degree of perfection, producing a state of suffering indescribable by words.

the whole muscles of the chest and abdomen seemed in a state of violent irregular spasm, every effort to vomit being interrupted by an attempt to cough.

and notwithstanding a cold March wind was blowing, it became necessary to open the windows and support me in an erect position for nearly an hour to prevent immediate suffocation.

at the end of about an hour, without any previous mitigation of symptoms, I was almost instantaneously and completely relieved.

on the appearance of the eruption,.

GENERAL SYMPTOMS.

Objective.

A swaying to and fro of the body to either side, as in drunkenness, with stupefaction of the head, while walking in the open air in the evening (after ten hours),

Stiffness of the body,

The body of the child is stretched out stiff,

The whole body is outstretched, stiff, whereupon a spasmodic contraction of the arm follows (after a quarter of an hour),

Opisthotonos,

Symptoms of emprosthotonos and opisthotonos (after ten hours),

He is awkward, clumsy, and knocks against everything,

Very weak, indolent, depressed, and chilly (after half an hour),

Extreme weakness (after one hour),

Exhaustion,

Extreme restlessness; it continued three days,

Subjective.

Excessive sensitiveness to cold and warmth,

Anxiety in the blood in the morning on waking, as if he had been in great heat, or had perspired profusely, or were awakened by anxious dreams, though he was neither hot nor sweaty, together with heaviness in the head, as if the brain were compressed,

On waking, a peculiar sensation of lightness, with good appetite (after one hour and a quarter),

(Sticking pains here and there in the body, caused by motion, ending in burning),