Alkaloid of Colchicum autumnale. C7 H23 NO6. Trituration.
Clinical
Diarrhoea. Fever. Intestinal catarrh. Prostration. Sleeplessness. Spasms.
Characteristics
This alkaloid has been proved and the symptoms are sufficiently distinctive, though I am not aware of any clinical experience with it. The symptoms point strongly to its use in that form of intestinal catarrh characterized by the appearance of shreddy membranes, and the symptoms, “convulsive jerkings of right hand,” should prove a valuable indication, if not a keynote.
Relations.
*Compare: Arsenicum, Causticum, Colchicum
SYMPTOMS.
Eyes
Pupils widely dilated.
Face
Tearing pains in face.
Throat
Increased secretion of saliva.
Stomach
On rising from bed, at night, nausea suddenly increased, and was followed by vomiting of undigested food, and afterwards of a bitter greenish fluid, the vomiting was repeated early in the morning. Vomiting of blood for nine or ten days. Pains and excessive sensitiveness in epigastrium.
Abdomen
Distension and sensitiveness. Frequent rumbling.
Stool and Anus
Urging, causing him to leave his bed, followed by copious pasty evacuation, with excessive tenesmus, this was repeated three times within a short period. Stools accompanied with tenesmus and consisting of a thin fluid with numerous flakes looking like the cooked white of egg in pieces from two to four inches long. Stools thin, yellowish green, slimy, accompanied by pain. Liquid stools.
Urinary Organs
Urine turbid, depositing a copious white sediment.
Heart
Pulse during the first two hours sank about eleven beats.
Upper Limbs
Convulsive jerkings of right hand.
Generalities
Very great exhaustion on second day, increasing to feverish excitement lasting two days.
Sleep
Slight somnolency and collapse. Awakened from sleep soon after midnight by uneasy dreams.
Fever
Chill about noon on first day, followed by violent heat lasting several hours, with increased thirst, very rapid pulse, confusion of the head, uneasiness and sleeplessness.