General Action
This caustic produces destruction of tissue wherever applied. Taken internally, it produces a profound anaemia and general malnutrition, ecchymosis especially. Its action on the liver and kidneys is marked, increasing at first the flow of bile, and finally causing degeneration of the liver, albuminuria, etc. It produces violent tetaniform or epileptiform convulsions, followed sometimes by paralysis. Dilute solutions produce a violent inflammation of mucous membranes, characterized by a profuse muco-purulent secretion.
Generalities
Tremblings, twitchings, convulsions. General restlessness. Weakness; paralytic symptoms. General stinging pains.
Mind
Irresolute. Apprehensive. Nervous faintness. Imbecility; loss of memory.
Head
In general, dull, aching fulness of head, ameliorated by tight binding. Full, throbbing, congested feeling. Dull, stupefying ache. Vertigo, with buzzing in ears, weakness and trembling. Boring in left frontal eminence. One side of head feels enlarged. The roots of the hair feel pulled; scalp tender.
Eyes
Violent ophthalmia; conjunctiva swollen; eyeball congested; very profuse purulent discharge. Caruncula lachrymalis intensely red, swollen. Eyeballs unsteady from lack of muscular tone. Asthenopia from muscular paresis, especially from lack of power of accommodation. Photophobia. Vision dim. Vision distorted. Floating opacities, like filaments or serpents. Illusions of vision; seems to see serpents (mental).
Ears
Deafness. Whizzing or ringing in ears.
Nose
Catarrh (like Argentum met. ). Coryza, with stupefying headache. Loss of smell.
Face
Sickly looking, pale or even cyanotic. Facial neuralgia, left side; boring pain (usually).
Mouth
General sensitiveness to cold things. Toothache from sour or cold things, aggravated by chewing. Gums loose, tender, bleed easily. Tongue red at tip, dry, papillae enlarged. Saliva increased, thin, fetid.
Throat
Dark red. Inflamed, with sensation of a splinter or a stick when swallowing. Throat raw and sore. Rough. Much tenacious mucus, with much hawking. Dryness and burning.
Stomach
Craving for sugar. Nausea. Retching; vomiting; ejecta become black. Flatulent distention of stomach, extreme. Pit of stomach painfully swollen. Bursting sensation in pit, ameliorated by eructations. Eructations difficult, as if oesophagus were spasmodically closed. Vomiting of glairy mucus. Pain in pit, extends around sides or into the chest.
Abdomen
Flatulent distention. Flatulent pains, often sharp, followed by evacuations of gas and green, fetid mucus. Pain around hypochondria.
Rectum and Anus
Itching. Burning. Haemorrhoids.
Stool
Green, fetid mucus. Watery, with flatulence. Mucus in shreds, white or green, sour or fetid. Bloody mucus. Diarrhoea, chronic, resulting from emotional disturbances.
Urinary Organs
Urine usually clear and copious. Urethra inflamed; violent, acute inflammation, great swelling, burning; profuse purulent discharge; urine bloody. Priapismus, with shooting pains, severe inflammation, etc.
Sexual Organs
Inflammation of prepuce, ulceration. Female (Vagina sensitive, bleeding. Ulcerations, purulent leucorrhoea, etc.- Clin.)- Sexual dreams and orgasms at night (in an epileptic).
Respiratory Organs
Hoarseness. Cough, suffocative, aggravated by tobacco smoke. Larynx sore, raw. Suffocative dyspnoea.
Chest
Burning. Heaviness. Tension in muscles as if a clamp were around the chest.
Heart
Anxiety. Palpitation. Pulse irregular, intermitting.
Neck and Back
Backache, ameliorated by standing or walking. Heaviness in sacrum, as before menses. Paralytic sensations; must stretch and walk.
Extremities
Tremblings. Twitchings. Paralysis. Upper Various pains; tremblings. Lower; Weakness; paralytic heaviness.
Sleep
Sleepless, or restless sleep. Dreams of snakes or of strange figures; wakes in fright.
Fever
Chilly; feverish; no thirst. Sweat in morning, or at night.