General Action
Iron acts chiefly on the blood, producing more rapid oxidation, with rise of temperature; at first an increase of red color (or of red corpuscles), but subsequently a diminution of red corpuscles and profound anaemia.
Generalities
Emaciation. Extreme weakness, bordering on paralysis. Trembling and uneasiness in all the limbs; unable to keep quiet, yet motion aggravates. Unnatural sensitiveness to pain and external impressions. Wandering pains. General aggravation at night and towards morning; also during rest, especially when sitting still. Amelioration from gentle movement.
Mind
Easily made anxious; excited by the slightest opposition. Great alternations of mood; excessively lively, then again sad and melancholy.
Head
Violent hammering and beating; must lie down; apparent rush of blood to the head; all the vessels seem swollen. Violent pulsating headache, apt to recur periodically. Hot headache, with flushed face. Occipital headache when coughing. The scalp is even sensitive to touch, with falling out of the hair. (Congestive headache usually (>) pressure, (<) sudden noise or motion, associated with cold extremities and feeble pulse.).
Eyes
Sensation as if they would protrude; sunken, with blue rings. Vision obscured in the evening.
Nose
Bleeding in the morning on stooping; also in the evening. Clots of blood constantly accumulate in the nose.
Face
Face usually earthy, yellowish, pale; at times becoming flushed, with red spots on the cheeks. Lips pale and dry.
Mouth
Taste foul; everything seems dry.
Throat
Constriction, with pain on swallowing.
Stomach
Loss of appetite, especially in the forenoon. Aversion to meat and sour food. Meat and acids, as well as beer, cause nausea. Unquenchable thirst. Vomiting of food, especially after midnight. Sour eructations. Bitter eructations after fat food. Vomiting of food immediately after eating. Sour vomiting of food in the morning or at night. Vomiting after eating eggs.
Abdomen
Soreness, as if beaten, on touch and on coughing, especially in the epigastric region, usually (>) walking about. A feeling of tension in the right hypochondrium.
Stool
Watery diarrhoea, with burning. Undigested stools. Evacuation of mucus, with worms. Evacuation generally painless, more at night or after eating and drinking, with coldness of the body and great prostration.
Urinary Organs
Constant urging to urinate, with pain in the liver, chest and kidneys. Involuntary micturition, especially during the day, or also at night.
Sexual Organs
Painfulness of the vagina during coition. Sore pain and smarting in the vagina during coition, with loss of all sexual desire. Suppressed menstruation, with vicarious haemorrhages. Menses usually profuse and prolonged, with great debility; preceded by labor-like pains and headache, followed by milky-white, acrid leucorrhoea.
Respiratory Organs
Hoarseness, with roughness in the larynx, almost loss of voice. Cough (<) moving about; spasmodic, with expectoration of transparent, tenacious mucus, immediately (>) eating; spasmodic at noon after eating, followed by vomiting of food. Expectoration bloody morning and night; copious in the morning, greenish during the day, sometimes streaked with blood. Cough is apt to be dry in the evening after lying down; when coughing he loses breath. Dyspnoea after midnight, also when sitting up. Anxious oppression of the chest. Stitches in the chest when coughing; the chest pains as if it were bruised.
Heart and Pulse
Heart’s action rapid, tumultuous. Pulse frequently slow and feeble, sometimes full and hard; increased by any effort. General disturbance of the circulation, a tendency to congestion of the face, head, chest, etc.
Neck and Back
Drawing pains, extending from the nape into the head. Lumbago, (>) walking slowly, worse after sitting.
Extremities
General tendency to swelling of the hands and legs below the knees. Sticking or tearing pains in the arms during night. Paralytic tearing pain in the shoulder and muscles of the upper arm, so that raising the arm is impossible, but it gradually disappears on gentle motion. Nightly sticking tearing from the hip joint down through the leg, gradually (>) gentle motion. Cramp in the calves at night.
Sleep
Cannot sleep at night; restless. Sleep disturbed by numerous dreams; weary in the morning on rising. Must lie on the back at night.
Fever
General coldness; lack of vital warmth. Excessive surging of blood through the vessels. Dry heat, with tendency to uncover. Sweat during sleep and on the slightest motion. Cold, anxious sweat, with cramps in the muscles. Sweat at night of a very strong odor.
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.