Introduction.
Chloralum hydratum crystallisatum, Hydrate of Chloral. Formula, C2 HCl3 O plus H O.
Preparations: Triturations.
Mind.
Emotional.
Feeling as though he had been intoxicated by wine (soon).
Feeling of intoxication when first awaking; this soon passed off.
All the phenomena of delirium tremens. Pain (from an ulcer in cornea) relieved in half an hour after taking, but the patient became somewhat delirious, and being missed from the ward, was found wandering about alone in the upper stories of the building (60 grains). Became delirious, and hurled a hot-water bottle at an imaginary figure which stood menacing her at the foot of the bed. A consciousness of everything going on around him, with an inability to resist giving utterance to what he knew to be profound nonsense (3 drachms after ten minutes). A pleasant excitation for a quarter of an hour, with pulse 88 (before taking 68), (immediately). In answer to questions, he said that his condition was of the most agreeable kind (soon). Lively mood, with loud laughing and witty remarks (very soon). A muscular and moral excitability similar to a slight champagne intoxication, whereby the prover felt pleasant, smiled, and danced. Generally so much reduced was she, alike in morale and in physique, that though once an accomplished horsewoman and habituated to danger and fatigue, she constantly evinced the profound terror without any adequate cause, and was unable to walk a hundred yards without sinking from sheer exhaustion. The temper, never very good, has been much more irritable than usual ever since. From having been a cheerful, upright, exceptionally intelligent, and strong-willed woman, she had become morose, deceitful, and imbecile alike in intellect, memory, and will. From having been a woman of strong will and excellent mental power, she became listless and peevish, childish, indeed, in many things begging for chloral. Intellectual. Inability to concentrate thought (second day). Confusion of thought; after an hour mind wandered much.
Great confusion of mind; a feeling as if he were now in one country and now in another, and with an anxious desire to get home (3 drachms after ten minutes). Mentally, while she enjoyed a distinguished reputation as an authoress, she betrayed a confusion of mind, inability to concentrate her thoughts, and impaired memory altogether remarkable in one so highly gifted by nature. Could not keep the thread of sermon at church (second day). While unconscious, talks quietly but incoherently (after fifty-five minutes). A healthy, energetic man became almost idiotic through its use. Was with difficulty roused either to speak or take food, and on perfectly rallying at 4 P.M. (second day) did not remember a single circumstance after swallowing the second dose at midnight, but that the sensation had been one of unlimited rest, unbroken by anything, but quite different from sleep; the only symptom to which she could herself refer was to the cramps; the agonizing pain in her legs was the only occasional break in her otherwise complete mental monotony. He woke up refreshed in the morning, without any bad symptoms, but could not recollect the disturbance by which he was awakened, nor that he replied. Seemed in a peculiar state of consciousness; knew that she was very ill, and herself insisted upon my being sent for (after one hour and a half). Slight stupefaction (after one hour). Could not be roused, and made no attempt to answer questions. Found to be insensible (after twelve hours). Perfectly unconscious; not a flinch responds to the strongest pinch; screams now and then, and is very restless; retching; foam at mouth; turns pale; temperature of skin natural; pupils dilated; left leg spasmodically stretched, the right being perfectly relaxed and easily flexed (during operation for rupture of perineum) (after forty minutes).
Head.– Vertigo.– General Head.
Veins of head and neck filled to bursting (after one hour).
Head bent upon chest (after four hours). Uncomfortable feeling about head all day. Two or three of the patients complained, on waking, of headache, lasting from one to three or four hours.
Feeling of fullness and constriction in head, at 8 A.M. (second day). Dull feeling in head all day; it seemed full (second day). Dull aching pain in head, on waking in morning, which lasted all day (second day). Forehead. Severe pain in frontal region right over the supraorbital ridge, which nothing relieved, aggravated by movement (soon after). Headache in forehead, extending to occiput (after two-thirds of an hour). Headache over both eyes, running down in the eyes, left side worse, with feeling as if the eyes were constricted; within two hours it gradually passed away (after two hours).
Severe headache, lasting about two hours; a feeling of fullness over the eyes, especially over left eye, accompanied with some nausea and sour eructations of liquid, supposed to be what had been eaten for breakfast (after two hours). Feeling as if a hot band was drawn across the forehead from temple to temple, directly over the eyes, with sensation of a burning ring around each eye (after a few minutes). Dull, heavy, pressing, headache over the eyes, more particularly the left, while at supper; it lasted about an hour, and then gradually wore away (after one hour). Occiput. Dull, heavy headache in occiput, and forehead over the eyes; a feeling of weight and soreness, and seems wholly inside the cranium; aggravated by moving about, and on lying down, but slightly relieved by going into the open air (after one hour and a half). External Head.
Change in hair, not in color so much as in texture, the patient asserting on recovery that it had acquired a “dry, fluffy feel” had become “woolly”.
Eye.
Redness and watering of the eyes, lasting for two days. Eyes bloodshot and constantly watering. Eyes bloodshot, and as if starting out of their sockets (3 drachms after ten minutes). Eyes suffused and half-covered by the drooping eyelids (1 ounce). Eyes became inflamed and weakened, and there was burning lachrymation (3ss. daily for two months). For three weeks the eyes were much inflamed, and unable to bear the light without pain. The disk after the dose was seen to have a transparent appearance resembling white wax; the retina was always found paler than before taking; the central artery and vein and their branches were darker in appearance, and seemed to stand out more prominently. A state of capillary congestion was found in the left disk on two occasions; once it came on very soon after the light was thrown on the retina, on the other occasion it was observed from the first (1 scruple). A general haziness of the fundus was noticed on one occasion in both eyes, when sleep had been produced (1/2 drachms after one hour). Stared wildly about (soon after). Eyes set and glassy (after twelve hours). Brow. Great fullness over eyes with pressing headache (after one hour). Lids. Eyelids became red and swollen; conjunctiva injected. Eyelids closed, and with some little difficulty opened (after four hours). Temporary ptosis (in an overworked man). Lachrymal Apparatus. Lachrymation (after one hour and a half). Conjunctiva. Redness, swelling and secretion of the conjunctiva. Conjunctiva congested (after twelve hours). The conjunctiva were more congested after the effects of the drug were fully manifested.
Whole conjunctiva injected (after four hours). Injection of the conjunctiva, with turgescence of the face. Ball. Slight throbbing pain in left eyeball, aggravated by leaning forward, at 11.20 A.M. (second day). Pupil. Pupils dilated. Pupils dilated, with sensitiveness to the light. Both pupils somewhat dilated. Pupils contracted (after half an hour).
Pupils contracted, insensible to light (after twelve hours). Pupils contracted to size of pin’s head (after forty minutes). Pupils became at first contracted, the right more than the left, followed by dilatation of the pupils, with subsequent alternations of myosis and mydriasis. Pupils became elliptical in form, soon followed by angular contraction of the left pupil, at first directed downward and outward, afterwards outward and upward (although there were no senechiae in the eyes). Pupils thought to be more sensitive to light. Vision. Dimness of sight. Once, after total cessation of chloral, temporary loss of vision, lasting with intervals for two days. After the sleep, diplopia in its worst form, succeeded in fifteen or twenty minutes by muscae volitantes; (“everything appears double, and flies, or dark spots, pass before her eyes”).
Ear.
Constant tinnitus aurium (1 ounce).
Face.
Wistful, haggard expression in the face (1 once). Face dusky.
Face quite purple (3 drachms, after ten minutes). The face, to the roots of the hair and down to the ramus of the lower jaw, was of a dark-scarlet color, which was very persistent under pressure, most intense over cheek-bones, and shading in different directions; the ears partook of the same color, which was scattered in blotches over neck and chest, the lowest spot being at the center of the sternum; this flushed condition was accompanied by slight contraction of the pupils, injection of the conjunctiva, and an excitement of the circulation; it continued for about an hour, and passed off during a paroxysm of sneezing (after half an hour). Face, forehead, the whole head to the neck, suffused with a deep redness (after one hour). Face and eyes very red (after one hour). Face becomes red and the eyes glittering (soon). Face flushed (55 grains, after twenty minutes). Face flushed and anxious. Face intensely flushed (after four hours). The use of any alcoholic stimulant, even claret in very small quantities, would flush his whole face, suffuse his eyes and bring on almost at once a severe headache, which was almost always at the back of the head, “about the cerebellum” (1/2 ounce daily). Looked pale and anxious (second day). Unusual pallor of countenance, although the pulse continued as before taking (observed in several cases. Deathly paleness of face, with Hippocratic expression, veins sunken in (after one hour and a half). Rush of blood and sensation of heat in face, which lasted only for a minute or so (after a few minutes). Jaws. Teeth firmly closed (after ten minutes). Teeth “fixed” (soon after).
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.