Subjective. Disinclination for every exertion. Weariness.
Weariness, with prostration of the limbs, in the morning, on waking.
General weariness and exhaustion, with ill-humor. Feeling of weakness. Sensation of complete dulness of the whole body.
General sick feeling. General sick feeling, worse after eating bread and butter; she was obliged to lie down. Discomfort after dinner.
Malaise, which is soon allayed; but a sort of nausea remains a long time after (in 1 hour). Frequent stitches, with profuse sweat on the forehead. Tearings in left side, extending from groin up to right nipple, lasting several minutes. The pain causing nausea is aggravated while lying.
Skin.
Objective.
Redness of the skin (from triturating the seeds in a mortar).
Slight redness of the skin, with a sensation of coldness, at last followed by slight warmth. Rubescence to a greater or less extent dependent upon the individual susceptibility; this gradually increases until a general, though moderate, tumefaction occurs, apparently affecting parts deeper seated than I have seen occur from the use of any other external irritant, this is succeeded; in a period varying from 6 to 12 hours by numerous vesicles, some distinct, others confluent, differing in size and shape; at first containing merely limpid serum, afterwards, distinct and consistent pus, and terminating in slight scabs. The redness produced is not of a vivid, but of a dull brick dust hue. These circumstances, though regular in their course, vary in extent according to the parts upon which the oil is applied, thus, on the abdomen, I have never been able to excite so active a Rubescence as in other parts of the body. Over the muscular region of the arms and legs the effect is not so violent as where the bones are more superficially situated, The most powerful effects are produced upon the face, scalp, larynx, and chest according to the observation, I have made, in the order enumerated. When croton oil is applied to the face and scalp it is frequently succeeded by erysipelas, but I have never seen any destructive or suppurating process established; whenever applied only erysipelas followed its use upon any part of the neck, abdomen, or extremities. In general. Its effects are certain when applied to any part of the body, with the exception of over the abdominal muscles; at least I have never seen it fail of producing the sequelae described when applied upon any other, part of the body.
Enlargement of a cutaneous gland in the right lower lid, half an inch from the caruncula lachrymalis; the skin is reddish and elevated, as large as a mustard-seed; disappearing after 4 days.
Eruptions, Dry.
Eruption of red pimples as large as millet-seeds, with corrosive itching and sore pain when touched or rubbed (from external application). Erythema, with pustules (2nd day). forming crusts the next day. Eruption on the right side of the septum of the nostrils; when washing in the morning the spot was painful to touch, was red, of the size of a pea; on the same day if formed a small slightly elevated crust, which desquamated on the 6th day; the epidermis continued red and tender and again desquamated.
Burning itching eruption round about the neck; some pimples appear seated on a red base small, hard and slightly elevated, lasting four or five days (after 7 days). Papulous eruption on the face. Erythema of the face (not unusually), often symmetrical, lasting for a few days, with distinct heat; and this when there could have been no direct application of the remedy to the face.
Eruptions, Moist.
Vesicular eruption on the scrotum and penis (the patient’s hands not having touched the parts), (from rubbing the oil upon the limbs). Eruption of small vesicles on the labial commissures, right upper eyelid, and left buttock (caused by touching these parts when the hands were covered with the ejecta), (2nd day).
Erysipelas phlyctenoides of the face, ending in desquamation in 4 hours (from an external application to the neck).
Several itching vesicles on the chin, which coalesce and form a scurf; which becomes moist on pressure; after about 5 days the crust desquamates and leaves a red spot which lasts a long time (after 4 days). On the left thigh opposite the touch and on walking, which also causes troublesome biting.
Eruptions, Pustular.
The eruption which is brought out by the external use may be divided into 5 stages. 1. Rubefaction of the skin; 2. Formation of vesicles; 3. Conversion of the vesicles into pustules; 4.
Desiccation of the pustules; 5. Desiccation and falling off of the crusts. These different periods or stages are not uniformly to be observed; they are most conspicuous when the friction has been made with 10 or 12 drops of the oil on a part of the skin where there is much subjacent cellular tissue. The patient at first experiences a tingling warmth which is quickly followed by a considerable redness, extending an inch or so beyond the sphere of the rubbing. These appearances are generally noticed within seven or eight hours, sometimes in one or two, at other times not for 10 or 12 hours; the differences of time required depending, no doubt, on the delicacy of the skin. In from 14 to 26 hours myriads of small, close-set vesicles make their appearance upon the inflamed skin; occasionally a few of the vesicles become greatly magnified, forming true phlyctenae, filled with a turbid lymph, which speedily changes into a purulent matter. In 12 out of 31 cases, reported by our author, the vesicles passed to desquamation without undergoing the suppurative process. The usual period at which the serum becomes puriform is from 36 to 54 hours after the application of the oil. In one or two days subsequently the pus begins to exude, and forms grayish crusts over the pustules, and the desquamation is generally over by the 8th or 9th day. If the Croton oil is rubbed upon any part which has been recently vesicated the eruption is as, we might expect, more speedy and abundant.
A peculiar pustular and vesicular eruption (external application).
papulopustulous eruption (2nd day). The pustules are riper; their bases are inflamed, some are larger than others, and have already lost the inflammatory areola, but are full and tense. These are large phlyctenae on the scrotum, and some pustules on the pubis, the glans penis is partly denuded of its epidermis (from the contact of the patient’s hand covered with the oil). The urine is darker-colored; urinating causes pain at the end of the penis, owing to the condition of the glans and prepuce (3rd day). Not much smarting in the eruption; there is some heat. A general redness in the affected part, which is covered with numerous white glossy, tense pustules, having but slight areolae. Those which were in the same stage of development yesterday are now desiccated. Some small papulous vesicles have newly appeared; others, with areolae, are just changing into true pustules (4th day).
The pustules which desiccated yesterday have left only a yellowish spot or crust, formed or pus and dried epidermis; those which were then at their height have sunken; there are visible very small elevations, without areolae, remarkable for their regular shape, their small size, and the complete absence of surrounding redness; these are pustules developed between the laminae and the horny layer of the epidermis ( intra-epidermic pustules), (5th day). General redness diminished, The pustules are less numerous, and among them are some which are projecting, sensitive, surrounded by areolae, and whose contents are of a reddish blue, owing to blood-globules mingled with the pus; these are dermic or sanguinopurulent pustules. A pustule was noticed surmounted by another smaller one. This is the two-story pustule. There are some thick crusts caused by the patient’s scratching open the pustules (6th day). Diminished eruption and redness; more crusts from torn pustules. An herpetic spot, which was situated at about the center of the eruption, has almost disappeared (7th day). The evolution of the later pustules, seems more speedy than on the 1st day, so that those which were fully matured yesterday have now hardly left a trace; even the raised epidermis has subsided.
The two-story pustule, already observed, is developed; the top story formed by an intra-epidermic pustule, has increased in size, probably from the effect of endosmosis; its circumference is no longer even with that of the lower pustule (8th day). All the pustules have sunken; desquamation is beginning with the small, pustules without areolae (9th day). Desquamation is proceeding; the herpetic spot appears again (10th day). Here and there new pustules, glossy and tense, arrive at maturity, whilst others are desiccating; the herpetic spot has cleared off (11th day). When the scabs fall off from the scratched pustules they are succeeded by pits, while they leave the others still elevated, so that the hand perceives a roughness.
Long after the scabs have gone their places are marked by a brownish discoloration, like the coppery hue of syphilides (12th day). The redness diminishes, and the desquamation continues to extend (14th day). Formation of pustules and almost general inflammation of the walls of the abdomen, followed after several days by desquamation.
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.