General symptoms
She soon suffered from abdominal pains, vomiting, bloody stools, and general debility. Six hours after the poison perfect collapse, followed by death a few hours later. Violent pain in the abdomen, aggravated by pressure. Bloody stool. * Kali cyanatum (Kali-cy.).
Introduction
Potassium Cyanide, Ky. Preparation: triturations.
Generalities
OBJECTIVE. Moved with quickness and precision on rising, in the morning (5th day). Circulation languid. Convulsions, immediately. Convulsions followed by death. General convulsions. Sudden convulsive action of the whole body, about ten minutes after the heart ceased to beat. The muscles were in a condition of hyperaesthesia; if one pressed on the thigh, calves, upper arm or over the region of the stomach the whole body was seized with trembling startings like convulsions; these tremors gradually passed into short attacks of general tetanus if violent pressure was made upon the muscles or the epigastric region, or when introducing the catheter; after every such tetanic spasm mobility of the extremities was presented for a long time on account of muscular rigidity, and complete relaxation of the limbs came on gradually, and only after half an hour; these attacks of tetanic spasms were accompanied by moaning; at last there was observed for a minute or so a spasmodic trembling of the hands and feet; the diaphragm seemed to be affected by violently convulsive contractions. The sphincters rigidly contracted. Strong tetanic spasms, directly, and death in less than an hour (in a young girl). Most frightful epilepsy repeated several times, the day after an attack. Motionless (soon). Sphincters paralyzed. Lazy and sleepy, and disinclined to work, in the morning (10th day). General weakness. Physical exhaustion (2nd day). Great exhaustion. His senses almost entirely disappeared, as in faintness. Insensibility. Became insensible and fell down. Fell insensible. Fell insensible on the floor, immediately. The poison had hardly penetrated the intestine when she fell senseless, without a single complaint. Fell off my chair before I had finished drinking the emetic, turned blue in the face, and breathed slowly and heavily; it was six hours before I gave signs of returning consciousness. Soon began to reel and fell down with extreme prostration, followed by convulsions of the limbs, extreme dyspnoea, and death. SUBJECTIVE. Skin pale, not sensitive to violent pressure or pinching. Affected easily by cold draft of air, producing crossness, in the afternoon (5th day). Slightly nervous, soon (2nd day). Feels stronger than before, and more inclined to work (2nd day). Feeling of muscular trembling with general weakness. Feeling of lassitude all the forenoon, towards evening it changes into moroseness (5th day). Pains in various joints and muscles. Muscles painful to touch or motion after the attack. Symptoms did not pass away for ten hours. Took some weak milk punch, and smoked, in the afternoon; after which all the symptoms vanished, and the effect of the medicine seems to have been cut off short by this slight irregularity (7th day). Immediately seized with convulsions, and soon became collapsed and rigid, the pulse at the wrist, being imperceptible, though a slight action of the heart could be felt. Found the man lying full length in bed on his back; the arms, which were straight down by his side, twitching convulsively; hands partially clenched, thumbs flexed across palm; body bathed in a clammy sweat; face pallid, expressionless; eyes fixed, partially closed, pupils widely dilated, tears in the corners of the eyelids; breathing stertorous, loud mucous rattle, foam around mouth; pulse imperceptible, and heart’s action indistinct.
Mind
EMOTIONAL. Disposition gentle (6th day). Good disposition of mind with lightheartedness, jocularity, and brightness of feeling all day (5th day). Had occasion to get angry, but could not. Felt more like laughing instead (2nd day). For 2 days, desire to find fault; crossness almost uncontrollable on entering in the room; while the cold open air produces good spirits (3rd day). At 7 p. m. while walking out of doors, feelings of crossness, carries on a kind of conversation within himself, as if quarreling with someone with whom he had previously disagreed; thinks what he will reply in case certain things are said to him (this state of mind is really painful; there are occasional remissions of it and there is really no cause for it). (5th day). As a general thing for the past few days, easily provoked and impatient at trifles (5th day). INTELLECTUAL. Perfectly bright and well on walking and rising (17th day). Sometimes cannot think clearly and to the point, in the forenoon (5th day). Memory seems weak (4th day). She remembered nothing from the time she tasted the solution till consciousness was restored (2 hours and a half). Perfectly lucid, but had no recollection of anything which occurred after she took the injection (2nd day). Talked all the evening but could not find words easily (9th day). Inability to recollect certain words (aphasia), for several days, seemed to lose all thought for a moment only; the same sensation again half an hour afterwards (5th day). Stupefaction. Living on the floor in the deep stupor. Loss of consciousness; (after a few minutes). Almost complete loss of consciousness. Some muttering delirium (which afterwards became more active, the patient evincing a desire to walk around).
Head
CONFUSION AND VERTIGO. Head and confused and heavy (after 1 hr).. Vertigo, even to losing his balance. Intense vertigo so that all objects seemed to be moving around him (after a few Min). Violent vertigo, accompanied with a sort of swooning, then she fell and lost her consciousness (immediately). Slight giddiness in the head (immediately). GENERAL HEAD. Head drawn backwards (soon). Head seems light and also the tongue, with pleasure and power to talk in the morning, had a headache on the day before commencing the proving, leaving head dull, which was replaced by lightness of the head and tongue (2nd and 3rd day). Started up suddenly complaining of pain in the head and pit of the stomach (after 2.5 hours).. Head began to feel full, and had dry feeling, with tension across the nose and inner corners of the eyes; also around the mouth at 7.30 a. m. (9th day). Headache (after 2 hours. 2nd day). He was unable to tolerate any covering on the head, whether in the cold or warmth, because it caused a fitful headache, for months after the attack. FOREHEAD. Pressure in the forehead. Headache in the forehead. Dull, pressing, but confined to a small space over the frontal bone, while walking briskly in the open air at 4 p. m. (3rd day). Slight shooting pains in the forehead, over the eyes, particularly the left; pains shooting from below upwards while riding in the open air in the forenoon (3rd day). VERTEX. Oppressive headache on the top of head, the pain moving about, sharp and Tearing, for 5 Min; head feels dull, which passed away unawareness at 11 a. m. (3rd day). Slight oppressive headache on the top of the head in the forenoon, (10th day). OCCIPUT. Slight dull pain in back of head, aching about 20 Min just before going to sleep (1st night). Heaviness of head. Gnawing pain across temples. Soreness of the scalp over both parietal regions.
Eyes
OBJECTIVE. Eyes fixed, and staring (after 10-15 Min). Eyes fixed and turned upwards (soon). SUBJECTIVE. Prickly feeling in the eyes, worse in the inner corners (9th day). LIDS. Eyes were closed almost immediately. The eyelids began to open and shut alternately. The eyeballs stared in different directions (after a few seconds). BALL. Eyes closed, but on raising the lids the balls were seen to be in uninterrupted convulsive motion. (Chorea of the ball). Motion of the eyeball slow, not coordinated after the attacks. PUPIL. Dilated pupils, (after 10 and 15 Min). Pupils moderately dilated, the cornea insensible to touch. Pupils largely dilated, and insensible to light. VISION. Obscuration of vision, so that it was with difficulty that he distinguished of those near him. Loss of sight; as sight returned there was double vision. Double vision after the return of consciousness. Eyes fixed, pupils dilated, and insensible to light. Swelling of the upper eyelids.
Ears
Rushing in the ears. Ringing in the ears.
Nose
OBJECTIVE. Phlegm from nose bloody, in strips of clear blood, at 10 a. m. (3rd and 9th day). Blew pure blood from the nose about 10 a. m.; inside of nose feeling parched, hot and dry; blood drying in the nose very quickly (9th day). SUBJECTIVE. Feeling in the nares, like that before sneezing, with a drawing pain in the cheek bone (1st day). Tension across and inner corner of the eyes, with fullness of the head, at 7.30 a. m. (9th day).
Face
OBJECTIVE. Pallor of the face. (soon). Looked pale and exhausted, in the afternoon. Face livid and bloated. Turned blue in the face. Flushed face, on walking in the morning (5th day). Face covered with red spots. with at times transient diffused intense redness if he made passive motions with the upper extremities, and also in the long pauses between the respiration. Immediately the face became puffy and cyanotic. Twitching of the face (after a few Min). CHEEKS. Deadly pale, almost immediately. LIPS. Lips white almost immediately. Commissure of the lips, covered with a light, white foam (soon). Reddish froth covered the mouth and the nose. There was noticed slight twitching of the mouth when the patient was spoken to in a loud tone of voice, as though the sense of hearing were awakened, though the stupor still continued. (3rd day). Tension around the mouth, with fullness of the head at 7.30 a. m. (9th day). CHIN. Some difficulty in using my lower jaw in the act of speaking. Jaws firmly closed. Teeth closed so firmly and continuously, that only once or twice could anything be poured in to the mouth. Jaws tightly closed. The region of the masseter muscles very prominent and as hard as cartilage. The patient lay in a frightful tetanic cramp, jaws so tightly closed that it was impossible to open them; the eyes were drawn completely drawn back into their orbits. Face distorted, nose pointed, mouth drawn outward, pulse imperceptible, and hands frequently attacked with muscular twitches. Jaws violently closed (soon); the trismus was so violent that it was impossible to separate the jaws for the purpose of introducing a liquid into the mouth. A strong iron spoon introduced between the teeth and used as a lever, effected a slight opening. Some difficulty in introducing an emetic into the mouth. It was impossible to get anything into the stomach. Spasmodic closure of the mouth. Spasmodic closure of the jaws (after 10 or 15 Min). Jaws rigidly contracted. Locked-jaw. Vague pain in the jaw (2nd day). Face dull, slightly flushed, and expressionless, the tendency being to close the eyes.
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.