Abdomen
Abdomen somewhat tumid, but soft (second day). Abdomen hot, full.
Rumbling in the abdomen. Abdomen very sensitive (second day).
Severe abdominal pains, with vomiting and purging. Severe pain in the belly and stomach, with the excessive vomiting (after half an hour); it was not till the second day that the bowels and stomach seemed free from irritation. Every night, before the child had a movement form the bowels, he gave manifest evidence of pain in the bowels. Pain in the abdomen.
Rectum
Well-marked tenesmus was experience both by myself and by a friend who shared the experiment (after 10 grains).
Stool
Purging of watery, flaky, foul-smelling stools followed the vomiting in a few hours; passages came every ten to fifteen minutes; at 10 A.M. the stools diminished; she had only three till afternoon, but they were copious, grayish, with smell like putrefaction taking place. Purging with vomiting, and severe abdominal pains. Profuse diarrhoea, with the vomiting (in one case). Had movement every night while the child lived.
Urinary Organs
Frequent efforts to urinate, ability to pass only a few drops each time. Micturition painful on account of burning in the urethra, with constant desire to urinate, evacuation of only a few drops, that color the linen intensely yellow (after 10 grains). Five grains were taken at bedtime, and next morning an irresistible and almost uncontrollable desire to micturate was felt, the act being attended with some irritation and smarting; the urine was of a deep saffron-yellow, staining the pot and linen precisely as bile; it was of specific gravity 1028; the quantity was decidedly increased, and the urea was somewhat in excess; the diuretic action continued during the day, and it was not until 8 P.M. that the secretion was quite free from foreign pigment. Urine thick, sulphur-yellow; after standing an hour it deposited a sulphur-yellow sediment, the urine above which was slightly greenish. Urine increased in quantity, of the color of saturated saffron-water, continuing three days (after one hour).
Urine increased threefold. After four days the color disappeared from the urine. Urine pale yellow, alkaline; in other respects the child was well. Very copious and involuntary discharge of urine towards early morning. As a general rule the urine becomes colored; in some it continued colored even after the derangement of vision had passed away. The urine became light-green, and stained the linen so deeply that it could not be washed out.
Urine of the peculiar greenish color which has been noticed after the exhibition of this drug. Urine greenish. In two persons, the urine was very much colored for a few hours. Urine yellowish- green. Intensely yellow color of the urine. Urine orange-colored (second day). Urine scanty, dark lemon-yellow, acid, depositing dark-yellow crystals of uric acid; nitric acid caused a transient brownish-red color; alkalies caused an amaranth-red color. Next morning the urine, which had been kept in a tall glass vessel, was of a bright pinkish-red (second day). The urine passed soon after the second dose was of a greenish-yellow color; a few drops of liq. ammonia immediately produced a clear red tint. It gives to urine the property of turning cherry-red when boiled with caustic potass, or even when caustic potass is added to it in the cold; this reaction might easily lead to the conclusion that sugar is present in the urine; no result is obtained with the copper test, and, therefore, the application of this test will at once prevent any mistake in a doubtful case. The urine if not increased in quantity (which generally is the case), is voided with greater frequency, and is changed in color. It puts off its ordinary amber color and takes on a deep saffron; it resembles in hue a saturated solution of pure yellow precipitate of potash; it imparts this color to clean white cotton clothes dipped in it, and these clothes retain the color after they become dry. The color is the same as that acquired by Santonin after prolonged exposure to sunlight. The urine become turbid, turbid even when first voided, and symptoms of vesical and nephritic irritation become quite clear. There is frequent and painful desire to void urine, and the discharges are scanty. There is regular dysuria.
Much the same state of things exist as happens in irritation from cantharides or from spirits of turpentine, and haematuria often ensues. He found the presence of Santonin in the urine might he detected by the alkali test, in periods varying from ten to fifty minutes after it had been taken, and that it was eliminated in form thirty to fifty hours. The color of the urine was in all cases greenish-yellow, sometimes approaching a light-saffron tint, the greenish hue best seen by looking obliquely across the surface of the fluid; it resembled the urine of a person slightly jaundiced, and like it, stained linen of a persistent light- yellow; in two other respects also it curiously conformed to bilious urine; when nitric acid was dropped on small quantity, a distinct purplish color was brought out, which, however, was evanescent; again, when sulphuric acid was added drop by drop, it developed a reddish-brown color, changing to a deeper brown; no such effect was produced upon the urine when not under the influence of Santonin; the sulphuric acid reaction was less ambiguous than the nitric acid, which might affect the coloring matter of normal urine somewhat similarly. On the addition of an alkali to the urine, a fine cherry-red or crimson color will immediately be developed, according to the amount of Santonin present; the urine will respond to potash, soda, or ammonia, and also to lime or baryta; water; if a globule of potassium be dropped on the urine, a bright-red track is left wherever the burning metal skims along the surface; at first ammonia was employed, and the color is well brought out by pouring a few drops of liquor;ammonia down the side of the test-tube, so as to float on the urine, when a red zone will appear sharply marked at the line of junction of the two liquids; but potash was afterwards found to be a more delicate reagent, and is better suited to general uses; the red alkaline fluid is not bleached or altered by boiling, but the color is at once destroyed by any acid, even carbonic acid gas; the subsequent addition of alkali restores the color as before; hence it may be inferred that the coloring substance is not impaired or broken up by acids.
Bicarbonate of sodium produced no immediate change, but on boiling for some time, the reddish tint was gradually developed, and was discharged by continued boiling; carbonate of sodium afforded similar results, except that it required longer boiling before the color was discharged; phosphate of sodium gave no results. The red-colored stratum soon subsides to the lower part of the test-tube carried down by the precipitated phosphates; prolonged exposure to light in contact with excess of alkali, bleaches out the color and chlorine at once dissipates it.
Considering the sparing solubility of Santonin, one part requiring 5000 parts; of water, at 17.5 C., the delicacy of the test will be apparent when it is stated that Santonin was detected in the urine within ten minutes after 4 grains were taken, and within an hour after but 1 grain was taken; in one experiment; the urine voided twenty-four hours after the dose gave a decoded red color with liq. potass, even when diluted with three parts of water. For ordinary doses of 3 to 6 grains, about two days are required for elimination, and it is to be remarked that the urinary coloration and reaction to the alkali test are more persistent than the phenomena connected with vision. When the red liquid is examined with the spectroscope, the red, orange, and yellow rays are transmitted, while the blue end of the spectrum is absorbed; in a more dilute state, the red and blue rays are transmitted, and the center of the spectrum is stopped; no characteristic absorption-bands are produced. In order to determine the nature of the coloring material found in the urine, and to ascertain its behavior with reagents as an aid towards its isolation, the following process was adopted at the suggestion of Dr. Emerson Reynolds: About a pint of urine, passed after taking 4 grains of Santonin the preceding evening, was treated with neutral acetate of lead, avoiding excess, and then filtered; to the filtrate, neutralized with potash, basic acetate of lead was added so long as any precipitate was formed, and until the fluid became colorless; neutralized, filtered, and washed; the yellow precipitate was transferred to a beaker, and decomposed by the cautious addition of dilute sulphuric acid; spirit of wine was added, and the beaker set aside for twenty- four hours; filtered; removed excess of sulphuric acid by barytic water, and filtered; the clear fluid now gave the pink reaction distinctly with potash, but ammonia had no longer and effect; the coloring matter, therefore, was evidently set free, but the quantity at command was too small to admit of a more minute examination; the red alkaline filtrate gave a bulky precipitate with alum, and when this precipitate was filtered off, neither the precipitate nor the filtrate any longer afforded a trace of color with potash. The liberated coloring substance does not seem to enter into combination with nitrate of silver, nor is it visibly affected by corrosive sublimate, sulphocyanide of potassium, chloride of gold, or bichromate of potassium. With per salts of iron it gives a permanent rich brown color.
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.