Then, again, she would start involuntarily, quick as if a shock of electricity had passed through her body, with an air of affright, and a loud shriek; her limbs writhed with convulsive motions, and her countenance and body distorted in every direction; apparently affected with great pain and anxiety. At other times, in her intervals of ease, she would sing, and sometimes laugh, but could not be made to utter a word; neither did she appear to take notice of anything that was said to her.
In short, the functions of her mind appeared to be entirely deranged. These paroxysms occurred at intervals of five or ten minutes, and continued about the same period. She manifested a great aversion to fluids of every kind. When a cup of water was brought to her lips, she would instantly start from it, and sometimes relapse into her paroxysm; so great was her aversion to it, that it was with the utmost difficulty a teaspoonful of any fluid could be forced down her throat. The appearance of the family was extremely ludicrous. The children were laughing, crying, singing, dancing, and playing all imaginable antic pranks. They had no correct estimation of distance, or the size of objects; were reaching their hands to catch hold of objects across the room, and again running against persons and things which they appeared to view as distant. The nail-heads in the floor were pieces of money, which they eagerly tried to pick up.
A boy, apparently fancying himself undressed, caught a hat belonging to a student, thrust his foot into it, pulled with both hands on the brim, and began to fret that he could not “get on his trousers.” The parents frequently called on the children to behave themselves; but their own actions being equally eccentric, they afforded a ridiculous exhibition of family government. They turned natural fools upon it for several days. One would blow up a feather in the air, another would dart straws at it with great fury; another, stark naked, was sitting up in a corner, like a monkey, grinning and making mouths at them; a fourth would fondly kiss and paw his companions, and sneer in their faces, with a countenance more antic than a Dutch doll. In this frantic condition they were confined, lest in their folly they should destroy themselves. In eleven days they recovered, unconscious of anything which had passed. He became delirious, and knew nothing of himself until he was relieved; during this time he performed many queer antics; one time he was off to hitch up his team; again he gathered up sticks and placed them together to build a fire; then he would motion as though he would scrape lice and bugs together, shake them out of hats; pull the paper off the wall to get them out; pick them off himself and tramp them, etc.; see rats running and try to catch them; he was very talkative; did not know even his wife, nor where he was; wanted to go home, etc. (after fifteen to thirty minutes). Screaming, catching at imaginary objects in the air, or rather striking at them, for it was evident that these spectra were of a frightful nature, since at the moment of darting out the hand in the direction where the eyes were fixed, she always suddenly, and with great vehemence, withdrew herself, expressing the utmost terror in her look; at the same time screaming and sobbing violently. Her eyes would, to appearance, follow the imaginary object for a moment or two, before she made the effort to escape from its supposed approach.
She rapidly became furiously delirious, struck at, pushed, or attempted to bite, every person who came near, or any object that was offered to her. In two and a half hours she knew no person, and had been wholly insensible to surrounding objects for above an hour and a half. She remained in this condition for about three hours, when a stage of coma supervened, lasting two hours.
There was a return of the excitement, but not so severe as that which first presented itself; neither was it attended by ocular spectra, or tetanic spasm. The first symptom was a high degree of exhilaration, in which she caused much merriment by her extravagant gestures and speeches. This soon became alarming, and when I was called to see her, she was laughing, crying, and singing, by turns, proceeding from one to the other state with the greatest rapidity. She occasionally started with great force and alarm, crying out that she was going to fall, when she would cling to her mother with as much desperation as if she were about to be thrown from a precipice. She would next become calm, then whistle, and afterwards point with her finger at muscae volitantes, which she followed with the eye and hand, at last clutching at them, with an appearance of disappointment at want of success. The child was to all appearance happy, talking all the incoherent nonsense that can be imagined, laughing, and in constant motion; but labored under so great a debility, that it could not stand or walk without tottering, and several times in attempting it fell down; it was a perfect delirium mite. The unfortunate, after swallowing the powder (of Stramonium), remains for a long time out of his mind, laughing or crying or sleeping, for the most; even speaking to another and answering, so that you might think sometimes that he was in his right mind, although he is not in his senses, not recognizes the one to whom he is speaking, and does not recollect the conversation when he returns to consciousness. After sleeping a few hours he suddenly sprang up with most remarkable jumping about on his hands and feet, and talking animatedly; eight hours after this he became conscious, with trembling of the limbs, which were in constant motion; the face was red and puffy, with violent throbbing in the arteries; the pupils were extremely dilated, respiration short, rapid, abdomen meteoric and painful to pressure, tongue white and dry.
On becoming warm in bed, I felt a host of new sensation creeping over both body and mind. My whole frame was affected with a tremulous vibration, but most sensibly felt through my abdomen, attended with a prickly sensation over the whole body. My mind became extremely timid and restless, which rendered all attempts to compose myself to sleep fruitless. After a teaspoonful of elixir of paregoric, I felt every symptom getting worse; the surface of my body was bathed with a clammy perspiration; whenever I attempted to close my eyes I was assailed by imaginary spectres, in the most hideous forms and menacing attitudes; and what was still to my torment, my bed was suspended and tantalized like a feather between two floors. A clouded state of faculties, horrible obfuscation. A patient twice told me he was quite alarmed at seeing how bewildered and incapable I was; I upset everything I touched; he seemed to me to be talking out of a cloud, or as if he was a figure in a vision and not a reality, and when he ceased talking, I subsided into a sort of bewilderment, from which I could with difficulty rouse myself to attend to his case; my writing was almost an unintelligible scrawl; I lay down again till evening, dizzy and incapable, with dull headache on vertex, but not much pain; I could not realize anything; my wife sitting my by bed seemed like a phantom, and I put out my hand occasionally, to feel if she were a real existence. Before this extreme condition of bewilderment came on, I was excessively forgetful; would begin a sentence with a perfectly clear idea of what I intended to say, but forgot all about it before I had completely expressed myself; also I use d wrong words, and expressed my meaning badly. My speech was thick, as if my tongue were too large for my mouth, though I felt nothing wrong in my tongue, but only a sort of globbering articulation (ninth day). She was first discovered after drinking the tea, wandering in the backyard scrambling along the fence, as if trying to get hold of something indistinctly visible, for being called to account for her strange behavior, she could give no reply, but slave red and muttered as if drunk.
She appeared foolish, had the peculiar facetious leer often observed in drunkenness. If let alone, she continued clawing everything within reach, and seemed inclined to constant motion.
When asked, she said she had eaten Stramonium; this was all she remembered (after half an hour); her mother gave her medicines, but she continued dull and stupid the greater part of the day, till brought to the dispensary; part of the day she was unmanageable and talked wildly, so that her mother had to give her the medicine by force. On admission (after eleven hours), she had a wild appearance, was stupid, and unconscious of her state; when roused, she gave a foolish vacant look around. When pinched or tickled, he became very angry, and muttered incoherently, turning upon his face and kicking backward, with alternate movements of the feet. With horrible cries he strikes at those around him, and is furious. Hydrophobia. (* With other symptoms, restlessness, violent convulsions, the patient being so violent that he had to be tied; he rolled about in his bed, sleepless, and uttered shrill screams; he was delirious, without memory or consciousness; his pupils were extremely dilated; violent desire to bite and to tear everything with his teeth; extreme dryness of the inner mouth and fauces; the sight of a light, a mirror, or water, excited horrible convulsions; irresistible aversion to water, with constriction and conouisions of the throat; froth at the mouth and frequent spitting.- HAHNEMANN. *) Apparent dread or aversion to water or fluids of any kind. Raving, biting. Great desire to bite and to tear everything with his teeth, that comes before his mouth, even his own limbs. Excessive aversion, amounting even to rage, when it was attempted to administer any liquid, appearing like hydrophobia; he even had the spasmodic irritation of the pharyngeal muscles, so that anything taken choked him and was regurgitated. Rage. Rage; unmanageable; grasping with his hands; laughing; rolling and creeping around in bed. (Rage; he wants to kill people). (Rage; he wants to kill himself).
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.