Rigidity of the body, alternating with violent spasms. The whole body suddenly became stiff and rigid, with momentarily threatening suffocation. The whole frame rigid, except the arms and hands, which she could exert with comparative freedom and ease. The muscular system generally was on the stretch. The legs were stiff, and the feet drawn down and fairly bowed; the thumbs slightly drawn in, presenting the appearance of carpopedal spasm. The muscles of the chest and throat, and especially the latter, were in active play, as though laboring to overcome some powerful obstacle to the admission of air to the lungs; an exquisite sensitiveness of the nerves of sensation.
Stiffening in the muscles generally, especially in the legs from the knees upwards, and in the left hand (eleventh day). She was found quite stiff, her eyes staring, and her hands clenched.
Muscles rigid. Muscles of the body generally, but especially of the legs, very hard. Extreme rigidity of the whole muscular system. The abdominal muscles and those of the lower extremities were more rigid than those of the thorax and upper extremities.
Muscles powerfully contracted. The whole body became rigid, immovable, and bent backward and towards the right side.
Stiffness of muscles and inability to move limbs (after three hours). All muscles of body rigid and extended, and body bent backwards at a considerable curve (after twenty minutes).
Whole muscular system rigid; muscles of the back, and of the upper and lower extremities, rigidly contracted; head drawn back; articulation difficult (after twenty minutes). It was found impossible to produce any relaxation of the body during a fit; the head was firmly bent back, the hands were clenched, the arms bent, the legs and body extended, and if moved she remained in that fixed position. Whole muscular system rigid; the muscles of the back and legs so rigidly contracted that it was with extreme difficulty that my patient could walk (after twenty minutes). The whole frame rigid and straight, or slightly curved backwards, and although expressing a wish to be raised to a sitting posture, apparently that he might breathe easier, yet an attempt to elevate his head, which was low and drawn back (there being slight opisthotonos), and the neck rigid, excited spasms, so that he begged us to desist. Lying on back in bed; hands clenched; forearms flexed; one leg extended, the other in the act of being so, convulsed; head drawn back. Lying on his back, with his upper and lower extremities extended and rigid (after three hours and three quarters). Lying upon his back; his legs stretched wide apart; toes bent upon the bottom of the feet. He lay upon his back; arms extending obliquely from the body. Outstretched, without consciousness; jaws clenched; respiration very difficult.
Head bent backward and body rigid. Body bent backward.
Slight opisthotonos. Opisthotonos. Opisthotonos; the muscles of the spine are hard and rigid, like cords, the arms outstretched, the hand clenched. Wellmarked opisthotonos, the head being drawn very much backwards. Great opisthotonos. Complete opisthotonos.
Weakness. Extreme weariness, in the morning (fifty-third day).
Trembling, powerless state of body (forty-third day).
Extreme weariness (several days). Extreme weariness and lassitude, in the morning (twenty-sixth day). Extreme weariness and yawning, in the afternoon (twenty-third day). Great weariness and prostration (sixth day). Great weariness with the giddiness and nausea (third day). Great prostration after the spasms.
Prostration succeeded to excitement (after eighteen hours).
Collapsed appearance. Faintness, during which the patient said it seemed as though electric shocks passed from the nape of the neck to the forehead. Restlessness (after second powder).
Exceedingly restless (after fifteen minutes). Extreme restlessness, with complete consciousness. Restlessness, with profuse perspiration (forty-fourth night). Hyperaesthesia and shrinking from currents of air (after seven hours). Excessive hyperaesthesia. Extreme sensitiveness to external impressions; a moderate noise or the slightest touch affected her most disagreeably. Sensation acute. The contact of the slightest breeze becomes painful, and that of a solid body produces shuddering and spasmodic movements. Great sensibility of the cutaneous surface to cold, so as to shrink convulsively at the slightest noise. Extremely sensitive to the slightest touch or noise; every little noise appeared to beat at the back of the brain (thirty-first day). She felt extremely sensitive to the slightest touch; if the foot was touched, it jumped as though it was shot off (twenty-seventh day). The sensation of touch is made painfully acute, and the slightest touch of a foreign body at once produces convulsions more or less powerful. The effort to raise an eyelid has produced a spasmodic action, which seemed to run through the whole system with electric rapidity. The organs of special sense became peculiarly sensitive. The sensitive nerves seemed to convey abnormal impressions, for while the surface was hot to the feel, she at first complained of coldness; subsequently, however, the sensation was of heat, yet she described the feeling as numbness. Nervous, agitated feeling (twenty-fourth night). Sudden stiff sensation in the muscles generally, especially of the legs and abdomen, with extreme soreness (forty-seventh day). A convulsed, stiffened, and twisted feeling, at one moment in the arms and hands, at another in the muscles of the face, a feeling as though the arms were snatched back when taking hold of any thing; these sensations lasted for about three hours and then suddenly passed off; she felt all the time as if she would have a “fit,” though she never had anything of the kind (seventeenth day). Feels stiff all over (after twelve hours). The child screams with pain during the spasms. Great pain (after one hour). Cramp pains. Dried-up feeling all over the surface of the body. Dead numbness all through the limbs and body. A feeling of stagnation in or a powerless numb feeling throughout the entire body (twenty-seventh day). Felt slightly indisposed, the most prominent symptom being a sense of numbness in the back of the legs (soon); the symptoms suddenly increased, the numbness being accompanied by a sense of want of power, and a sort of dragging of the muscles of t he leg, which soon became so great that, as he described it, he had to put his hands at the back of his thighs in order to push his legs along. As he was in the midst of describing the effects upon his muscles, and bending himself so as to show how it occurred, he suddenly overbalanced and fell heavily backwards (after two hours and a half). On rising, in the morning, intense soreness in the muscles generally, especially of the legs and back (fifteenth day).
Peculiar sudden faint sensation, with a sense of extreme brilliancy of vision (after three hours and a quarter, fifth day). Tremulous feeling, with giddiness at intervals, in the afternoon (nineteenth day). Trembling, faint feeling, with sudden heat down the spine, at night (seventeenth day). Slight general convulsive shocks (forty-third day). Sudden jerks of the entire body when falling asleep (forty-third night). Jerkings quite similar to electric shocks. Sharp darting pain in the muscles at intervals (forty-seventh day). Shooting pains in all the muscles generally (second day). All the pains are more like a cramplike nature than rheumatic; they make her feel as though she would be stiffened (fourth day). While sitting, suddenly a kind of spasmodic jumping in the lower part of the trunk, and now and then in the left arm (after six hours and a quarter). In the evening the soreness and aching of the whole body became much worse, with intense aching in the back and behind the ears, especially the left half of the back about the waist (fifteenth day). Felt very much shaken, in the morning (twenty-eighth day).
All symptoms greatly aggravated, at night (forty-first day).- She felt herself altogether worse between 8 and 10, in the evening (third day). On rising, in the morning, felt much better. (Felt much better in herself, in the morning; the head and eyes seemed free, which had not been the case the entire week), (eighteenth day). (Since taking the last dose, on the thirty-seventh day, she felt much better in herself), (fortieth day). All the symptoms declined in half an hour.
Skin.
Objective. Skin at first pale, became at last bluish, the face puffy and dark violet, the lips dark blue, the neck swollen, and the jugular veins distended. Skin livid, and complete redness of entire surface. The skin of the body became bluish, the capillary vessels filled with venous blood. Subjective. Feeling of “burning all over” (after thirty minutes). Sensation of burning, itching, sticking, as of large pins in the skin. Prickling in the extremities. Prickly sensation in the feet at intervals (forty- sixth day). In the place where the drug is rubbed in there are violent burning, sticking, and increased warmth. Formication of the extremities. Formication over the arms and lower extremities.
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.