Abdomen
Hypochondria. Liver enlarged. Acute inflammation of the liver after an extraordinary bout of smoking. Pressure in the hypochondria (first day). Stitches in the hypochondria (first and seventh days). Sensitiveness of the entire gastric region to slight pressure. But the real seat of pain was the left hypochondria, immediately below the heart. Slight pressure relieved it temporarily, it never ceased entirely, but came on in paroxysms, mostly excited in a state of complete rest. The patient described this pain as being an exaggeration of that which is felt in the region of the spleen running too long. When pressing upon the hepatic region pain extending to the pit of the stomach (tenth day). Stitches in the hepatic region relieved by stooping, could not stretch out on account of it (tenth day).
Stitches in the hepatic region (fourth day). Several times stitches in the hepatic region under the last ribs, towards evening (first day). Fine stitches as with a needle in the liver, aggravated by breathing (first day). When walking, stitches in the liver, which extend toward the pit of the stomach (tenth day). Burning sticking externally in the left hypochondriac region (after five minutes). Umbilicus and Sides.
Painful retraction of the navel, especially on stooping. Cramp like pain in the umbilical region with cramp like retraction of the navel. Pressive sensation beneath the right short ribs, as if a heavy weight were lying there, the place is also painful to touch. Digging and pressive feeling in the umbilical region. A pressive, painful feeling in the region of the kidneys. Stitches beneath the right short ribs (fourth day). Sharp stitches in the right flank (second day). General Abdomen. Abdomen distended.
Abdomen excessively swollen, hard, tense, very painful to the slightest touch. Belly retracted. Abdomen contracted.
Retracted abdomen with rumbling. Flatulence and nausea.
Frequent movements of flatus with pain in the abdomen, followed by diarrhoea with tenesmus, in the evening (seventh day).
Rumbling in the abdomen. Rumbling in the transverse colon.
Rumbling in the colon and inclination to stool. Rumbling, gurgling, and griping about the abdomen (first day). Rumbling and gurgling in the abdomen on deep breathing, lasting eight days. Rumbling in abdomen, and a feeling of coldness over the whole body. Very violent, almost incessant rumbling in the abdomen the whole afternoon, while taking a walk (tenth day).
Pain in the abdomen. Pain in the abdomen with distension.
Frightful pains in the abdomen. Considerable looseness, and pain in the lower part of abdomen (woman). Repeated attacks of what he called “biliousness,” pain in the bowels, and purging. Severe pain in bowels, their action was arrested, necessitating the use of enemata. Frightful pain in the abdomen, a violent burning which caused loud cries, the pains afterwards involved the whole abdomen, especially the epigastrium. Violent contractions in the muscles of the abdomen. She woke after midnight with sensitiveness in the abdomen, so that she could scarcely be touched without internal pain, followed by a soft stool with relief of the pain; at 4 A.M. the same symptoms were renewed (first day).
The entire abdomen, but more especially the pit of the stomach and the hepatic region, are so sensitive that the pressure of his uniform tunic is intolerable. Some months after, ceasing to smoke, I was induced to smoke incessantly, during a nine-hours’ journey in the company of smokers, and in consequence, the taste of rancid oil returned, with such intensity, that it would have turned my stomach, had it not been disguised by the same means which had excited it. On approaching Paris, I felt some slight lancinations in the hypochondria, which I scarcely noticed. Feeling as if the abdomen was larger than usual; and on the other hand, while it was the seat of a dull pain, little increased by pressure, it was as if paralyzed; I touched it, and my hands alone were sensitive of the contact. I noticed also a difficulty in articulation, resulting from a kind of numbness, hitherto quite un felt, not only of the tongue, but of the muscles of the cheeks and lower jaw, which were affected with slight nervous agitation when I tried to speak. These last symptoms, however, which I attributed to fatigue, ceased for the most part on my arrival at home. It was then 8 P.M.; I had an excellent appetite, my dinner await-ed me, and I took my seat at the table with extreme pleasure. The soup seemed excellent, it doubtless was so, but alas! I was unable to enjoy it. I had taken scarcely three or four spoonfuls when a sudden, piercing, indescribable pain, so excessive as to make me cry out, forced me to drop my spoon, and throw myself back in my chair, pale as a corpse, bathed in a cold sweat, breathless, as if in the agonies of death. Judge how my family were terrified! The disorder had broken out so suddenly and with such violence, that I had not the chance to utter a word, and only my hands clasped over the stomach served to point out the seat of my suffering. However, I succeeded with some difficulty, in getting into bed. I was covered with hot cloths, which were renewed every minute, and greatly relieved me. I felt my pulse – it was never quieter; I pressed hard on the stomach and abdomen, they scarcely felt it.
A quarter of an hour passed, my appetite returned, I was hungry, very hungry, and without quitting my bed (very fortunately, as it turned out) I resumed my dinner, which seemed to have been interrupted by a horrible nightmare. So incredible, so rapid a change, caused the friends who surrounded me to smile amid their recent tears; they brought me the wing of a fowl. I eagerly swallowed a few mouthfuls; it was too much, a hundred times too much. The pain has got me again – it is terrible! I have had extracted in my time a big molar, whose root had grown to the lower jaw, which broke twice under the dentist’s turnkey. In 1849 I had cholera so badly that I was blue all over, as my venerable friend Dr. Peters can testify, who kindly attended me at the time. Well, I boldly declare that the pain I am now speaking of was worse than either. A horrible night it was, that night of February 21st, 1858. First, I vomited (but only by taking tepid water and tickling the uvula), a little food mingled with a very bitter fluid. It seemed to me that this vomiting relieved me by bringing out the sweat which marked the height and turning-point of the at-tacks. These lasted altogether from twenty to thirty minutes, becoming rather longer towards morning.
Each of them was over in from one to three minutes, during which I could not only keep from crying aloud by prodigious efforts of will. They were accompanied neither with nausea not colic, and excited neither stool nor urination, but yielded in every case to a very copious sweating, which usually marked the close of a paroxysm. After the cessation of one attack I felt remarkably easy. Then my face, a moment before greatly altered and of a cadaverous pallor, p73 regained its color and natural expression, and I had no more pain anywhere. During the 22nd, I had three of these attacks, in the daytime. The first one took me (I believing myself cured) when I was away from home, but only a few steps from it. Fortunately a carriage was standing at my door. I beckoned to the driver, and he came to my help before I fainted in the street. On the 23rd, I was well and without an attack, thanks to lying in bed, and the strictest diet, despite a very sharp appetite. On 24th, after a very good night and feel- ing admirably, I took a few spoonfuls of chocolate, and went out in a carriage. But scarcely had ten minutes passed when I felt another attack coming on, and returned home quite desperate.
25th and 26th, strict diet, rest in bed, and no attack. 27th, chicken-broth; I could sit up a little; felt same wandering pains in the sides, but no decided attack. Three days after, I returned to my usual diet and mode of life. The tongue, which was loaded after the forced vomiting, is still a little yellow at the root. The pulse, which for eight days had continued quite regular (even in the most violent of the paroxysms) is still a little slower than usual; but this I attribute to deprivation of food. No trace of pain. The stools are normal, and there has been no constipation. March 5th, having felt very well for five days, I tried to smoke a cigar, and immediately, that is, after the third and fourth puff, felt sharp, characteristic pain in the pit of the stomach; rancid taste in the mouth; sweat on the forehead; an attack was impending, which would certainly have occurred if I had gone on smoking. Colic. Colic, in the morning (fifth day). Colic, as from a purge, towards evening (eighth day). Violent colic. Colic and diarrhoea. Colic, followed by violent cramp in the stomach, great nausea and salivation (tenth day). Movements about the abdomen as if diarrhoea would come on (first day). Griping in the abdomen (first and fourth day). Griping and rumbling in the abdomen for twelve days (after four days). Griping in the abdomen, followed by clawing pain in the stomach (fourth day). Pinching and griping in the abdomen. Shocks in the bowels at night when first getting into a drowse; at length they came on in the daytime, with epigastric sinking, costiveness and general dyspepsia. Pressure in the upper abdomen. A feeling of weight and distension in the abdomen. Tearing in the abdomen at night (eighth day). A number of sudden fine stitches in the whole abdomen (after half an hour). Heat in the intestinal canal. Hypogastrium and Iliac Region. Violent pressive pain in the lower abdomen with nausea and inclination to vomit. Violent pressive pains in the lower abdomen with chilliness of the whole body. Pressive pain in the lower abdomen with relief from emission of flatus. Sensation of powerlessness in the right groin (fifth day).
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.