This poisonous mushroom, Agaricus muscarius, is not uncommon in dry forests. It usually distinguished by its scarlet, mettled top. A tincture is made from the younger fresh plants.
General Action
Agaricus acts energetically upon the circulation, respiration, peristalsis and secretion. It irritates and excites the cardiac filaments of the pneumogastric, causes tonic contractions of arterioles and smooth muscle fibre (intestines, bladder, iris), increase secretions from the salivary glands, liver, pancreas, mucous membrane of intestinal canal, etc., and causes contraction of the pupil and spasm of accommodation. Paralysis results as a reaction from prolonged spasm or as the primary effect of large doses. Numerous effects (motor and sensory) may be referred to an anaemia of nerve centres (brain and spine), caused by persistent spasm of blood vessels.
Allies.-Secale corn. Physostigma, Pilocarpine, Nicotine.
Antagonist.-Belladonna.
Generalities
Emaciation. Cracking in joints on motion. Convulsions; (>) vomiting, with anxiety and pain at epigastric region; alternating with stupor; frequent convulsions in posterior part of chest, passing obliquely through, then in epigastrium, then in hypogastrium, especially r. side in evening, when standing, with a feeling as if the whole body were shaken. Spasm more like a trembling than a convulsion, with delirium. Convulsive motions of head and upper part of trunk, with startings in limbs. Frequent twitching of different muscles (Zinc(>)); twitching and jumping of single fingers. Twitching when lying, sometimes in one group of muscles, sometimes in another; sometimes with electric stitches here and there in the skin. Restlessness; of every voluntary muscle at 3 A.M., then quivering of whole body especially of lower jaw, then action of muscles as in St. Vitus’ dance. Trembling; internal. Sudden shaking of body and pulling of r. arm from under his head down to the trunk when lying then fine stitches in condyles of elbows. Commotion of nervous system. Tumbling about in a grotesque way. Awkwardness in evening.
Stitches in various parts of the body, especially between skin and flesh, no part of the body seems free from them, sometime with electric shivering and restless sleep. Tearing now and then in tendinous expansions especially on l. outer thigh. Pain simultaneously in several arts, especially on both sides above small of back; pain of various kinds simultaneously in all parts when sitting; intermitting, in bones in morning, (<) noon, (>) afternoon and evening, especially located in l. tibia, sometimes appearing in condyle f l. elbow, resembling syphilitic bone- pains, except they that they are (>)warmth of bed. Cramplike pain in various muscles and parts of body, even within l. ear, or of all muscles when sitting. Bruised feeling (<) sitting; bruised feeling in joins. Boring in head, thighs tibiae and bones of tarsus when sitting, with somnolence and general relaxation. General malaise; discomfort in whole body; all forenoon; in evening; with tired feeling in legs, preventing sleep, though very sleepy. Sensitiveness of all parts to pressure. Pulsations in all parts in all parts, especially in epigastrium. It seems as if the whole body were diminishing. Constant inclination t bend backward and for backward and forward and to stretch. Impulse to fall backward. Rising in morning difficult.
Weakness; morning on waking, with confusion; weakness after afternoon nap, with painfulness and lameness of limbs in bed; after an embrace; on least motion, with palpitation; on waking; when walking; after walking; after short but quick walking; (<) sitting; (>) walking in open air; with delirium, much like that in a dynamic fever; with cold and viscid sweat; with vertigo; alternating with itching on face, and nose, ears and scalp. Fainting; faint feeling on ascending a hill, with sweat. Supernatural strength. Light feeling, as if she could run as never before. Blunting of senses; heaviness of whole body; morning on waking, with heat; at night; especially of calves. The whole body seems paralyzed. Much affected from walking; much affected by being in the air, which is not hot. Aggravation in morning, fasting and after eating; aggravation of symptoms of muscles when sitting, seldom when walking. Amelioration from vomiting and stool. He feels best when walking very slowly.
Clinical Chorea and chorea-like twitching, neuralgia and various troubles due to weak irritable nerves, with an irritable anaemic spine, frequently find their remedy in Agaricus. General aggravation from walking in the open air and relief from being warm in bed predominate. There is no evidence of any chronic constitutional dyscrasia, such as underlies epilepsy. Tremor and tremulous tongue in low fever, with delirium and attempts to get out of bed.
Mind
Delirium; imagines himself a military officer; imagines himself at the gate of hell and that the mushroom tells him to fall on his knees and confess his sins, which he does. Phantasy that he saw his dead sister in heaven. Calling for his hatchet, alternately with religious excitement. Fury; desires to rip up his bowels, which he imagines the mushroom has ordered. Fearless, menacing, mischievous frenzy, also frenzy, so that he injures himself, with great strength. Talking incoherently, passing rapidly from one subject to another. Merry, incoherent loquacity, with convulsions of facial and cervical muscles, r., drawing head towards r. shoulder, and with movement of flexion and extension alternately in lower limbs while walking, followed by quiet, then nausea and malaise. Telling secrets. Singing; and talking, but does not answer questions. Alternately signs and is vexed, embraces his companions and kisses their hands. Timid craziness. Delirium, with increase of strength. Running and walking involuntarily in dangerous places. Intoxicated, they carry heavy loads, take long steps and jump over small objects as if over trunks of trees. A small hole seems like a frightful chasm and a spoonful of water an immense like (Cannab. ind). Leaping. Dancing. Romping with children. Wild cries. Ecstasy, prophecies and making verses. Courage. Bold, revengeful projects.
Gayety; with increase of strength, then sleep, then prostration on waking. Now gay, now melancholy. Laughter, owing to a mixed sensation of happiness and misery; involuntary laughter after each yawning; laughter about their not standing and walking straight. Disinclination to speak; or work, also with uneasiness and weakness. Ill humor; morning on waking; ill humor, with disinclination to answer questions. Loathing of life Quarrelsome. Vexed with herself and pities herself. Anxiety; with tremors and lassitude; with sweat; about his present and future condition; as if something unpleasant were going to happen to her. Depression of spirits; from slight causes; so that he shut himself up in his room, lest he should be obliged to talk. Weeping; with anguish. Uneasiness of mind and body. Indifference. Indolence. Aversion to mental work; with thoughtless staring.
Imbecility. Coma Unconsciousness; with closed eyes; with red, puffy face. Attack as if he would lose consciousness in evening after lying down, Understands with difficulty what he reads, and even if it is easy to understand he reads with difficulty because the type seems to move, with itching and burning in eyes. Attention not fixed by reading, Stupefaction; morning on waking; (>) open air, with drowsiness; with spasmodic agitation; alternating with convulsions. Confusion in morning on waking. Cannot find the words he wishes to use. Memory weak, lost, also thought he had made a journey. Nervous activity indescribably deranged.
Head
Falling backward, as if a weight were attached to occiput. Swaying back and forth. Convulsions of muscles of head and neck. Involuntary motions. Shooting. Tearing in. different places in skull; in tendinous expansions of skull; as if brain would be torn to pieces; jerking tearing, especially behind r. ear. Aching; morning in bed; on waking at 3 A.M.; after dinner, especially in occiput; deep-seated, dull, especially in forehead, obliging constant motion of head and closure of eyes; (>) copious stool, with flushes of heat; dull, stunning, with thirst and heat, especially in face; extending over skull, (<) touch, with constricted feeling in brain and inability to keep his mind on any subject. Externally in forenoon, especially in posterior half. Drawing aching; (>) sleep at night; morning on waking, with pressure in eyeballs. Intermittent aching before sleep. Sudden aching extending into. l. ear, as if something would stop it, when lying down on account of vertigo. Grinding. Stupefying aching. Leaden pressure of brain on skull, extending to nose. Sensation as if pain would appear; (>) thinking about it.
Burrowing in brain. Drawing in all directions, with sensation as if he would lose his senses. Intoxicated feeling; pleasant intoxication. Stupefaction; forenoon; dizzy sensation on putting head out of window, with roaring in l. ear. Confusion towards noon, with cool creeping in scalp of vertex, and tension in scalp. dullness, (<) walking in open air; with fulness in head and drawing towards temples; dizzy, also in afternoon, (<) reading or looking into the light. Enlarged feeling. Fulness. Heaviness; as after intoxication; as if pressed in, especially in forehead. Congestion; rush of blood on mental effort, with throbbing in arteries, heat in face and disturbance of thought.
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.