This Liliaceous plant inhabits Africa; the leaves afford a juice which, when inspissated, forms the Aloes of commerce, from this a tincture is prepared.
General Action
The most pronounced action of Aloes is the engorgement of the pelvic viscera (Uterus; Rectum), increasing haemorrhoidal congestion and uterine haemorrhage. The diarrhoea is very characteristic, and with the portal congestion are associated the frontal pains, flatulence and various secondary phenomena. The arthritic pains are significant, but have been neglected clinically.
Allies.- AEsculus-hipp., (Belladonna). (Bryonia), Lycopod., Podophyllum, Sulphur, Berberis, Iris, (Phosphorus), (Pulsatilla).
Generalities
Anxious starting-up. Sticking in joints. Bruised or sprained pain in various places. Drawing in various places, as if it involved the bones; paralytic D., in various muscles. Ebullition of blood. Sensitiveness of whole body. Restlessness; anxious. Disinclination to more. Disinclination to go into the open air, though there is relief from it. Indolence; at noon. Weakness; evening; on motion; after vomiting; alternating with activity. Aggravation in afternoon, especially of symptoms of mucous membranes (Lycopodium).; symptoms appear in evening particularly. Amelioration in open air (Lycopodium); from exercise in open air; emission of offensive flatus in evening; emission of hot flatus upward and downward, smelling camphor.
Mind
Disinclination to mental labor (Phosphorus). Speedy fatigue from mental labor. Incapacity for labor, with peevish restlessness. Anguish. Anxiety; from vertigo. Apprehension and oppression. Sadness. Peevish about himself (Sulphur); so that he insults and blasphemes, (<) afternoons. Anthropophobia. Quarrelsome. Wilful. Hard to please and crying at least provocation (Pulsatilla). Disgust at everything during pain. Phlegmatic. Indifferent in evening. Excitement. Contentment. Happy mood in evening.
Head
Tearing here and there. Shaking in, as if brain were loose, when walking at 11 A.M., (<) fresh, cold air and on laying head down, then and awhile after rising up pulsating pain, especially in occiput, (>) after eating. Aching; in morning, until after breakfast, with languor; in morning, after incomplete stool. (>) by a second stool; after griping in bowels and after stool; (from heat of sun); on touch; (<) in dark, (>) in light; (<) motion, especially stooping; (<) in warm, (>) cool air; (>) eating; with nausea; alternating with lumbago; alternating with pain in loins, also periodically; pulsating A.; sluggish drawing A., more externally.
Congestion. Attack, with nausea, as from indigestion. Heaviness. Tension. Confusion; painful, every morning. Murky feeling, compelling him to make the eyes small. Widened feeling, as if pressed out on all sides. Shock from arm into head, there upon sensation of a wind extending from head into abdomen. Vertigo; while standing and walking, making him anxious; (>) by nasal catarrh, l., then r., with copious mucus, which soon became thick; paroxysmal; as if everything whirled about with her, (<) ascending stair and turning quickly; as if he sat on a high chair, while sitting after eating.
Forehead.- Stitches over brows, and also in frontal prominences; in l. brow outward to eye, afternoon and evening; in r. side between forehead and vertex, from the top inward. Aching; afternoon; r. side; in sinciput; in supraorbital region; in middle of F., downward and inward towards nose; with abdominal symptoms; above forehead, with heaviness in eyes and nausea; extending to half of face (Bryonia); involving orbits; pressing A., down into forehead; A. pressing outward towards temples; A. in forehead and on vertex, as from a weight. Drawings to bottom of r. side from above r. brow, every evening; D. over r. side, with sticking; darting, over l. eye and outward through eye. Confusion in sinciput, especially with chilliness.
Temples.- Stitches in l., (<) every step; in l. towards ear; through l. into brain; drawing, over r. (Aching ear; through l. into brain; drawing, over r. (Aching in r.); intermittent, (<) l. Pressing outward to T., with periodic heat in face and flickering vision. Pressive boring in l., in afternoon.
Vertex.- Aching; as from subcutaneous ulceration, on r. side, (<) touching hair; as from subcutaneous ulceration behind vertex, with standing up of hair on that spot. Weight on.
Parietals.- Sudden shootings upward in r. side of head, evening and morning. Aching on l. side of head; on l. side of top of bone; in middle of r. half of brain; leaping pain in r. bone, towards vertex. Pulsation in l. wall of head, at first painless.
Occiput.- Stitches after stopping. Aching in r. angle, in evening. Dull drawing in l. Pulsation at night when lying down. External soreness.
Scalp.- Dryness of hair. Aching on occiput like a pressure. Sensitive spot on l. upper occiput in morning when combing hair, and towards evening on r. side of vertex. Beaten feeling near l. vertex, so that pressure is painful, yet feels good. Numbness moving over scalp, with warmth.
Clinical Frontal headache is most characteristic of this drug; it is generally associated with abdominal symptoms; it is rarely useful for neuralgic headaches.
Eyes
Compelled to make small, during the pain in forehead. Heaviness, with aching above forehead and nausea. Tearing at bottom of r. Pain as from a hot current in r., along axis of vision; outward drawing pain in and over l. Pressure in r. ball, evenings from light. Pustules surrounded by red vessels at external angle of r. Pain deep in orbits, as if in muscles, (<) r. Outward drawing pain in brow, extending to l. eye. Vision dim at night. when writing. Flickering; with scotoma; with the pressing outward to temples and periodic heat of face. Yellow rings move before the eyes. Shining bodies shoot across eyes.
Ears
Drawing sticking in middle ear, l. then r. Drawing from, into a lower back tooth. Twinging in r.; in evening. Aching during menses; in, and externally behind and below l., during menses; in l. external meatus, (<) pressing teeth together; towards midday drawing pain from before backward, below r. external meatus, behind the lobules, in mastoid process and in ear passage itself. Heat in middle and outer. On pressing teeth together a numbness behind ear, drawing down through a lower back tooth. Sudden explosion in l., after getting into bed, as from the breaking of glass, the clink of the glass was heard at bottom of head and extended towards r. ear. Rustlings in r., on moving jaw.
Nose
Redness in cold open air. Scurfiness on inner surface of r. wing, with sensitiveness. Pain on motion, (<) morning. Burning in l. nostril. Dryness, morning in bed. Sneezing; till evening, with watery mucus; ineffectual attempts at, also in morning. Coryza; (<) afternoon; with burning in nose; with pain in nose; with soreness in r. nostril; dry; fluent; sensation of C., with husky voice and chilliness. Discharge of copious mucus, which soon becomes thick, from l., then r. nostril, after the anxious vertigo; thin mucus. Bleeding in morning; from r. nostril, morning in bed; flowing of blood in afternoon; feeling as if it would bleed.
Face
Redness, with heat, wide-awake and excited; red round spot on l. border of lower jaw, between lower border, angle of jaw and chin. In l. half, confusion and pain coming from an inflamed spot in mouth and from forehead. Fine crackings in r. maxillary joint at 9 P.M., when reading aloud.
Lips.- Red; in evening. Swelling, pain, dryness, and scurf; swelling of lower, with a vesicle covered with a yellowish hard skin. Moist spongy scurf. Cracking; inner side of upper, when laughing; painful C. of lower, near angle. Dryness; after dinner, (>) evening, with whiteness; D., with white scaly epidermis, licked continually with the tongue.
Mouth
Teeth. Yellow. Stitches in a third hollow back tooth. Concave edges seem sharp and hurt the tongue. Sensitiveness in a hollow back tooth, (<) eating, afterwards pain when not touched, and then a pustule appears in front of its gum. Gnawing in a l. lower hollow tooth in evening and periodically through night, (<) eating. Drawing in lower incisors. Tongue coated yellowish-white. Trembling and shock in larynx and tongue. Dry tongue; evenings; D. and stiff; and red. Pain in back part of r. side of tongue, (<) touching teeth. Coldness of l. side of tongue.
Inflamed spots in mouth; inflammation and sore pain in l. cavity. Dry mucus; thick mucus on waking at 3 O’clock and in fauces. Dryness; evenings; after dinner, (>) evening. Dry heat. Burnt and inflamed feeling in hard palate and about last teeth, (>) swallowing food. Sore feeling in inner side of l. cheek, afternoons. Salivation; after breakfast, with hunger-Sickening smell to the breath. Taste metallic, with dry irritative hacking; of ink or iron, with irritation to cough; bitter; bitter, nauseous; like senna, between root of tongue and soft palate; sour; clayey.
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.