A tincture is prepared from the dried flowers of Artemisia Cina Berg. (wormseed).
General Action
From our present knowledge this drug acts similarly to Absinth, and other allied plants, producing increased reflex irritability and spasms. Its symptoms particularly simulate worm affections or peculiar forms of indigestion.
Allies. – Absinth., Chenopod., Chamomilla, Arnica, China, Nux-v., Ignatia, Calc-c., Ferrum.
Generalities
The child raises herself suddenly before coughing, looks wildly about, becomes stiff, loses consciousness, as if she would have epilepsy, then coughs. Convulsions; epileptic-like, with consciousness; with distortions of limbs in all directions, except that fingers and toes were unaffected, head and trunk were draw now backward, now forward, now to one side, while arms and legs were thrown about, then shocks through whole body, with motion downward, like stamping of feet, jerking of head upward and backward, the shocks were felt by the hand, (<) lower part of chest and upper abdomen, face pale, then livid, at last blue, eyeballs turned convulsively upward, then directed staringly forward, pupil insensible, tongue at times contracted to a cylinder and spasmodically protruded. Paralytic jerking in various parts, (<) in limbs. Spasmodic stretching at 4 P.M., then trembling, with blue lips and weeping complaints about pain in chest, neck and limbs. Trembling, with shivering when yawning. Tossing about even when awake (in a child). (Convulsive symptoms to be compared with Absinth., Chenopod., etc.).
Sticking here and there in body; here and there on trunk when sitting, (<) on abdomen; S. sometimes like a squeezing, sometimes like a pressure, sometimes like a blow or jerk, sometimes like an itching, now here, now there, in body, now in limbs, arms, feet, toes, now in side or back, now in nasal bones, (<) on posterior part of crest of ilium, on hip, the places pain on pressure as if bruised; cramplike contractive S. in muscles, now of r., now of l. thigh, now in muscles of r., now of l. upper arm, now down small of back, when sitting, (>) walking in open air. Tearing, in part cutting, in limbs, head and jaws; tensive T. in scapulae, after eating, (<) touch, and in upper arm, head and nape. Uneasiness; at night, tossing about on account of discomfort. Weak; and pale; in morning on rising, and nauseated. Aggravation morning and evening; A. after eating.
Mind
Delirium and crying out. Talking nonsense. Cannot be quieted by any persuasions; proof against all caresses (Nux-v.). Piteous cries if one attempted to touch or lead him. Lachrymose and complaining (in a child). Earnest and sensitive, offended at the slightest joke (Nux-v.). Refuses everything, even the things of which he is usually fond. Indifferent. Grunting, croaking and groaning in afternoon. Anxiety and anguish about heat when walking in open air, as if he had committed a crime. Unconscious and frothing at the mouth.
Clinical Great mental excitement, children wake in fright and scream and tremble. Children become very fretful, cannot be pleased, and though very weak when sick they are very cross and obstinate and strike everybody (Nux-v., Sulphur)
Head
Leaning to one side (in a child). Sticking in brain, (<) l. side of vertex. Tearing, extending into malar-bone. Aching; in morning, with affection of eyes; (<) reading and reflecting; with general discomfort; internal stupefying, on walking in open air, M in sinciput, then also in occiput; as if screwed in, with numbness; drawing, after eating, (<) reading and mental labor. Vertigo; on rising from bed, (>) lying down, with blackness before eyes, faintness and tottering.
Forehead. – Sticking above orbital margin extending deep into brain; in bone above r. temple, extending deep into head and threatening to stupefy him. Paralytic tearing in l., then r. eminence, with stupefaction of head. Pain in evening; pressing downward externally; as if upper bones were pressing downward externally; as if upper bones were pressed together from both sides; stupefying, externally, when sitting, and in temples, at last involving whole head. Pressure in bone, with internal beating as of waves; drawing P. in l. side of sinciput. Drawing from l. eminence to root of nose, causing confusion of head.
Tearing in l. temporal region, (>) moving head; tensive t. in r. temple. Pressing-out pain in temples after sneezing. Cramplike drawing in temples, (<) pressure. Intermittent weight in middle of vertex, as if brain were pressed down (Calc-ph.), (>) pressure. Drawing tearing in whole l. side of head. Pressing-out pain in r. parietal bone on waking, and in r. side of forehead. A spot on r. parietal bone feels numb and asleep.
Clinical Cerebral symptoms of meningeal irritability, especially in those suffering from worms, particularly with swollen, hot abdomen.
Eyes
Sickly look about, with pallor of face. Pain during reading and mental labor. Pressure internally. Dryness when reading, with drawing pain on exerting them. Weakness in morning, upper lids so weak all the forenoon that he could scarcely open them. Pupils dilated; contracted. (Inner canthi agglutinated in morning after rising.) Burning pain in outer canthus, with itching on margin of upper lid. (Burning in lids in evening by the light, (<) inner canthus.) Dryness of lids in evening by the light, with sensation of sand in them. Crawling in lids. Tickling itching in r. inner canthus; in l. outer canthus. Pulsation of superciliary muscles, a kind of convulsion. Pressure on lower margin of orbit, (<) pressure. Vision dim when reading, (>) rubbing eyes; in evening. Blue seems green, carmine-red fawn-colored, madder-red bronze, and white seems yellow (Santonine).
Clinical Asthenopia, vision becomes blurred on attempting to read. Strabismus from worms.
Ears and Nose
Sticking below mastoid process, like a pinching, and on pressure a bruised feeling. Cramplike jerking in external ear. The child bores into the nose until the blood comes (compare Arum-tri.). Violent sneezing. Burning deep in l. nostril as if blood would come or as after snuffing up brandy. Burning aching on septum of l. nostril, as if one had picked off a scab, (<) external touch. Fluent coryza; in forenoon, then stoppage of nose in evening. Nose constantly full of loose mucus in morning, necessity to blow it frequently. Purulent discharge from nose.
Clinical The child constantly picks its nose, is very restless, cries and wets the bed.
Face
Pale and cold. White and bluish about the mouth. Red. Bluish, puffy. Pain in malar-bones as if seized by pincers and pressed together, (<) pressure (Verbasc.). Periodic, wandering tensive- tearing in malar bone, (<) pressure. Cramplike jerking in malar- bone, renewed by strong pressure, then cramplike or paralytic pain. Sticking in l. lower jaw, (<) pressure; in r. ramus, (<) pressure. Jerking pain in l. lower jaw.
Clinical Twitching of muscles of the face and about the eyes, especially with disordered stomach and bowels. Pallor around nose and mouth particularly marked, with worms, sometimes one cheek is hot and the other pale, sometimes the whole face is burning hot; the symptoms vary rapidly (Chamomilla). Neuralgia of the malar-bone as if pinched with pincers, (<) pressure (Verbasc.).
Mouth and Throat
(Round worms come through the child’s mouth.) Toothache from cold drinks and inspiration of air; T. as from soreness. Dryness of mouth, and rawness, (<) palate, with uneasy qualmishness. Pain in submaxillary glands. Mucus in back of throat and in larynx in morning, causing hawking and hacking. Inability to swallow.
Stomach
Great hunger soon after a meal (China, Calc-c., Nux-v.). Desires many and different things. No appetite. Thirst. Empty eructations in morning fasting. Eructations tasting of food after eating. E. of a bitter, acrid fluid after eating. Frequent hiccough. Nausea, with emptiness in head; N. in pit of stomach, with creeping shivers. Vomiting of mucus only; of food, then general chill, then heat, with great thirst; violent; repeated, violent, of yellow water. Sticking in l. side beneath pit, (<) pressure, (>) deep inspiration. Twisting, digging in epigastric region, as from a bruise. Pain in pit, impeding respiration. (Pressure at night.)
Clinical Unnatural hunger, the child wants a great variety of things, refuses ordinary food. Vomiting of mucus.
Abdomen
Crackling of flatus and inaudible motions. Griping; cutting, (>) stool. Pain; alternating with headache; labor-like, as before menstruation. Emptiness, with silent passage of flatus. Heat becoming a griping. Pinching or cramplike pressure transversely across, in region of pit of stomach, after eating. Intermittent sticking in l. side when sitting; suddenly in l. side near navel towards evening, (<) inspiration and always associated with stitches on inner side of scapula. Twisting about navel and pain on pressure upon navel. Boring above navel, (>) pressure. Pain at navel after eating and on pressure; pain in region as from pressure inward of navel or as from a blow, afterwards (<) inspiration. Cutting in ilium in morning. Pulsation internally above mons veneris.
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.