A tincture is made of the fresh leaves of the “poison ivy.”
General Action
The contact of this poisonous plant produces insensitive persons the most violent dermatitis, with (1) vesicular eruptions (eczematous), (2) erysipelatous inflammation of the deeper layers, with bullae or boils, or with an extensive phlegmonous infiltration leading on to formation of abscesses and even septic infection; with these there may be diarrhoea, with or without ulceration of the bowel, dysentery, nephritis and cystitis. Some of the phases this dermoid inflammation simulate closely forms of scarlatina and typhoid fever. The rheumatoid pains it produces are like multiple neuritis and inflammation of the fibrous sheaths of muscles; its numbness like the effects of neuritis. A low type of fever accompanies the development of its symptoms.
Allies. (Anacardium, Ailanth.), Pulsatilla, Lycopodium, Caps., Euphorb., Ferrum, Conium, Dulcamara, Viola-tr.
Generalities
Fell down unconscious, no pulse, feeble but ineffectual efforts to vomit, offensive odor from body, pain in epigastric region, frothing from mouth, inflammation of lips (after suppression of erysipelatous inflammation by vinegar and water), later pustules returned and developed into furuncles, then patient recovered. Trembles and reaches out hastily. Twitching; in various parts, except joints; across abdomen and of limbs, and when the nervous influx passed to limbs it caused pain in brain so that he exclaimed violently, when asked where his pain was he could not mention any place, but that his limbs were as if forcibly stretched, (<) after sleep. Convulsions of different parts, with delirium. Extreme mobility in afternoon, with physical activity.
Pain in affected parts causing moans, when sitting; in back at noon in cold weather, then in l. eyeball, then on dorsal side of fourth r. metacarpal bone, extending subsequently to wrist, with lassitude and disposition to stretch, pain at ulnar edge of l. metacarpus, then in radial edge of r. forearm and ulnar edge of r. metacarpus, then (<)ulnar edge of l. metacarpus, then in l. ring finger, near nail; tearing-drawing, at 8 P.M. when sitting; tingling, in r. hip and rectum; tingling, in l hip and rectum when lying on l. side; burning, semi-lateral, above zygoma and in same side of occiput at 3 A.M.; (biting, as from salt in an ulcer, when walking in open air and waking her at night); (crawling, in face, spine and sternum).
Rheumatism after too hot a bath, (<) legs, a stiffness of all joints on first moving them, with pain in joints and lame feeling in legs. (Twinging on backs of fingers and outer part of arms and on occiput, with pinching.) Soreness in every muscle, (>) exercise. Can lie only on back at night. Restlessness; at night. It seemed as if something forced him out of bed at night.
Weakness; on waking; before stool; (after eating); after eating, with dizziness; (<) walking in open air; (<) sitting (Caps., Conium, Dulcamara Lycopodium, Pulsatilla, Viola-tr.) (>) walking, with stiffness on rising from a seat (Pulsatilla, Lycopodium) with difficulty in thinking and aversion to talking; as if deprived of sleep; as if bones ached, with constant desire to sit or lie. In morning he did not wish to rise and dress. Desire to lie down; in church. Faintness; with dizziness; sudden, at 9 P.M., with perfect consciousness, could feel the beat of the heart, coldness, quiet mood, but could scarcely walk.
Stiffness, (<) knees and feet; S. on rising from a seat; on descending a hill, (>) walking on a level. Paralysis of whole body, in all joints,(<) attempting to rise after sitting and towards evening (Lycopodium, Pulsatilla). Aggravation at 2 A.M., then gradual improvement till about 10 A.M., and aggravation towards evening; A. about 6 P.M.; after drinking cold water; in cold weather and during northeasterly winds; cold air or taking cold (Dulcamara); on going from cold air into warm room, (<) pit of stomach; from slight vexation, for instance, discharge of coagulae after menses had ceased, etc. Symptoms of poisoning which had lasted eight years,(>) after a typhoid fever, which continued thirteen weeks.
Clinical Valuable for effects of strains on muscles, especially from lifting or from working in water. Muscular and neuralgic pains, (>) moving about. In muscular rheumatism,. generally useful when there is not much inflammation or fever, every part seems sore, general aggravation from cool air; especially valuable for ailments resulting from checked perspiration. Neuritis of almost every nerve in the body, characterized by the peculiar symptoms of the drug, especially numbness and paralytic stiffness. Rheumatic paralysis from getting wet or lying on damp ground. Generally indicated in low types of diseases or when acute diseases assume a typhoid type. Generally indicated in cellular inflammations, which assume a purulent character. Hemiplegia of the r. side after apoplexy. chorea. General aggravation during wet weather, at rest, or rising from a seat and cold; amelioration from motion, warmth.
Mind
Delirium. Thought that an enemy wished to poison him. Sadness; and weeping without knowing why (Lycopodium, Pulsatilla); with anxiety as if a misfortune would happen or as if all about her were dead, or as if she had bid farewell to a near friend, (<) in the house, (>) walking in open air (Pulsatilla); with dislike to being spoken to nervousness, starting at every noise; with love of being alone. Grief and inclination to weep.
Apprehension at night, cannot remain in bed. Fear on account of sad thoughts, which she could not get rid of’ F. from a trifle on falling asleep, as if he had dreaded misfortune. Anxiety at night, he would flee from bed and sleep help on account of indescribable distress; (<) after midnight, with weakness as if he should die; when sitting, she was obliged to take hold of something because she did not think she could keep up on account of the bruised and drawing pains in limbs; with trembling; with pressure at heart and tearing in sacrum; with hot skin; with mental uneasiness and dryness in throat; as if he wished to take his own life towards evening. Discouragement; in evening, and dissatisfaction with the world; and apprehension, then short cough from tickling and irritation behind upper half of sternum, after a siesta, from noon till 3 P.M.
Restless mood, with anxiety that clawed at pit of stomach and with difficult breathing. Impatience and vexation at every trifle, intolerance of being talked to. Satiety of life, with desire to die, without sadness. Ill humor; in open air, he could fall asleep when walking. Disposed to criticise and find fault from 7 till 9 P.M. Cannot be satisfied, indifferent to society. Averse to labor.
Forgetful (Anacardium). Confusion, he thought that he should die. Mathematical and mechanical calculations. If disagreeable thoughts came into here mind she could not free herself from them. Ideas slow. Inaptitude for mental labor from 9 till 10 P.M., then itching from middle of l. leg to ankle. Exhaustion. Loss of thought; when walking after a meal; with dizziness; though he seems to be thinking; like a swimming before eyes, often like a vanishing of objects. Coma.
Clinical During low fever there is frequently delirium, rather mild, especially with fear of being poisoned. Usually there is extreme nervous restlessness, both mental and physical; it is sometimes difficult to say whether the mental anguish or the physical suffering causes the restlessness.
Head
Swelling. Twitching in spots of part on which he was lying at night. Sticking outward. Sticking digging. Tearing; throbbing. aching; mornings after rising; in forenoon; in forenoon, with sleepiness; after eating; after beer; with constipation; reeling and when writing vanishing of thought and memory; bursting, (<) motion; throbbing, with burning; intermittent throbbing; as if stupefied, with tingling in head; like a crawling, after walking in open air; (as from a disordered stomach). Throbbing in brain, with compression.
Dullness; in morning, with intoxicated feeling; on turning eyes, with heaviness of it, even the eyeballs hurt; with disinclination for literary work; with weight in r. temple and above and behind r. orbit; as if intoxicated, when sitting, on rising vertigo even to falling forward and backward (Bryonia). Heaviness so that she must hold it upright to relieve the pressure forward into forehead; H., and on stooping sensation as if a weight fell forward into forehead and dragged head downward, whereby face became hot; H. and fulness, with sensation on stooping as if brain fell forward; and fulness, with ringing in ears, with at times sticking outward in l. temple.
Weakness, on turning it unconsciousness, and on stooping it seems as if she could not rise again; W., with stupid feeling; sudden, when standing after dinner, with vertigo, so that he thought he should fall forward. Affected so that she could not hold herself up. Unsteady feeling. On shaking head sensation as if brain were loose and hit against skull. Swashing in brain at times. Rushing sensation on ascending, she felt every step in it. Sensation as if something in it turned around when walking in open air, without vertigo. She seemed intoxicated on rising and thought that she would fall forward. Swaying sensation in brain when walking. Vertigo; in morning; in morning on rising; in morning on waking, (>) rising; after eating; on walking or stooping; when walking, so that he did not se men in front of him; on lying down, with fear that he should die; when sitting, as if he were elevated; as if everything whirled around with her, (>) lying; as if she would fall forward when walking.
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.