A tincture is made of the freshly dried herbs of the “Pink root,” Spigelia Anthelmia, L.
General Action
The action of this drug on the nervous system has been utilized principally for the cure of neuralgic pains which affect every part of the body, but chiefly the head, chest and heart. Its febrile symptoms are not marked and it seems not to be useful for inflammatory affections, more than as palliative of the pains accompanying such conditions. It has none of the mental anguish of Aconite, Arsenic, etc., etc.
Allies. Bryonia, Belladonna, China, Nux-v., Sulphur; Rhus-t., Kalm., Arnica, Cact.
Generalities
Convulsions, then death. Stitches in many parts on ascending stairs after a moderate walk. Sensitiveness to touch, the slightest knock causes pain and shuddering about the place, even on stepping shattering in body; if he knocks against any part there is sudden painful crawling through whole body to head (Arnica, Belladonna, China, Nux-v., Pulsatilla). Everything hurt him as if he were bruised (Arnica), and on rising from a seat he was dizzy and unsteady in his legs as if reeling. Sick in evening in open air, with anxiety and internal heat. Discomfort in whole body, with heaviness and lassitude in limbs and disinclination to work.
Weakness; in morning; in morning on waking; in morning, from confused busy dreams; in morning on rising; in morning, and overpowering sleepiness when sitting soon after rising; after walking; after slight exertion; when hungry; soon after beginning to walk in open air, (<) thighs, with anxious pressure upon chest so that he would be glad to eructate but cannot, then desire for stool and emission of flatus, with relief in abdomen; (<) ascending stairs; with trembling of hands on taking hold of anything; of mind and body, (<) standing.
Aggravation from 10 A.M. till 12 M.; from 10 till 12 morning and night, amelioration at 3 or 4 P.M.; in afternoon; at 8 P.M., with red burning cheeks, cutting low down across abdomen, settling in lower limbs and back. Amelioration about 3 or 4 P.M., then stupor.
Clinical The Spigelia patient is worse from any motion of the arms and from lying on the back (Bryonia).
Mind
Joyful. Lively, contented and trustful mood alternating with palpitation and anxious oppression of chest. Earnest, vexed if any one jokes with him. Talks unwillingly. Anger. Peevish; in evening, he could kill himself, with chilliness of body. Unable to enjoy himself with others though he was not sad. Sad and peevish; and red in face; S. and fearful; S., then cheerful, then S. again in afternoon. Anxiety about the future; with inclination to peevish, indolent mood. Uneasiness and apprehension, inability to remain anywhere. Deep thought about his future. Sits lost in thought and stares at a single point. Inattention. Mental exertion difficult. Loss of memory; and mental indolence. Memory more active than before.
Head
Burrowing tearing in brain towards evening, (<) l. parietal bone, on motion, on walking, (<) a false step. Cutting, waking her after a short sleep, with general restlessness and nausea, slept towards morning, on rising listlessness and languor, urine scanty and high-colored. Thrust inward in one point towards middle of brain at every step in open air. Neuralgia flying from one part to another, (<) r. side, and settling in cervical vertebrae, with feeling of imperfect support. Pain in brain on shaking head, with vertigo (Bryonia); P., (<)stooping (Bryonia); (<) open air; (<) lying, (>) walking; on shaking it, with heaviness; with pressure above r. orbit; flying; like a heaviness, on drawing facial muscles it seems as if skull would burst at the top; like confusion. Soreness as if bruised, and in eyes. Pressure outward on speaking loud or coughing; in brain on stooping. Sensation in brain as if head were tightly bound. Fulness, and in eyes, causing redness of eyes lachrymation and vertigo.
Dullness; in evening; with pressure outward in forehead; so that reflection was difficult. Stupefied as after smoking strong tobacco. Swashing sensation in brain when walking; and he feels every step. Vertigo; if he looked down he thinks that he will fall over; if he turns his head when walking in open air; when standing; when sitting, with emptiness of head; when walking; ( (>) lying), head sinks backward, with nausea at palate, discomfort in abdomen and thorax, in abdomen pinching, with urging to stool, whereupon he loss consciousness; with staggering to the left; as if the sidewalk were rising before me when walking; as if he would fall forward on looking in front of him.
Forehead. Shooting through F., behind and above r. eminence; in front of head of head and in eyes, with sore compressed feeling balls, nausea, dread of motion or noise, face red, hands and feet cold; pulsating, from evening till morning, with hammering before ears. Tearing externally on bone; in F., occiput and temples; from l. eminence to occiput; tensive, (<) beneath l. eminence, extending towards orbit; thrustlike, when sitting and standing, (<) r. eminence, causing staring. Boring. Burrowing in F., occiput and l. side of vertex, (<) motion, loud noise, speaking loudly or opening mouth, (>) lying, with burrowing tearing. Burning pain in l. bone; in F. and l. temple; in r. side, extending to eyes, so that he could not turn them without pain (compare Bryonia). Pain; in sinciput; above orbits; in cerebrum and cerebellum, causing vertigo; heavy, beneath l. eminence; confused, and in temples, with compression forward in sides. Pressure outward; in l. side; inn r. eminence; on stooping; (>) pressure of hand. pressure inward internally and externally in l. eminence. Shaking and swashing. Confusion in upper part, with emptiness, scalp is sensitive to touch and hair seems to bristle.
Temples. Sticking as from electric sparks in l. Tearing thrusts in r. Pain; in r., gradually extending more and more; frequently drawing, in l. Pressure inward, (<) r.
Vertex. Pain; in a spot. Pressive drawing in r. side of V. and occiput.
Side. Jerks in l., with thrusts. Tearing sticking in l.; intermittent contractive, in a spot externally in parietal bone, (<) posteriorly. Pain in l. half of brain; deep-seated, in r. side, involving r. eye, in morning in bed, (<) motion, even (<) straining at stool, and on suddenly turning head the brain seemed loose; pressing asunder, in r. Dullness in r.
Occiput. Sticking in a point in l. side. Boring in O. and vertex, as if it would draw head backward. Jerks when walking in open. air, and then in temples on every step. Pain, (<) lying upon it; P. in O. and nape about 3 or 4 A.M, (>) rising and dressing, with stiffness; P. as after a blow; as if arteries were beating against obstacles; bubbling, (>) leaning backward while sitting, (<) lying horizontally and at first by walking, afterwards by slightest motion. Pressure inward in l. side, (<) stooping unless he pressed hard against the spot. Drawing Dullness in evening when walking in open air. Heaviness.
Scalp. (Covered with miliary pimples.) Sore to touch; (<) moving scalp. Pain as if ulcerating in region of vertex, with intermittent sticking jerking penetrating into brain. Seems contracted and tense. Itching crawling in l. side of vertex.
Clinical Neuralgic headache, generally beginning at one point and radiating in different directions, pains burning, jerking and tearing, (<) stormy weather, sometimes ending with vomiting, sometimes beginning in the morning and ending in the evening, at times a feeling as if the head were opening.
Eyes
Surrounded by yellow rings. Sparkling, as before eruption of smallpox or measles. Look dim and weak. Hardened mucus. Redness of whites, with injected vessels; R. of white in morning, with inflammation and with heaviness of lids. Seem distended. Burrowing stitch in middle of eye and in inner canthus, pressing upper lid downward. Pain; on turning them (see Kalm.); with sensation and vision as in lachrymation, without lachrymation; on motion, as if too large for their orbits (Comocl.); as from sand Burning in l. towards temple; B. pain forcing him to close them, with anxiety as if he could never open them again, on opening them after the pain had disappeared vision was prevented by a sea of blood-red masses rising up, with lachrymation and dilatation of pupils. Pressure inwards at side of r. Dry heat in afternoon. Crawling. Weakness, apparently with an internal impediment, wherever he turns them they remain and he dose know what he is looking at, like one whose vision has vanished. Lachrymation; acrid, trickling.
Balls. Sticking in r.; on moving it; itching, in r., returning after rubbing. Pain; (<) turning eyes, and on attempting to look with eyes turned vertigo, forcing him to turn the whole head; tensive, in l.; contractive burning, in r. Itching in l., (>) rubbing.
Pupils dilated; when relaxed and paralyzed lids. Burning pain in r. external canthus. Ulcerating and biting soreness of margins of lids. Sticking beneath lids; in l. lids; in margin of r. upper; in r. inner canthus. Cutting on margin of l. lower lid. Burning pain beneath r. lid. Pain as if upper lids were hard and immovable, with difficulty in raising them (Rhus-t.). Sensation as if a hard substance were under r. upper lid, (>) rubbing. Swelling on temporal side of orbit, with pain and soreness on touch. Pain in l. orbit near malar-bone, then swelling of bone, sore to touch. Pressure downward in l. orbit. Burning pain in l. brow. Farsighted. Vision dim, or sensation as if feathers or hairs were in the lashes, (<) rubbing eyes; dim, and when writing he must make a great effort, as if water were in eyes. Vision vanishes when he fixes gaze.
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.