The live Spanish spider is triturated with sugar of milk.
General Action
(The remarkable nervous symptoms require confirmation.)
Generalities
Yelled and fell down, was carried to the house in agony, smarting pain, hot and cold, starting from the bite to small of back and then returning to the bite, this alternating pain lasted all night. Falling suddenly as if struck by apoplexy, then shortness of breath, blackness of face, hands, etc., he revived as he heard music, sighed, moved first his feet, then hands and rest of body, and on being raised to his feet danced vigorously, sighed deeply, rolled upon the ground, kicked vigorously, the dance was repeated for three days and he was restored by the perspiration thus induced, but each year, about the time of the bite, pain reappeared in the affected part, with the above symptoms in less intensity, again (>) music and dancing.
Stretched upon the ground and seemed about to expire, when he heard the music he got up as quick as lightning, seemed awakened by a frightful vision, stared wildly about, still moving every joint, when I stopped playing he fell down in an instant and cried, every part was distorted, he scraped the earth with his hands, on hearing the music again he arose as before and danced wildly, keeping perfect time but jumping and running to and fro, making comical postures, somewhat like Chinese dances, and everything he did was very wild. Twitching, (<) arms, alternating with opisthotonos. Convulsions; and subsultus in all limbs, penis erect, abdominal muscles contracted and rigid.
Pain and swelling; P. immediately in bitten part, he fell to the ground, with coldness of body, bristling of hair, tension of trunk, weakness of legs, sighing, complaints, said that he was suffocating wished to cry out but could not, on hearing music the next morning he began to dance, was bathed in sweat, was sleepless for a week, drank pure wine, had no stool for four days, desired nothing, wished to be bathed with water, like a red color, pursued anything blue, tore it to pieces and trampled it under foot, at night he held his heels in his hands to scratch them, in which manner he could sleep a little, ate little or nothing, but dancing for almost a week, he was cured by sweat and music.
A few hours after the bite, anguish of heart, dejection, difficulty in breathing, they complain in a mournful voice, roll their eyes, when asked where they suffer they do not reply or place the hand upon the heart, the symptoms vary according to the variety of Tarentula, the temperament of the patient and the degree of summer heat, the T. in northern Apulia are fiercer and the symptoms severer, the patients are charmed by various colors, green, blue, etc. rarely by dark colors, at the sight of an annoying color anguish of heart and renewal of symptoms, the T. subalbida causes slight pain followed by itching, sharp pain in abdomen and diarrhoea, the T. stellata causes severer pain and itching, stupor, heaviness and pain in head, general and trembling, etc. the T. uvea causes, besides the above symptoms, swelling, great pain in the bitten part, spasm, chill, cold sweat of whole body, aphonia, nausea, tension of trunk and chest, distention of abdomen, etc., in general, after the severer symptoms have declined, there is a peculiar melancholy, a bending forward of neck, sometimes music or dancing, desperation, they court dissolution, otherwise virtuous women sigh deeply, howl, make indecent gestures, expose their sexual organs, etc., others like to whip buttocks, feet, back, etc., others have great desire to run.
Restlessness, must keep in motion though walking aggravates the symptoms. Weakness; so that he could hardly be moved from side to side with constriction of chest and anguish of heart. When urged to dance she replied with tears that she could not on account of pain in joints of feet and weakness. Return of all symptoms every year at the time of the bite, all symptoms (>) dancing. Aggravation of all symptoms from drinking two fluid ounces of whisky.
Clinical The Spanish Tarentula has been used very largely for hysteria, characterized by most violent alternations of moods, especially with sudden, stealthy and destructive impulses; its curative powers in these and other forms of mental disturbance rest upon a very slender basis, for it is probable that most of the mental symptoms attributed to the bite of this spider are purely imaginary. Hystero-epilepsy, with wild shrieks. Hysteria, with constant movement of the extremities, especially of the hands. Paralysis agitans. Chorea, especially of the extremities. Nocturnal chorea in children. General hyperaesthesia.
Mind
Agitation. Melancholy, anguish, restlessness, peevishness, haste in whatever I undertook from fear that something would prevent my finishing it, I would start up and hastily change my position through fear that something would fall on me, when walking I would stop short or suddenly throw my head to one side through fear of striking it against an imaginary object which appeared to be suspended a few inches above my head, fear of impending calamity, desire to be alone, with fear of being alone, even during day light, frightful images as soon as the eyes closed, with inability to sleep.
Head, etc
Headache. Weakness of head. Eyes glaring, red. Eyes inflamed, conjunctiva injected, r. pupil dilated, l. contracted, vision lost in r. eye, objects seen in l. eye appeared bright red. Roaring and rumbling in ears, with Dullness of hearing. Profuse haemorrhage of black blood from nose, each drop coagulated and sank at once like bullet to the bottom of a vessel partly filled with water, and formed a large black clot. Face pale, earthy, in strong contrast with the nearly purple neck. Countenance expressive of terror.
Mouth, Throat and Stomach
Tongue moist. Tongue coated dark-brown, edges and tip fiery red. Said that her tongue was drawn backward, so that she could not speak. Swelling of external throat. Throbbing pain in submaxillary and cervical glands, with occasional stinging. Fauces swollen, purplish, swallowing difficult, as from partial paralysis. Swallowing painful. Appetite lost. Thirst; burning, with internal heat; burning, with constant desire for large quantities of cold water. Vomiting, with incessant paroxysms of cough and scanty expectoration of mucus; V. of everything taken into stomach soon after eating, preceded by burning pain in stomach and oesophagus, which the V. relieved.
Abdomen, Stool and Urine
Colic, then fever, then fatal symptoms. Stools three or four times daily, dark, fetid, partly-formed, difficult, containing much mucus followed by smarting and burning at anus, stools always immediately on having head washed. Urine scanty, high- colored, passed with difficulty, a dense precipitate after standing.
Sexual Organs
Clinical Dysmenorrhoea, with extremely sensitive ovaries. It has been used in various forms of disease of the sexual organs of women; chronic vaginitis, granular; induration of the cervix and body of uterus; cancerous ulceration of the os, with induration; subinvolution with leucorrhoea, burning, smarting pain in the coccyx, (>) standing, uterine neuralgias, extending to the sacrum and spine, with convulsive movement. Intense pruritus of the vulva. Nymphomania. “Fidgets” in the legs, associated with menstrual irregularities.
Respiratory Organs and Chest
Aphonia. Breathing difficult; with peculiar incessant sighing; B. short and hurried, (<)attempting to lie down. Pain at base of lungs when coughing or inhaling. Constriction of chest. Chest expands with difficulty.
Heart and Pulse
Anguish of heart; preventing lying down, did not go to bed nor sleep for four nights. Painful throbbing in carotids, (>) nosebleed, with fulness of head, (<) region of medulla oblongata. Pulse irregular.
Neck and Extremities
Neck felt sore. Trembling of knees when standing, the joints felt stiff and sore. Knuckles and toes pain so that he cannot bear the lightest weight in linen. Legs and lower joints gradually became numb and insensible to pinching, in the bitten part there was a reddish and almost livid tumor of the size of a lentil.
Clinical Spinal irritability, the slightest touch causes spasmodic pains in chest. Multiple sclerosis, with trembling, intense pain at night.
Skin
Inflammation of the bitten toe; I. of the scratch, with burning and itching in it, axillary, sub-maxillary and cervical glands swollen and sensitive to touch, nearly purple swelling of throat in a line from chin to sternum and in a line from occipital protuberance to scapulae, the swelling (>) profuse nosebleed. Each year pain in the toes from the reopened wound, they were inflamed and a thin ichor exuded from the nails, deeply corroding the neighboring parts.
Inflamed pimple, with scarlet areola, with a red erysipelatous line from it marking the course of the spider after biting, the pimple and erysipelatous inflamed areola spread, chills followed by fever generally supervene on second or third day, with thirst, anxiety, restlessness, headache, delirium, sweat and retention of urine, the pimple becomes a hard painful abscess, ending in mortification of the integuments over it and having several small openings, discharging a thick sanious matter, containing pieces of mortified cellular tissue, fasciae and tendons, the openings run into each other and form large cavities, now the fever becomes intermittent with evening paroxysms, accompanied by diarrhoea and prostration.
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.