A tincture is made of the dried root of Valeriana officinalis, L.
General Action
A “nervine” to be compared with Ignatia, Moschus, and especially Pulsatilla.
Generalities
Twitching superficially in various parts of muscles. Tremulousness, with rest nowhere, as when expecting a joyful event. Drawing like transient jerks now here, now there (Pulsatilla) Smarting pressure as if excoriated or sticking as with a hard blunt tool, in small spots; in region of shoulder and in other places. Malaise. Discomfort. Weakness in morning; in evening, with drowsiness; (<) lower limbs. Aggravation at noon and first part of afternoon and evening and the hours before midnight; of abdominal symptoms in evening (Puls).
Clinical Hysteria, with dread of being left alone; over excitability, especial dread of the dark or being left alone, very restless and excitable. Globus hystericus, with sensation of something warm rising from stomach into throat. Neuralgia.
Mind
Joyfulness; all day; in evening, and greater activity; as after drinking coffee, he comprehended everything more easily than before; almost amounting to mischievousness. Delirium, attempted to get out of the window, threatened and vociferated violently, complained that he could not see, recognized no one, imagined himself away from home and beset with all sorts of dangers, from which he attempted to escape, but he was unable to walk without staggering. Agitation. Fear in evening when sitting in the dark (imagined some one might hurt him). Anxious; and hypochondriac, as if objects around him were estranged from him, the room appears desolate, he does not feel at home and is impelled to leave the room. Peevish. Irritation of nerves in forenoon, though he appears more cheerful and vigorous than before, his eyes, arms and knees feel weak. (Seriousness). Great flow of ideas, confused, faint recollections of former thoughts and actions, chasing each other so rapidly that he became stupefied, he felt like one dreaming. Disinclination for mental work.
Head
Stitches. Aching; in one or another part; at 11 P.M., (<) over orbits; at night. Excited feeling as after intoxication. Symptoms of congestion of brain, pain extending from r. frontal region over whole head, sometimes to eyes, making them sensitive to slight effort, sometimes to r. angle of lower jaw and causing an asleep sensation. Heaviness. Rush of blood; with fulness, (<) under vertex. Confusion; changing to drawing pain, (<) forehead. Stupid feeling when stooping; sudden stupefaction when standing, causing him to stagger and almost fall to one side. Vertigo on stooping, sensation as if everything were turning around with her, with intoxicated feeling.
Forehead.- Intermittent sticking deep in middle. Pain; in r. side. abdomen brow; alternating with darting sticking, (<) over orbits, as if it would pierce the eyes from within outward; in l. half, with drawing together; above r. orbit, ending in heaviness; in r. side, periodically extending to l. side; extending from r. side over whole head, (>) sound sleep at night, returned next morning; extending to vertex, (<) towards eyes, so that moderate exertion of eyes caused pain in balls; over eyes, as if balls would be pressed out, at 1 P.M., an hour after dinner, (<) moving them. Constrictive drawing transversely across F. Numb tension behind eminence. Confusion in sinciput.
Temple, jerking in r.; intermittent pressure inward in r.; heaviness. Vertex, sticking at 10 P.M.; pain; P. below bone; contractive stupefying P. as from a blow, extending over head lasting longest at V. Drawing pain in r. side at 5 P.M. from a current of air; D. the pain in r. side, with flushes of heat over cheeks, later the pain extends as an aching into r. orbit. Pressure and drawing penetrating into side of occiput. Internal hammering in occiput in evening when half asleep, so that he forcibly turned his head to and fro.
Clinical Violent headache, appearing in jerks, with faintness.
Eyes
Shining. Smarting as from smoke at 3 P.M.; burning S. at 10 A.M. Pressure in morning after rising, margins of lids seem swollen and sore, (<) region of l. inner canthus, they look red; P. as from a stye in r. at noon. Pupils dilated at 9 A.M.; D. even when approached by a lighted candle. Tearing in r. ball. Pain in lids from 1 till 2 P.M., with swelling. Stitches in inner canthus at 11 A.M. Painful drawing around orbits, (<) towards side, (<) stooping. Vision very distinct for distant objects. V. dim in morning, with pain in eyes as if he had not slept enough. Scintillations before eyes. Lights before eyes at 10 P.M., the closed and dark room seemed filled with the light of twilight, so that he imagines he distinguished objects, with a sensation as if he felt that things were near him even when not looking at them, and on looking he saw that the things were really there.
Ears and Nose
Jerking in r. meatus auditorius. Crampy drawing in l. ear. Ringing in ears in evening in bed, he imagines that he hears the clock strike, at 10 P.M. sneezing.
Face
Injected. Twitching sensation beneath skin of l. cheeks, transiently (>) moving hand over it; crampy T. in region of l. malar-bone. Crampy drawing in r. malar bone. Dartings as of electricity in r. ramus of jaw. Pressure almost like a darting in r. side of lower lip and in gum of r. canine tooth.
Clinical Trismus from decayed tooth, with the characteristic symptom of a thread hanging down the oesophagus, which cannot be got rid of.
Mouth
Toothache; shooting; drawing backward in lower and forward in upper. Constriction of tongue. Dryness of tip of tongue in morning, without thirst. Gradually increasing sticking in region of velum pendulum palati, with towards the end, bitter taste and salivation inducing cough. Dryness, and in pharynx, then salivation. Offensive salivation. Taste flat, slimy in morning after waking (Puls); T. and smell of fetid tallow at noon, before dinner,; bitter on tip of tongue when licking lips a quarter of an hour after eating meat and vegetables.
Throat
Scraping; with ineffectual desire to hawk. Spasmodic constriction of pharynx. Dryness; of pharynx.
Stomach
Appetite great; violent at dinner, causing nausea; little for dinner; although he is indifferent when thinking of eating, yet he eats much with relish at noon; lost; lost for supper. Disgust for food, from large doses. Aversion to tobacco, in a great smoker. Thirst; till noon.
Eructations of rancid fluid, not rising into mouth (heartburn), at 4 P.M.; empty before a meal tasting of Hepar sul. in morning after waking; offensive; insipid,; warm, from epigastric region, arresting breathing. Nausea; in morning on rising, (>) eating and open air; with salivation; with faintness, lips white, body icy cold, then vomiting of bile and mucus, with shaking chill; as if a thread were hanging in the throat, gradually rising from umbilical region to fauces and causing salivation. Vomiting; nightly.
Rumbling and grumbling. Intermittent sticking on l. side and over pit of stomach, in region of costal cartilage. Shooting cutting from pit to umbilical region. Pressure in pit; in epigastric region; with heaviness; sudden transient, in pit, with gurgling in abdomen. Fulness; in epigastric region; in epigastric region, (<) region of cardia, with pressure; changing to ravenous hunger; F. and peculiar scraping irritation in S. and abdomen, causing nausea, rising through oesophagus and arresting breathing. Heaviness in epigastric region. Weakness. Heat; in pit; epigastric region; epigastric region, with cramps.
Clinical Gastralgia, with great tympanitis, and putrid eructation.
Abdomen
Distention; causing restless at night. Hardness. Rumbling and gurgling; R. (<) umbilical region, with motion and cutting. Offensive flatus. (When emitting flatus the baby cries and presses, occasionally he passes a little blood by the rectum.) Cutting, then diarrhoea twice; C. on retracting it, with pinching. Pain; in various parts in evening, at one time in umbilical region for an hour; in muscles as if bruised or as from cold, (<) inspiration. Burrowing. Feeling as if it would be distended, even to bursting. Inclination to retract, he does it even involuntarily (alternate action).
Rumbling in small intestine, with gurgling and cutting, then after half an hour normal stool; R. in upper abdomen. Upper A. and hepatic region painful to touch at 11 P.M. Hypochondrium, stitches in l.; painful jerks in r.; (pressing in l. in morning in bed, on coughing or deep breathing it became a cutting, possibly from a cold). Sudden pain as from subcutaneous ulceration in l. side, two days in succession at 10 P.M. Cutting in umbilical region.
Hypogastrium.- Pinching in evening in bed. Crampy pain in l. side at 11 P.M. when sitting. Sprained pain in l. side at 7 P.M. when sitting. Twisting, with nausea, as if menses would come on. Bruised pain, (<) parts covering os pubis increasing in paroxysms, as a painful pressure or drawing. Drawing pain from 10 till 11 P.M., in r. inguinal glands on crossing thighs, the place is painful to touch; in l. iliac region, as if bruised at 2 P.M., spreading to middle of abdomen, then rumbling in bowels.
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.