Symptoms of a toxic dose nauseous breath; oedema supervenes on congestion of uvula and fauces; the whispering voice sinks into aphonia, sexual weakness degenerates into impotence; muscular weakness becomes complete paralysis; reflex, general and special sensibility disappears; the ears do not hear, nor, the eyes see, nor the tongue taste; expression of hebetude becomes first that of imbecility, and then that of idiocy; hallucinations of sight and sound, with or without mania, precede general cerebral indifference, apathy and paralysis. As the bromism becomes more profound, the patient lies quietly in bed, unable to move or feel, or swallow or speak, with dilated and uncontractile pupils, and scarcely any change of colour. Extremities grow gradually colder and colder; the action of the heart feebler and slower till it ceases.
In an epileptic who had taken large doses for a year, there was emaciation, yellowish skin, face covered with acne; she suffered from gastralgia, was harassed with dry cough and dryness of throat. Finally she died, delirious, oppressed in breathing, with small frequent pulse and acute abdominal pains.
There are five principal forms of eruption. Erythema, with fever, causing great pain; acne, the most frequent form of “Pot. brom.” eruption. A thickened, greasy skin, with comedones predisposes to this eruption of acne punctata and acne pustulosa. The number of the pustules are said to increase or diminish with increase or diminution of dose. The whole face is sometimes covered and disfigured by them. Another form is urticaria erythema nodosum. The vesicular form, a moist eczema; apparently rare. The furuncular form. Also warts have been seen on face and legs.
Remember: what a drug can cause, it can cure, if properly administered. One supposes that few drugs have been allowed to “cause” to the extent of potassium bromide; the remedy that relieves and mitigates but never CURES sleeplessness, epilepsy, “nerves” in general, and therefore obtains such a wide application and gets so rudely “pushed”. But where you recognize, in any sickness, the Pot. brom. picture, and give that drug as a homoeopathic remedy, it will act curatively. And in small dosage, discontinued when no longer demanded by symptoms, it is ofcourse, harmless.
BLACK LETTER SYMPTOMS
Loss of memory; had to be told the word before he could speak it.
Hands constantly busy; all sorts of fearful delusions; walks the room groaning, bemoaning his fate; full of fear. Unsteady.
Fits of uncontrollable weeping and profound melancholic delusions.
Depressed; low spirited. Nervous anxiety.
Night terrors of children (not from indigestion) with screaming.
Unconsciousness of what is occurring around them. Cannot recognize or be comforted by their friends. Sometimes followed by squinting.
Seminal emissions, with depressed spirits, dull thought, backache, staggering gait and great weakness.
Nervous; restless; cannot sit still, but must move about, or otherwise occupy oneself; often suits nervous women.
Spasms: from fright, anger, or other emotional causes, occurring in plethoric, nervous persons, or in women at time of menses; during parturition; from sexual excitement. Too great reflex excitability; sleeplessness; during teething, whooping cough, or laryngismus stridulus; from Bright’s disease.
Sleepless; restless; can only calm herself by incessant occupation.
Night terrors of children; grind teeth in sleep; moans; cries; horrible dreams.
Loss of sensibility; of body generally; of fauces, larynx, urethra, etc.
IMPORTANT ITALICS
Characteristic, or Queer Symptoms.
Memory absolutely destroyed; anaemia; emaciation.
Single words forgotten; syllables dropped.
Singled out as an object of divine wrath.
Imagines she is a devil; cannot sleep; fears to be alone.
A remedy of delirium tremens.
Frightful imaginings (in late pregnancy) have committed, or are about to commit some great crime or cruelty; such as murdering her child or husband.
Hallucinations of sight and sound, with or without mania, precede brain and paralytic symptoms. Delirium with delusions: is pursued; will be poisoned; is selected for divine vengeance; her child dead.
Dread of impending destruction to all near to her.
Acute mania, with fullness of blood vessels of brain.
Feels as if he will go out of his mind.
Melancholia; profound depression; feeling of moral deficiency; frequent weeping, low-spirited and childish; profound indifference, almost disgust for life.
Brain feels too tight; with a feeling of anaesthesia of brain.
Cholera infantum. Brain irritated, face flushed, pupils dilated, eyes sunken, rolls head, wakes shrieking extremities cold.
