TOXICOLOGY.
Dorsal decubitus; fixed eyes; contracted pupils; livid countenance; stiffness of the jaws; coldness and pulselessness of the limbs; short, imperfect, difficult respiration; feeble beating of the heart, with intermissions. Peculiar crawling and trembling in the limbs, attended with piercing pain. In another case, the patient first experienced warmth and contraction of the throat; excessively anxious and restless, complaining of this throat, a nd of burning along the oesophagus. His mental and sensorial functions were undisturbed; his tongue whitish; nausea; no pain in the bowels. The primitive action of the drug seemed to fall upon the lower limbs, which were in incessant motion, even while sitting; when he walked, his legs trembled, so as to give him a peculiar staggering gait; he had violent pain in the throat, and exhibited excessive restlessness and fear of death. Two and half hours after, he could not hold himself upright, and was attacked with a peculiar variety of convulsions, viz., the upper and lower extremities were forcibly drawn inwards, the fingers clenched, and thumbs turned in so as to form a fist; the legs were in a state of persistent adduction; all this time there was not the slightest concussion; the face was covered with a cold viscid sweat; the eyes turned up, so that only their whites were to be seen. No pulse was to be felt in the radial or temporal arteries; the paroxysm lasted about three minutes, was attended by cracking of the joints, and succeeded by exhaustion. He experienced and expressed very great anxiety; thought that his last hour had come; his intellect was generally unclouded, except at intervals, when he fell into a state of stupefaction, closed his eyes, let his head sink, and then rose up again, with a motion similar to that made by one who has fallen asleep while riding and then suddenly awakes; but he was perfectly blind, and could distinguish neither persons nor objects around him. He again vomited, had constant nausea, and was again, attacked with convulsions. In two hours more the patient had recovered his sight, but the convulsions were as frequent and more severe than before; the temperature of his skin sank lower every moment; he experienced several shudderings, and soon after became icy cold, with hippocratic countenance and violent retraction of the head backwards; respiration stertorous; mucous rattle heard at a distance; still, notwithstanding his agonizing condition, he heard everything that was said to him, and had not the slightest pain in the abdomen; soon after the first attack of convulsions, the palms of his hands became so insensible that he did not feel deep pricks with a needle. He remained in this condition for two hours longer, when the heart and pulse-beats again became perceptible; warmth and general comfort returned; in an hour more his appearance had improved, a profuse warm sweat broke out, pulse rose, to 125, sensation had returned in the palms of both hands, and respiration was free and easy. After a short sleep, the patient awoke with a general bruised feeling; injections brought away black and very offensive faeces; urine was scanty and very turbid; abdomen not at all painful; tongue moist and white. For several days the patient’s feature bore the marks of fright and stupidity.
HAHNEMANN.1-The very careful observations of the venerable founder of homoeopathy deserve the strictest attention-viz.: “That Aconite causes a prompt removal of inflammatory action, without consecutive effect in fevers, called purely inflammatory; acts magically in measles, purpura-miliaris, in inflammatory fevers with pleurisy, if the regimen be somewhat cooling; is an indispensable remedy in the most obstinate chronic affections, in which the state of the body requires a diminution of what is called rigidity of fibre (sthenic diathesis,); is the first and most powerful curative agent in croup, several kinds of angina, and other local inflammations, especially when thirst and frequent pulse are attended by great impatience, agitation which nothing can calm, and tossing from side to side in great agony; cures morbid states in persons whose minds have been excited from fear and indignation; is indispensable for females who suffer from fear or contrarieties during the catamenia, which otherwise might be interrupted; may be salutary for those symptoms (which follow), principally of a tonic character, which appear to be contradictory, but are alternate states; and will prove inoperative through vegetable acids, wine, and other remedies which correspond palliatively or homoeopathically with its effects in excessive doses.”
HARTMANN.1. The Clinical Remarks-in the previous editions of this Manual-comprise so many repetitions that we shall arrange them, and the additions of Noack and Trinks, in an alphabetical form, at the close of the volume, while their place will be supplied by practical observations derived from the best medical authors, properly accredited “Sanguine temperament, robust constitution, and diminution of the pains when moving, especially indicate this remedy. Inflammatory fever-for which Aconite is a specific- is characterized by: Constant burning heat over the whole body, with redness of skin; distention and redness of the face; eyes glistening and prominent; respiration short and anxious; dry, red tongue-in rare cases it is somewhat coated with mucus; great thirst, constipation, and even absence of dejections; inappetence; hot, red urine, which is passed in small quantities; sleeplessness, jactitation, restlessness, and anxiety. In al local inflammations, attended by this fever, as pleurisy, pneumonia, carditis, enteritis, Aconite is frequently required, either as a direct or preparatory expedient. In congestions, seething of blood, and haemorrhages of various kinds, it is indispensable. In acute diseases, where all remedies which seem to be indicated are ineffectual, or affect too powerfully without improvement, Aconite often removes very quickly this hyper-excitation of the nervous system; by this treatment, the remedies which are then indicated act more favorably.”
Griesselich thought that Aconite was indicated when there is excessive irritability of body or mind; in mental derangement, when the vascular system is much involved; when there is frenzy, attended with congestion or inflammation of the brain. Especially when there are paroxysms of great anxiety and mental depression. In hypochondria, when the patient imagines that various wonderful transformations have taken place in his internal or external organs. Ruckert advises it when there is anxiety and fear of approaching death; when the organ of caution is affected. Lombard thought it affected the brain somewhat like Opium.
Teste commands Aconite in mental derangement of recent date, caused by fright, and in the delirium which precedes or accompanies certain acute fevers.
Fleming used Aconite internally in fifteen cases of headache, with complete success in ten; of the successful cases, there were nervous, four plethoric, and three rheumatic; of the unsuccessful cases three were nervous, and two dyspeptic. Relief was usually experienced after the first dose, and a complete cure effected on the first or second day. Drs. Burgess and Radley have seen Aconite of incalculable service in relieving the agonizing pain of nervous headache; Henderson and Miller have also used it with success. Storck and Vogel recommended it in rheumatic headache, and Copland has found it useful in both nervous and rheumatic cases. It is often more useful when applied externally than when taken internally.
It is homoeopathic to the most violent headaches, when the patient lies as if unconscious, retches to vomit, thinks he must die, cannot endure the slightest noise or motion, and in which the face is pale and the pulse small and intermitting. Also, in hemicrania, when there is a violent pain over the left eye, attended with nausea and vomiting. In severe rheumatic headaches, when attended with pains in the fibrous sheaths of the nerves, in the fibrous membranes of the brain and scalp. In venous congestive headache, with excessive numbness and tingling in various parts. It is antipathic to arterial congestive and inflammatory headaches, and must then be given in full doses.
In coma and apoplexy it is homoeopathic to those disorders when they arise from venous congestion or nervous exhaustion, and must then be given in very small doses; when they depend upon active arterial congestion the dose must be comparatively large.
Fleming says, the pupil in general is more or less contracted, dilating to its natural size immediately on the cessation of respiration: it is owing to venous congestion. Its sympathetic action on the retina is remarkable: when applied to one of the temples, or one side of the forehead, more or less blindness of the same side is produced. When the conjunctiva is slightly painted with Aconitine, contraction of the pupil speedily takes place and continues for several hours. -Pereira has observed it to cause contraction of the pupil in some amaurotic cases of several year’s standing, and where the iris under went no change on exposure to strong light-when the ointment of the alkaloid, or the tincture of the root is applied to the temple or forehead, the pupil occasionally becomes dilated. Fleming has only witnessed this is in two cases, in both of which it was attended with partial blindness of the same eye; why such opposite effects should ensue in the two cases it is difficult to understand. Giddiness, with confusion of sight. Headache, vertigo, with dimness of vision. Contraction of the pupil, disappearing after the jugular vein is opened. In four cases, Fleming saw dilatation of the pupil accompanied by almost total blindness-either paralysis of retina, or of iris. Aconitine applied to the eye-ball of a rabbit-in three minutes the pupil began to contract; in five minutes it was scarcely one-sixth of the size of that of the other eye; when the contraction was extreme the pupil was insensible to light, but when only partial it still retained its mobility; the contraction continued for nine hours. Slight giddiness and dimness of vision are very common effects; dull, heavy pain in the eye-balls; dimness of vision and profuse secretion of tears pain and watering of the eyes, without of the eyes. without vascularity; black specks floating in the field of vision, dazzling and dimness of vision; from ten drops of the root, general trembling, violent headache, pain of the eye-balls, constant lachrymation and intense photophobia, vascularity of conjunctiva not increased, eyes fixed and protruded, pupils contracted. Noack advises it in ophthalmia of a catarrhal or rheumatic nature, especially when chemosis, or great redness and swelling around the cornea has taken place. Heat and burning in the eyes, especially the left, great photophobia, inflammation, and lachrymation of the eyes, with such severe pain that the patient wished to die swelling of inflamed eyes, redness of the conjunctiva and sclerotica. Inflammation from a foreign body in the eye, with redness, stinging pain and pressure in every part of the eye, intolerance of light and lachrymation. Dryness and heaviness of the upper eye-lids Painful, tense, red, and hard swelling of the lids, especially in the morning. Sensation as if the whole eye-ball were pushed into the orbit. Prickling and smarting of the eye- lids as when a cold is setting in. Soreness and itching of the eye-lids. Yellowness of the whites of the eyes. Sparks and mist before the eyes; flashes and scintillations; lamps seem tremulous, and luminous vibrations before the eyes.
