INTRODUCTION
SEC.C – Ergot. See Noack and Trinks’ “Handbuch,”.
COMPARE WITH
Arnica, Arsenicum, Camph., Ig., Lauroc., Plumb., Rhus-tox., Sol.-nig. Veratrum
ANTIDOTE
Camph., Sol.-nig.
GENERAL SYMPTOMS
ERGOTISMUS, RAPHANIA, MORBUS CEREALIS appears in two different forms: ergotismus-gangraenosus characterized by degeneration of the blood and ergotismus-convulsivus, where the nervous system is principally affected.
SKIN
The skin is dry and brittle. The skin looks lead-colored, the parts becoming shrivelled and insensible. Peeling off of the skin. burning of the skin. Formication. Drawing and creeping, increasing to spasms. RAsh on the chest and back. Boils. Petechiae. Large ecchymoses. Bloody blisters on the extremities, becoming gangrenous. Black suppurating blisters. Tumors on the neck, discharging a yellow pus, with burning. Emphysematous swellings.
SLEEP
Painful stretching. Drowsiness, like sopor. Stupor, for days. Somnolence, with delirium and starting. Sleeplessness, restlessness, and dry heat. Restless night-sleep, with heavy dreams.
FEVER
Sudden chilly creeping. Violent chilliness, also with shaking. Fever: first, violent chilliness; afterwards, burning heat with unquenchable thirst. Dry heat, with quick pulse, restlessness, and loss of sleep. Small and suppressed pulse. Slow, small, and intermittent pulse. Cold sweat, also viscid.
MORAL SYMPTOMS
Lowness of spirits. Melancholy. Excessive sadness. Anguish. Great and oppressive anxiety. Dread of death. Obstinacy.
SENSORIUM
Difficulty of thinking or talking. Indifference to everything. Stupor, with dilatation of the pupils. Chronic stupor. Forgetfulness, imbecility. Loss of consciousness and sensibility. Craziness. Mania, with violence. Rage. Illusion of the senses. Mental derangement and delirium, bordering on mania. Vertigo. Vertigo and stupefaction. Stupefaction and insensibility. Congestion of blood to the head. Intoxication. Reeling and inability to stand erect. Dullness of the head, with cloudiness of hearing and sight.
HEAD
Headache. Dull pain in the occiput. Hemicrania, on the left side.
EYES
Swelling of the eye-lids. Pressure in the ball of the eye. Spasmodic contortion of the eyes. Frightful contortion of the eyes, the pupil being contracted and sometimes entirely closed. Wild, confused eyes. The eyes stare, he grows blind. Diplopic. Squinting. Luminous vibrations before the eyes. Gauze before the eyes. Great obscuration of sight. Mistiness and spots before the eyes. Scintillations.
EARS
Hardness of hearing. Humming and roaring in the ears.
FACE
Wretched complexion. The face if sunken and pale. Sallow complexion; the eyes are sunken. Pale cheeks. Facies- hippocratica. Redness of the face, thirst, and slight delirium. Swelling of the face and abdomen. Trismus.
MOUTH
The mouth is spasmodically distorted or closed. The tongue is frequently torn by the most violent convulsions. Painful tingling in the tongue, stifling the voice. Yellowish-white, dry, thick, viscid coating of the tongue. Foam at the mouth, which looks like light blood. Ptyalism. A frothy or bloody saliva. Grinding with the teeth. A sort of paralysis of the tongue. Difficult stuttering speech.
NOSE
Bleeding of the nose. Irritation of the schneiderian membrane.
THROAT
Intolerable tingling in the throat. Violent burning in the fauces.
APPETITE
Bitter spoiled taste. Aversion to food. Canine hunger. Bulimy. Canine huger and weakness of mind, for a long time.
GASTRIC SYMPTOMS AND STOMACH
Eructations. Violent sour eructations. Feeling of emptiness in the stomach. Heartburn. Nausea. Vomiting. Vomiting of mucus, lumbrici, or ascarides. Vomiting of sour substances, or of a tenacious mucus. Vomiting of black bile. Constant retching, with vomiting of a crude bilious substance. Constant retching and pressure in the pit of the stomach. Cardialgia. Slight cardialgia, with heartburn. Constriction in the epigastrium. Heat and burning in the pit of the stomach. Gangrene of the stomach, lungs, and liver, preceded by inflammation.
ABDOMEN
Hepatitis, terminating in gangrene. Violent colic also convulsive, or with in the small of the back and thighs, eructations, and vomiting. Cutting and lacerating in the abdomen. Great feeling of coldness in the back and abdomen. Burning in the abdomen, particularly in the region of the spleen and loins, a seated pain. Distention of the abdomen, with hardness, tension and pain on touching the parts. Rumbling in the abdomen.
STOOL
Constipation, with frequent ineffectual urging. Painful diarrhoea, with great prostration. Putrid and foetid, colliquative diarrhoea. Watery, mucous diarrhoea. Brown, badly- colored diarrhoea. Involuntary diarrhoea. Diarrhoea after the cholera, particularly in children. Discharge of ascarides, in children. Cholera-like paroxysm. Sudden, striking change of features, with deep-sunken eye-balls, surrounded with blue margins, constant nausea and vomiting after taking the least food, frequent diarrhoea with watery, slimy evacuations, hoarse hollow voice, suppression of urine, cramp in the calves, paralysis of the upper extremities, scarcely perceptible pulse, unquenchable thirst.
URINE
Suppression of urine. Difficult urination, with constant urging in the bladder. Burning in the urethra during micturition. The urine flowed seldom, came out in drops, without relief. Haemorrhage from the urethra.
MALE GENITAL ORGANS
Violent drawing in the spermatic cord.
FEMALE GENITAL ORGANS
Suppression of the menses. The menses are too profuse, and too long, also with violent spasms. All the symptoms are worse previous to the menses. Congestion of the blood to the uterus. Metrorrhagia. Moles.? Polypus in the uterus? Swelling and wens on the os-tincae, which is half opened. Metritis. Cancer and gangrene of the uterus.? Affections of pregnant and parturient females. Strictures of the uterus and hydrocephalus of the foetus. Excessive uterine contractions, so that the uterus seemed to burst. Suppression of the lochia.
CHEST
Occasional expectoration of blood. dyspnoea. Oppression of the chest. Asthma. Anxious and difficult respiration. Moaning. Spasms of the pleura, accompanied with suffocative catarrh, speechlessness, and subsultus-tendinum. Violent palpitation of the heart, with contracted and frequently intermittent pulse. Spasmodic throbbing of the heart.
BACK
Stiffness of the nape of the neck.
ARMS AND LEGS
Weariness and numbness of the extremities. Weakness of the extremities. Violent pains in the limbs. Spasmodic pains in the limbs. Drawing or lacerating pains in the limbs or joints. Burning in the hands and feet. Spasms and convulsions of the extremities. Trembling of the limbs, with pains. Formication in the hands and feet. Numbness, insensibility, and coldness of the limbs. Rigidity of the limbs. Paralysis of the limbs. Gangrene of the limbs. Gangrenous deadness and falling off of the limbs. Swelling of the hands and feet, with black, suppurating blisters, as if burnt.
ARMS
Tingling and insensibility. Violent pains in the tips of the fingers and partial swellings on the arms. Violent contraction of the fingers. Numbness of the fingers.
LEGS
Languor and pains in the lower extremities. Difficult staggering gait. Pains in the hips. Contraction of the lower limbs. Tetanic spasm of the toes. Formication of the lower limbs. Swelling of the feet. Dropsical swelling of the feet. Gangrene of the feet, up to the knees. Gangrene of the lower limb and spontaneous dropping off of the same.
