Synonym. Datura Stramonium. Natural order. Solanaceae. Common names. Thorn Apple. Jamestown Weed. Sink Weed. Habitat. Supposed to be a native of Asia, but growing in many parts of the world. Found on road-sides, near drug-heaps, pig-styes or rubbish. Preparation. Tincture from the ripe seeds.
GENERAL ANALYSIS.
Acts chiefly upon the sensorium, increasing its activity, perverting its function, and giving rise to nausea, delirium and to hallucinations; simulating in kind the action of Belladonna and Hyoscyamus, yet differing in degree. The delirium is more furious, the mania more acute; while the congestion, though greater than in Hyoscyamus, is much less than in Belladonna, never approaching a true inflammatory condition.
Stramonium also produces great dryness of the throat and skin, on the latter causing a fiery red rash, resembling that of scarlatina. On other portions of the body Stramonium only acts through sympathetic irritation from the brain. In this manner it produces dilated pupils, diminished general sensibility, perversion of the special senses, convulsive motions, intense sexual excitement, suppressed urine, etc.
CHARACTERISTIC SYMPTOMS.
Mind. Delirium; furious (Belladonna, Cantharis, OEnan.); full of fear (Belladonna, Veratrum alb.); tries to escape; struggles to get out of bed (Belladonna); incessant and incoherent talk; laughing (Hyoscyamus); Carphologia (Belladonna, Hyoscyamus); sexual excitement. Mania; desire for light and company (Kreosotum; aversion, Hyoscyamus); attacks of rage, with beating or striking; proud, haughty (Lachesis, Platina); screaming, biting, scratching; terrified; merry; exaltation; singing and dancing (Croc.). Hallucinations (Anacardium, Hyoscyamus, Can., ind.). which terrify the patient (Absinth.); horrible images; sees strangers, or imagines horrible animals are jumping sideways out of the ground, or running at him. Hydrophobia (Belladonna, Hyoscyamus); excessive aversion to liquids; water, a mirror, or anything bright, excites convulsions; spasmodic constriction of throat, etc. Symptoms resembling delirium tremens. Dullness of all the senses. Alternate exaltation and melancholy. Stupid indifference to every-body and everything (Berberis, Phosphorus, Phosphorus ac.). The child on waking is frightened at everything that first meets its eyes (Belladonna); wants to run away from them. Strange, absurd ideas; thinks herself tall, double or lying crosswise; one half of body cut off, etc. (Baptisia, Petrol.). Unconscious snoring; jaws hang down; hands and feet which; pupils dilated (Opium). Weak memory (Anacardium, Kreosotum, Lachesis, Mercurius, Natr. mur.); looses thoughts before she can utter them; calls things by wrong names,
Head. Vertigo; cannot walk in the dark; falling to the left or backward (Belladonna); reeling as if drunk (Agaricus). Violent congestion in the head (Belladonna). Aching. Heat in head; throbbing about vertex and in forehead; fainting; loss of sight and hearing; face bloated and turgid. Convulsive movements of the head, mostly to the right side; frequently raising the head up.
Eyes. Eyes wide open, starting, prominent (Amyl. nit., Belladonna, Hyoscyamus, Naja, Opium); brilliant, contorted. Pupils dilated (Belladonna, Hyoscyamus, Opium); sometimes immovable, and insensible to light (Cicuta, Digit.). Conjunction injected, as if the vessel were filled with dirty liquid. Total blindness, transient. Light dazzles; shuns the light; bright light or brilliant objects causes convulsions. Double vision (Aurum, Belladonna, Cicuta, Phytolacca); sees obliquely.
Ears. Hardness of hearing.
Face. Face hot, red and bloated (Aconite, Belladonna, Opium); eyes wild; expression of terror. Twitching in muscles of face (Agaricus, Ant. tart., Cicuta, Ignatia); frowns on forehead. Lips dry and sticky.
Mouth. Tongue swollen, stiff, dry, moved with difficulty. Stammering (Can., ind., Causticum, Selenium), speech difficult and unintelligible, or entirely speeches (Hyoscyamus). Great dryness of mouth and fauces. Dribbling of glairy saliva from the mouth.
Throat. Difficult deglutition, from spasmodic constriction of the throat (Belladonna, Hyoscyamus, Laur., Plumb., Veratrum alb.). with paralysis. Great dryness of the throat (Apis., Nux moschata, Rhus tox.).
Stomach. Violent thirst; especially for acid drinks (Ant. tart., Cinchona, Phosphorus, Veratrum, alb.). Hiccough. Nausea. Vomiting.
Abdomen. Abdomen distended, not hard.
Stool and Urine. Suppression of both stool and urine. Discharge of coagulated blood from rectum. Constipation. Urine dribbles away slowly and feebly (Aconite, Causticum). Involuntary urination (Arsenicum, Belladonna, Cicuta, Hyoscyamus, Opium). Onanism, causing epilepsy.
Sexual Organs. Exalted sexual desire in both sexes; in females, nymphomania, (Cantharis, Cinchona, Platina). Metrorrhagia, with characteristic mental symptom.
Respiratory Organs. Voice hoarse and croaking; high, fine, squeaking; indistinct. Difficult, hurried respiration. Great sense of suffocation, from constriction of the chest (Asafoetida, Ignatia). Oppression, with desire for open air.
Neck and Back. Spine sensitive; the slightest pressure causes outcries and ravings. Drawing pains in the middle of spine; in sacrum.
Hear and Pulse. Palpitation (Aconite, Belladonna, Spigelia). Puls raid, full, strong; soft, feeble, frequent.
Limbs. Convulsive motions of hands and arms; carphologia (Hyoscyamus). Twitching of the hands and feet (Belladonna, Hyoscyamus). Twitching of the tendons (Hyoscyamus, Kali iod.). Trembling of the limbs (Coccul., Coni., Gelsemium, Mercurius). The limbs fall asleep.
Generalities. Suppression of all secretions and excretions. Trembling of the whole body as if from fright (Gelsemium). Frequent twitchings (Agaricus, Cicuta); sudden jerks through the body. Subsultus tendinum. Convulsions; from the slight of bright, dazzling objects; from water, touch (Nux v.), or being spoken to (Cicuta). Chronic convulsions (Agaricus, Cicuta, Cimic., Hyoscyamus, Ignatia, Laur.); especially from fright. Constant, restless movements of the limbs and whole body. Great restlessness.
Skin. Intense, bright, scarlet-red rash over the whole body (Apis, Arum., Belladonna, Rhus tox.).
Sleep. Snoring; deep sleep (Laur., Opium). Restlessness sleep, with tossing about, twitching and screaming.
Fever. Coldness of the whole body, especially the limbs. During chill head is hot; doesn’t want to be covered. Hot, red face, with cold feet. Violent fever; skin dry and burning hot, especially heat and face (Belladonna). Cold sweat over the whole body (Ant. tart., Arsenicum, Cuprum, Digit., Veratrum alb.).
Aggravation. In forenoon; when alone; in the dark; from being touched; from looking at glistening objects; when attempting to swallow, especially liquids.
Amelioration. In the house; from light and company; from cold water.
Conditions. Especially in children, and in young plethoric persons.
Compare. Agaricus, Arsenicum, Belladonna, Bryonia, Can., ind., Chamomilla, Cicuta, Hyoscyamus, Ignatia, Lycopodium, Mercurius, Nux v., Opium, Plumb., Pulsatilla, Secal. c., Sulphur, Veratrum, alb.
Antidotes. Belladonna, Hyoscyamus, Nux v., To large doses: Lemon juice, vinegar; tobacco injections.
Stramonium Antidotes. Mercurius, Plumb.
THERAPEUTICS.
The chief use of Stramonium is in the treatment of acute mania of the character already described, the chief element being one of terror, attempts to escape, terrifying hallucinations, especially of horrible animals, etc.; rage, screaming biting and scratching. Also useful for similar symptoms in delirium tremens, and in the delirium of typhus and other fevers. In fevers delirium characterized by an allusion, as to the proportions of the body (see symptoms). Stram is acknowledged by all action is strictly homoeopathic. Mania, chorea, epilepsy, convulsions, etc., caused by fright. Chorea, affecting especially the muscles of the face. Hysteria, with mental characteristic and distorted features. Spasmodic conditions from non-appearance of eruptions in children. Strabismus. Stammering. Early stages of locomotor ataxia. Catalepsy. Paralysis after apoplexy. Erysipelas, with violent cerebral symptoms, characteristic delirium, etc. One- sided erysipelas, with meningitis; spasmodic symptoms alternate with paralytic. Occasionally useful in abscesses, especially in left hip-joint, or in panaritium, with pain so intense as to almost cause convulsions. As a rule, there is an absence of pain under this drug, but in the conditions named, and in some pain under this drug, but in the conditions named, and in some others, it relieves the pain of suppuration. Often indicated in scarlet fever, especially of the malignant type; from suppression of the eruption. Anasarca after scarlet fever,
Measles. Hydrocephalus. Cerebro-spinal meningitis. Prosopalgia nervosa; pains maddening; spasmodic starts and shocks through body; throws arms upward; skin of forehead wrinkled. Diaphragmitis; delirium, burning along diaphragm; spasms; aversion to water, etc. Cholera infantum; foul smelling stools; strabismus; awakes in fright; twitching. Satyriasis. Nymphomania. Dysmenorrhoea, with characteristic mental and spasmodic symptoms. A valuable remedy in puerperal mania. Puerperal convulsions. Spasmodic asthma, desire to be in the open air, suffocative cough. Whooping cough. Cough of drunkards. Sometimes indicated in pneumonia by the characteristic delirium. Typhoid fever, with characteristic delirium, black, putrid stools, suppression of urine, sometimes red rash on chest. Remittent and other fevers in children; cry out in sleep; start as from fright; jerk, twitch, eyes half-open; pupils large; suppressed urine. Ailments form the vapor of Mercury.
ALLEN CORSON COWPERTHWAITE was born at Cape May, New Jersey, May 3, 1848, son of Joseph C. and Deborah (Godfrey) Cowperthwaite. He attended medical lectures at the University of Iowa in 1867-1868, and was graduated from the Hahnemann Medical College of Philadelphia in 1869. He practiced his profession first in Illinois, and then in Nebraska. In 1877 he became Dean and Professor of Materia Medica in the recently organized Homeopathic Department of the State University of Iowa, holding the position till 1892. In 1884 he accepted the chair of Materia Medica, Pharmacology, and Clinical Medicine in the Homeopathic Medical College of the University of Michigan. He removed to Chicago in 1892, and became Professor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics in the Chicago Homeopathic Medical College. From 1901 he also served as president of that College. He is the author of various works, notably "Insanity in its Medico-Legal Relations" (1876), "A Textbook of Materia Medica and Therapeutics" (1880), of "Gynecology" (1888), and of "The Practice of Medicine " (1901).