VERATRUM VIRIDE.
Veratrum viride, Ait.
Natural order
, Liliaceæ.
Common names
, American white hellebore,
Indian poke, etc.
Preparation
, Tincture of the root.
Authorities.
1,
“W.,” Bost. Med. and Surg. Journ., vol. x, 1834, p. 216, took
2 grains of extract of root, then 4 grains (first day); two doses of 3
grains each (second day); 1a, same, took 1/4 grain every three hours
for three days; 2, Charles Osgood,
M.D., Amer. Journ. Med. Sci., vol. xvi, 1835, p. 302, took 2 grains
finely pulverized extract at 12 M.; 3,
same, a man took 2 grains, afterwards 4 grains; 3a, same, feeling well the next day, took 3
grains at 7 A.M., 12 M., and 2 grains at 11 P.M.; 3b, took
three or four doses of 1/2 grain each, at intervals of three hours; 3c,
1/4-grain doses continued for three days, at intervals of three hours; 3d,
1/3-grain doses at same intervals, for three or four days; 4, S. A. Hubbard, Bost. Med. and Surg.
Journ., vol. xix, 1838, p. 31, five persons ate Verat. vir., cooked with
other vegetables; 5, Cutter,
Rickard, and Ingalls, Amer. Journ. Med. Sci., 1861 (2), p. 398, Dr.
James Robbins made a trial; 6,
Ephraim Cutter, Med. Times and Gaz. (Mon. Hom. Rev., 1862, p. 494), put
60 minims into syrup gum acaciæ and water, 1/2 ounce each, took
one-seventh at 6.30 P.M., other doses at 7.30 and 10.30 P.M.; 7, Dr. B. Woodward, Med. and Surg. Rep.,
Phila., Nov. 1860, p. 109 (ibid.), took 8 drops Norwod’s tincture at 8
P.M., 4 drops at 10 P.M., and 3 drops at 12 M.; 8,
S. W. Abbott, M.D., Bost. Med. and Surg. Journ., 1862 (1), p. 186, four
doses of 10 drops of tincture of seeds; 8a, same, took 20 drops once an hour; 8b, same,
took 7 drops tincture of plant at 2 and 4 P.M., 4 drops at 6 P.M., 6
drops at 8 P.M.; 9, Lancet, 1862
(1), p. 54, a tincture was given for toothache, and a portion
accidentally swallowed; 10, G. J.
Scatter-good Proc. Amer. Pharm. Assoc., 1862 (Amer. Journ. of Pharm.,
1863, p. 77), took 2 grains alcoholic resin at 5.15 P.M.; 11, G. N. Edwards, Med. Times and Gaz., 1863
(1), p. 5, a man took 1 drachm tincture; 12,
W. H. Burt, M.D., Hale’s New Remedies, p. 1033, in perfect health, took
30 drops of 3 dec. dil. of fluid extract prepared in water at 9.50 A.M.,
50 drops at 11 A.M., 60 drops at noon, 100 drops at 2 P.M., 150 drops at
3 P.M., 200 drops at 5 P.M., 175 drops at 7 P.M. (first day); 3 drops
fluid extract at 9 A.M., 4 drops at 10 A.M. 5 drops at 12 M., 6 drops at
2 and 4 P.M., 8 drops at 9 P.M. (second day); 10 drops at 9 A.M., 12
drops at 10 A.M. and 12 M., 8 drops at night on retiring (third day); 10
drops at 8 and 10 A.M., and 12 M. (fourth day); 13,
same, a girl, aged twenty-one months, took a few drops of tincture; 14, Hale, ibid,. a young girl took 20 drops; 15, Jones and Scudder’s Mat. Med. (ibid.),
took 1/4 grain alcoholic extract; 16,
same, 1/2 fluid drachm tincture instead of Gelseminum; 17, James Watson, M.D., Edinb. Med. Journ.,
1864, p. 616, took 8 drops tincture at 3, 5, and 7 P.M.; 18, Samuel R. Percy, M.D., An Inquiry into
the Phys. and Med. Properties of Verat. vir., Phila; 1864, p. 75, in
1823 a farmer boiled 10 pounds of swamp Hellebore in water down to a
gallon of fluid, of which his wife took a tumblerful; 19, same, in 1840 a person prepared 2 quarts
of syrup from 2 pounds of Verat. vir., and took a tumblerful twice; 20, N. O. Pearson, M.D., Chicago Med.
Examiner (ibid.), a patient took 20 minims in an hour and a half, in
three doses; 21, Dr. Buckingham,
Med. Invest., Dec. 1865, p. 32, H. C., took a swallow of extract; 22, another man took the same; 23, J. C. Harris, M.D., Bost. Med. and Surg.
Journ., 1865 (1), p. 249, a boy, aged eighteen months, took four or five
doses of the tincture, probably not less than 35 drops, death in
thirteen hours; 24, Dr. W. H.
Woodbury, Med. Invest., Dec. 1865, p. 27, a man aged forty-five years,
as an expectorant, took 20 drops tincture in two doses; 25, Mr. P.M. Rice, Brit. Journ. of Hom., vol.
xxiv, 1866, p. 343, took 20 minims of tincture in 1 ounce of water; 26, Charles Bullock, Proc. Amer. Pharm.
Assoc., 1867 (Am. Pharm. Journ., 1868, p. 64), took 1/3 grain resin
dissolved in alcohol, every half hour, until 2 grains were taken; 27, Dr. Hadlock, Med. and Surg. Rep., No. 8,
1870 (Practitioner, vol. iv, 1870, p. 375), effects of large doses; 28, E. M. Hale, Amer. Obs., vol. vii, 1870; 29, H. C. Wood, M.D., Amer. Journ. Med. Sci.,
1870 (1), p. 51, took 1 grain alcoholic resin at 3.35 and 4.15 P.M., 2
grains at 5.20 P.M.; 30, same, took
1/18 grain Viridiæ sulph. in aqueous solution at 11.40 A.M., 12 M.,
12.35 and 1.40 P.M., 1/9 grain at 2. 10 and 3.15 P.M., 1/6 grain at 4
and 4.30 P.M. (31 to 33, E. W. Berridge, North Am. Journ. of Hom.,
New Series, 2, May, 1872, p. 505); 31,
James Lillie, M.D., dissolved 1 drop of tincture in 1 1/2 pints of
water, shook it and took a wineglass at 8.5 P.M., another wineglassful
before 9 P.M., another at 10.30. P.M. (first day); same at 8 A.M., 2
glasses at 9.30 A.M., 1 glass at 5 P.M., after dinner (6.45) 3 glasses,
at 8.45 P.M. 3 glasses of a dilution made of one wineglassful of the
former to 1 1/2 pints of water (second day); 4 wineglasses at 8.15 A.M.,
4 glasses of a 3d dil. made as before, at 11 P.M. (third day); 4 glasses
at 7 A.M., 5 glasses at 9.30 A.M. (fourth day); 2 glasses before 5 A.M.
(fifth day); 4 glasses of a 4th dil. made as before, at 11 A.M. (sixth
day); 1 drop of 1st dil. at 11.15 A.M., 3 drops at 10.48 P.M. (twelfth
day); 10 or 12 drops of 1st dil. in 2 ounces of water at 8.30 A.M., 6
drops of 1st dil. at 10.57 P.M. (fourteenth day); 12 drops of 1st dil.
in 1 1/2 ounces of water, and gradually sipped it in two or three
minutes, at 11 P.M. (fifteenth day); 2 or 3 drops of 1st dil. at noon,
in evening made 30th dil. from 3d, drank all the intermediate watery
dilutions at once (sixteenth day); 1 drop of tincture in a glass of
water, at 10, 35 P.M. (twenty-third day); 1 drop of tincture in a
wineglass of water at 12.30 P.M., 1 drop of tincture at 4.15 and 10.20
P.M. (twenty-fourth day); 1 drop of tincture at 8.45 A.M., 1 drop at
10.45 P.M. (twenty-fifth day); 3 drops of 3d in sugar, at 1.30 P.M.,
repeated dose at 7 P.M., 1 drop in water at 10.10 P.M. (thirtieth day);
1 drop of 3d at 8.15 A.M., 1 drop of 3d on sugar at noon, 3 drops at 6
P.M., 5 or 6 drops at 10.30 P.M. (thirty-first day); 7 or 8 drops at
8.30 A.M., 3 drops of 3d in water at 1 P.M., 7 drops of 3d in water at
10.20 P.M. (thirty-second day); 3 or 4 drops of 30th dil. at 8 A.M.,
same dose twice in afternoon, 6 or 7 drops of 30th at 10.40 P.M.
(thirty-seventh day); 2 drops of 30th at 11 A.M. and 8 P.M., 2 or 3
drops at 10.10 P.M., and 2 drops at 10.20 P.M. (thirty-eighth day); 40
or 50 globules of 200th (forty-third day); 10 globules of 200th dil. at
11 A.M., 20 or 30 globules of 200th at 10.45 P.M., then 17 globules
(forty-fourth day); 10 globules at 8.40 and 11.20 A.M., 12.20, 2.30,
4.30, and 6.20 P.M. (forty-fifth day); 3 globules of 30th at 10.5 A.M.,
afterwards a wineglass containing all the dilutions between 30th and
200th, then another, and a third wineglass at 10.30 P.M. (forty-sixth
day); 32, Dr. Berridge, took 10
globules of Dr. Lillie’s 200th; 33,
Mr. —, took 201st prepared from Dr. Lillie’s 200th, 12 drops in half a
tumbler of water, and a dose at 12.50 and 3.30 P.M. (first day); a dose
at 10.40. and 4 P.M. (second day); 2 drops at 10 A.M. (fifth day); 34, J. P. Truman, M.D., Hahn. Monthly, vol.
viii, 1872, p. 46, a man aged about fifty-five years, who had sciatica,
with scarcely any concomitant symptoms, took Verat., macerated in
whiskey, for two days, in sufficient quantities to produce perspiration,
then took 1/2 ounce of the whiskey tincture at one dose; 35, Berridge, North. Amer. Journ. of Hom.,
New Series, vol. iii. 1873, p. 500, Mrs. —, dissolved 1 drop tincture
in 1 1/2 pints water, and took a wineglassful at 8.5 P.M.; 36, Dr. N. Ford, Med. Rec., vol., ix, 1774,
p. 155, effect of overdose; 37, J.
Steele Bailey, M.D., New Orleans Med. and Surg. Jour., July, 1877, p.
38, case of poisoning; (38 to 42a, R.
B. Sullivan, M.D., copied from MS.); 38,
T. L., aged fourteen years, took 10 pellets 3d dec., every half hour,
all day, for four days, a solution of 5 drops tincture in water every
half hour (sixth day); 39, E. B. S.,
took 10 drops tincture in afternoon (first day), 5 drops every half hour
(second day); 39a, same, two days later took 5 drops 1st
dec. every half hour all day (first day), 1st dec. all day (second and
third days), 3d dec. every half hour (fourth day); 40, W. E. D., took 10 drops 6th dec. at 9.20
and 10.20 A.M. and 1 P.M. (first day); 10 drops 1st dec. at 10.12 A.M.
and 1 P.M. (second day); 40a, same, took 3 drops tincture at 7 and 10
A.M., and at 2, 6, 6.30, and 10 P.M. (first day), same at 7.45 and 11
A.M. (second day), 10 drops at 8 A.M., 12 M., and 7 P.M. (fourth day); 40b,
same, took pellets saturated with 30th potency, every half hour, for six
days, with no results, then took pellets saturated with 3d potency,
every half hour (first and second days), began at 2 P.M. (fourth day); 40c,
same, took 3d potency every half hour (first day), 5 drops tincture
every hour (third day), 10 drops tincture at 8 and 9 A.M., 12 M., and at
1 and 2 P.M. (fourth day); 41, J. H.
C., aged twenty-eight years, began at 7 A.M. to take 10th potency, every
twenty minutes (first day), continued (second day); 42, B. G., aged forty-six years, had
rheumatic pains in the back, hip, and side, superficial vein of scrotum
varicosed, pains along the spermatic cord, dull heavy pain in frontal
region, with vomiting, took drop doses of tincture every half hour for
four days; 42a,
the same, three days later took 5 drops 1st dec. every fifteen minutes.
MIND.
►
*Temporary delirium, [4].
►► *Quarrelsome and delirious,
striking and kicking with right hand and foot;
at times these movements appeared to be involuntary; this mental
condition changed to a happy and comical delirious state, which
continued fifteen hours, [34]. ► Although I thought it probable I should
die, I did not feel alarmed, [25].
► (Some depression of spirits (fourth
day); great depression (fifth day)), [42].
► Depression and prostration, [17]. ►
Great fear of death, [34]. ► Most of the time, between the vomiting
spells, he was lethargic, with slow and difficult respiration, [32]. ►
When not vomiting she lay in a stupor, [13].
► (Feels stupefied, with great pain
and fulness in head), (first and second days), [42a]. [10.] ► Apparently unconscious (after seven
hours), [23].
HEAD.
►
Confusion and Vertigo. ►
Confused sensation in head (after two hours), [3a]. ► *Vertigo,
[1], [2], [3],
etc. ► When rising from a seat, or
from bed, a slight dizziness (fourth day), [38]. ► *Vertigo
with the nausea (second day), [41].
► Dizziness and nausea, followed by
heat of surface (fourth day), [40c].
► Dizziness on rising, in the morning
(seventh day), [38]. ► Vertigo and sudden prostration, [34]. ►
(Must keep is bed; vertigo and vomiting as soon
as he rises), (fifth day), [42].
► Vertigo and photophobia; relieved
by closing eyes and resting head, in the morning (third day), [38]. [20.]
► Dizziness and pain in the head
(after ten or fifteen minutes), [24].
► General Head. ► Dull feeling in the head all the
afternoon and evening (fourth day), [40c].
► Heavy dull pain in head with the
weakness (first day), [41]. ► *Head felt full and heavy (second
morning), [41]. ► Heavy dull headache, with occasional
painful throbbing in the temples (after four hours), [17]. ►
Constant dull headache at 4 P.M. (second day), [12]. ►
(Violent headache of a central congestive character); aggravated by
noise and motion (fifth day), [42].
► (Violent headache, with severe
vomiting every fifteen or twenty minutes), (first and second days), [42a]. ►
During this proving had no headache after the first and second days, [40a]. ►
Headache, which stopped at the temples and seemed to take a diagonal
course across the head (after two hours, fourth day), [40b]. [30.] ► Slight headache, with full, pressing,
heavy feeling in eyes (first day), [41].
► Queer feeling about the head (after
two hours, second day), [1]. ► (Burning sensation of head, with flushed
face), (fifth day), [42]. ► Forehead. ►
Some heaviness about forehead (after second dose, twelfth day), [31]. ►
Constant, dull, frontal headache, with
neuralgic pains in the right temple, close to the eye, at 10
A.M.; dull pains over the eye, with quite severe drawing pains in the
umbilical region, at 11 A.M.; slight frontal headache, with pricking
pains in the region of the heart, at 12 M.; drawing pains in forehead at
2 P.M.; dull, frontal headache, with pricking pains in the præcordial
region, at 3 P.M.; slight, frontal headache at 5 P.M., slight, dull
frontal headache at 7 P.M. (first day). Slight, dull frontal headache,
with a contractive feeling of the skin of the forehead, at 930 A.M.;
dull frontal headache, with neuralgic pains in the temples, at 11 A.M.;
very severe frontal headache, with dull aching pains in the umbilical
region, at 2 P.M.; constant, dull headache at 4 P.M.; dull frontal
headache, with neuralgic pains in the right temple at 9 P.M. (second
day). Dull frontal headache at 2 P.M.; severe frontal headache, with
violent vomiting and hiccough, 2.20 P.M. (third day). Dull frontal
headache at 12 M.; very severe frontal headache at 1 P.M.; dull frontal
headache at 2 P.M. (fourth day), [12].
► Steady, dull pain over right eye,
gradually extending to forehead (after second dose, twenty-fourth day), [31]. ►
(Some frontal headache, with nausea; head feels full and congested),
(fifth day), [42]. ► Awoke in the morning with frontal
headache, which seemed relieved after a stool (second day), [40a]. ►
After 1 P.M. noticed a frontal headache, which extended back on left
side of head to occiput; continued all day, more when lying down,
especially when lying on occiput (first and second days), [40b]. ►
Frontal headache, with cold feet and hands (second day), [41]. [40.] ► Slight aching over right eye, also in right temple and right
malar bone, just under the eye (twenty minutes, after third dose, first
day), [31]. ►
Numb constricted pain in forehead, pressing back to the ears, sensation
as if membrana tympani would break (second day), [41]. ► Sharp
drawing pain over the left eye, with a contracted feeling in the skin of
the forehead (after ten minutes), [12].
► On waking, after a short sleep,
felt an indescribable sensation rising from forehead towards crown, and
grasping, as it were, the vertex and occiput (first night), [32]. ►
Temples. ► A sensation of
stiffness in the voluntary muscles, particularly the temporal and
extensors of the head, [2]. ► Pain in left side of head at junction of
parietal and temporal bones, in the forenoon (thirty-first day), [31]. ►
Pain in right mastoid process (half an hour, after fourth dose,
thirty-eighth day), [31]. ► The old pains began to fly about in
temple and left trochanter major (after second dose, forty-sixth day), [31]. ►
Headache on left side back to temple (first day); on left side, from
before backwards (second day), [40c].
► Headache on left side to temple at
9 A.M.; stopped in the afternoon (third day), [40c]. ► Occiput.
[50.] ►
Dull headache in occipital region (third day); all day (fourth and fifth
days); slight occipital headache (sixth day), [38].
EYE.
►
Full, pressing, heavy feeling in eyes, with slight headache (first day),
[41]. ►
Aching in left eye, while riding in omnibus (after-second dose, second
day), [31]. ►
Severe shooting suddenly-stopping pain in left
eye (a few minutes after second dose, fourth day), [31]. ► Brow and
Orbit. ► On going to bed,
had an intense, painful itching in middle of left eyebrow (twenty-fourth
day), [31]. ►
A dull heavy feeling over left eye, worse when stooping, at 2 P.M.
(second day), [40]. ► A distinct ache, directly over right eye (immediately, after first dose,
fourth day), [31]. ► Aching in upper part of right orbit (twelfth and sixteenth nights), [31]. ►
Slight transient pains above the right eye (after half an hour,
twenty-third day), [31]. ► Pain in upper half of right orbit (after
first dose, thirty-eighth day), [31].
► Lids. [60.] ►
Feeling of fulness about the eyelids, as if he had been crying a good
deal, with increased secretion of tears (ten minutes after third dose,
first day), [38]. ► Eyelids heavy and sleepy, with soreness
(fifth day), [33]. ► Lachrymal Apparatus. ► (Increased tears), (fifth day), [42]. ►
Profuse secretion of tears at 2 P.M. (third day); at 1 P.M. (fourth
day), [12]. ► Pupil. ►►
*Dilated pupils, [2], [12], [14],
etc. ► Vision. ► *Dimness of sight, [2], [3], [24]. ►
(Dimness of vision; green circles around the gaslight), (fifth day), [42]. ►
*Cannot walk; if I attempt it I am very faint and completely blind;
obliged to keep in the horizontal position, at 2.20 P.M.; cannot walk
across the room without becoming blind, at 4 P.M.; can walk about ten
rods, when I become blind, and am compelled to sit down, at 5 P.M.
(third day), [12]. ► Can walk about four rods, I then become
blind and faint, but can sit up without any trouble, at 1 P.M. (fourth
day), [12]. ► Photophobia and vertigo, relieved by closing
eyes and resting head, in the morning (third day), [38]. [70.]
► *If I assumed the erect position for
even a minute, dimness of sight and partial syncope supervened,
which obliged me to resume the recumbent posture again (after four
hours); the inability to assume the erect position continued for an hour
and a half, [25]. ► *Unsteady vision (second day), [41]. ►
Cloud before the eyes, chiefly during vomiting (first day), [1]. ►
A little dazzling of the eyes, [5].
► Immense circle of green color
appeared round the candle, which, as vertigo came on and I closed my
eyes, turned to red, [11].
EAR.
►
A fulness in the left ear, with a continued beating of the carotids, I
could hear it beat distinctly, during the proving, [40b]. ►
Fulness and throbbing in the carotid in the left ear; this came on soon
after beginning to take the drug (fourth day), [40c]. ►
Ringing in the ear; moving quickly makes me very deaf; at 2 P.M. (fourth
day), [12]. ►
(Hears noise in ear), (fifth day), [42].
► (Humming
in ears and sensitiveness to noise; ears feel cold with
spells of deafness), (fifth day), [42].® 2000
Article