HELONIAS.
SEXUAL ORGANS.
►
Great uterine hæmorrhage came during the proving, and continued until
the medicine was discontinued, [4].
► (An intense irritation of the
external labia and pudendum, which were puffed, hot, red, and burned and
itched terribly; so intense was this irritation, that she could not
prevent herself from scratching with her nails until the surface bled;
every morning the cutaneous surface would fall off in thin, transparent
exfoliations; the mucous membrane of the labia was red, swollen, and
covered with a white, curdy deposit, like aphthæ; the speculum showed
the inflammation to reach one-third the length of the vagina), [6].
RESPIRATORY ORGANS.
►
A feeling as if respiration were about to cease, [1].
CHEST.
[80.]
► My chest seems to be unusually
sensitive to the air; it was a fine, sunshiny day (March 29th), but I
felt the cold very sensibly down the front of my chest, the whole length
of the sternum, and in a space as wide apart as the nipples (I wore at
the time a vest which buttoned up to the throat, but I still felt what
seemed to be cold air penetrating even through the turned in front of my
overcoat), (sixth day), [7]. ► Aching pain in my chest, as if all my
strength had left me from excessively hard work; it is a tired aching,
as if the whole front of the chest, and especially a strip some four
inches wide down the whole front of the sternum, had been compressed in
a vice (I have felt similarly when overworked in the army, but I have
done no work now to account for this), (fifth day); felt while walking
nearly a mile (sixth day), [7]. ► Breasts swollen, nipples tender, and will
not bear the pressure of even an ordinary dress; nipples very sensitive
and painful, [4].
PULSE.
►
The pulse ranges at 84, full and a little irregular, in the evening
(second day), [3]. ► Pulse at the wrist weak, hardly
perceptible, and about 60 beats in a minute (after two hours and a
half), [2]. ►
Pulse weak and quite infrequent, [1].
► Pulse small, weak, and sometimes as
infrequent as 40 beats in a minute, [1].
► Pulse very small, and only about 40
beats in a minute (after four hours), [2].
BACK.
►
Back very lame and aching (ninth day), [7].
[90.] ►
Pain and feeling of lameness in the whole back (after second dose,
seventh day), [3]. ► Sharp, spasmodic pain in the back,
running to the crest of the left ilium (after second dose, fifth day), [3]. ►
Dorsal. ► Burning in the
spine (upper dorsal), (fourth day), [7].
► Burning in the back between the
shoulder-blades, and a tired aching in lower lumbar and sacral regions
(tenth day), [7]. ► Great heat and burning in the dorsal
region, especially marked in the space between the lower half of the
scapula, when sitting reading at night (fifth day), [7]. ► Lumbar.
► A tired ache in the spine (lower
lumbar and sacral regions), (fifth days), [7].
► Back across lower lumbar region
feels very tired and weak (eighth day), [7].
► After resting in my office an hour,
I notice a very tired feeling in the lower lumbar and sacral region
(fifth day), [7]. ► Back lame, and fairly aches (lower lumbar
and sacral regions), (ninth day), [7].
► Pain in the lumbar region, about
the upper part of the sacrum and pelvis; these pains during the last
twenty-four hours have been more constant and severe than at any other
time; the pain in the back seems more troublesome at night than during
the day (twelfth day), [3]. [100.] ►
Burning and aching in spine (lumbar and dorsal regions), (after two
hours and a half, sixth day), [7].
► Slight aching in back (lower lumbar
and sacral regions), (fourteenth day), [7].
► Tired ache in back (lumbar and
sacral regions), (after dose, seventh day), [7]. ► Tired
aching sensation, and a burning in the spine (lower lumbar and sacral
regions), on sitting down, at 3.30 P.M. (eighth day), [7]. ► Feeling
of weariness and weight in the region of the kidneys (after fourth dose,
second day), [3]. ► Dull heat, hardly a burning, in the renal
region (two hours and a half after first dose, second day), [7]. ►
Sudden and momentary but very acute pang of pain in the region of the
kidneys, as if I had been shot there, when undressing (first night), [7]. ►
Pain in the lower part of the back through to the uterus, like
inflammation, piercing, drawing, [4].
► Sacral. ► Feel a little weak in the back (sacrum),
(fourth day), [7]. ► Burning in the sacral region (after one
hour and three-quarters, sixth day), [7].
[110.] ►
Just a perceptible dull feeling in sacral region, in the morning
(seventh day), [7]. ► Aching pain in sacrum, which also extends
down into each buttock, at 4.45 P.M. (fourteenth day), [7]. ► Severe
aching in sacrum, in the afternoon (fourteenth day), [7].
INFERIOR EXTREMITIES.
► A burning, or rather a warm numbness in
the legs, most marked in the knees; (it was like the Aconite
anæsthesia, but not so intense); it seemed to begin at the tendo
Achillis of each leg, streaming upwards, and was very marked over the
region of each gastrocnemius; at times my legs feel almost as numb as
they have done from a ten-minim dose of Fleming’s tincture of Aconite
(fifth and sixth days), [7]. ► Severe rheumatic pains in the right
hip-joint, more during motion (seventh day), [3]. ► Painful
aching in right ankle-joint as if a wedge were driven in; this lasted
until I fell asleep at night (second hour after second dose, second
day); although disagreeably painful it did not interfere with locomotion
(after second dose, third day), [7].
► Numbness in my feet, which goes off
by motion, and is only felt when sitting still (sixth day), [7].
GENERAL SYMPTOMS.
►
Unusual degree of languor, at noon (after fourth dose, second day), [3]. ►
Exceedingly tired and weak, just as if I had been prostrated by a
typhoid fever, on walking home, nearly a mile, at 6 P.M. (ninth day), [7]. [120.]
► Exceedingly restless and want to be
continually moving about (sixth day), [7].
► All aches and ailings left me, and
I felt as I imagine a strong man in perfect health must feel; the change
in the state of my daily life was so marked that I could but observe it,
although I had ceased to look for “symptoms;” I cannot specify
in detail how I felt, I only know I was filled with a general wellness,
which made living a luxury (from twentieth to twenty-sixth day); on the
twenty-seventh day reaction began, and until the forty-first day I was
in a mental hell; it was the most profound mental depression I have ever
known; I was plunged into the most abject despair, [7]. ► Feel unusually tired to-day, yet have done nothing
to occasion it (ninth day), [7]. ► An easy walk of nearly a mile made me
feel very tired and weak (fifth day), [7].
► “Bilious,” sleepy during
the day, head dull and stupid, poor appetite, food had no taste, etc.;
(after two months); I had never been in such a state before, and at this
date, November 17th, 1869 (after nearly twenty months), I am confident
that my organism is not of the same habit as before my experiment with
Helonias dioica; I feel as if the shock of the doses I took had
revolutionized my system, and grafted a “bilious” habit upon
one who for thirty-three years had been a stranger to it, [7]. ►
Symptoms were at their height (after four hours and a half); all pretty
much disappeared (after seven hours), [2].
► All the symptoms reached their
height in four or five hours, and in seven or eight they commonly
disappeared entirely and without any inconvenient consequences whatever,
[1]. ►
Feel better when moving about, or when doing something which absorbs my
whole attention (sixth day), [7]. ► All my pains and aches cease at once when
I walk about; on sitting still they return at once; this appears to me
like a physiological paradox, for the sensations that are relieved by
motion are like those dependent upon excessive fatigue, yet the work of
walking dispels them (ninth day), [7].
SLEEP.
►
Have awakened every morning since the proving was commenced, at 5
o’clock, an unusual hour (fifth day), [3].
FEVER.
[130.]
► Every movement of the arms
occasioned a chill which seemed to radiate from the solar plexus all
over me (fourth day), [7]. ► Extremities cold, [1]; (after two hours and a half), [2]. ► Flushes
of heat pass over me, on every movement, while in a room (sixth day), [7]. ►
Feverish without feeling hot to others or having an increase of pulse
during headache (eleventh to fourteenth day), [7]. ►
Sensations of heat and cold alternately, which are more particularly
referred to the epigastric region (after vomiting), [1].
CONDITIONS.
►
Aggravation. ► (Afternoon), Pressure on vertex; aching in
sacrum. ► (Night),
When sitting and reading, heat, etc., in dorsal region; pain in back. ► (Much exertion),
Blindness. ► (Looking steadily at fixed point), Pressure in
head. ► (Moving
head suddenly), Vertigo; dimness of vision. ► (Moving arms),
Chill. ► (Sitting
still), Numbness in feet; all pain. ►
(Stooping), Pain in vertex. ► (Walking),
Blindness. ► Amelioration. ► (Moving about),
The symptoms.® 2000
Article