DIGITALINUM.
An active principle (glucoside) of Digitalis purpurea.
[According to Schmiedeberg, Archiv für Experiment. Pathol, und Pharmak.,
3, 16, Digitalis contains the following active principles, concering which great confusion
has hitherto existed; Digitonine, forming most of the
soluble part of the commercial Digitaline, a glucoside, C31H53O17 (very closely allied to Saponine C32H54O18), Digitaline,
not precipitated by ether from aqueous nor from alcoholic solutions (as is Digitonine), a
glucoside, C5H8O2; Digitaleïne, easily soluble in water (like Digitonine), and also
in alcohol (unlike Digitonine), and Digitoxine, the most
active principle, the so-called crystallized Digitaline (of Nativelle), insoluble in water,
not reducing Cuprum oxide, and therefore not a glucoside, but having the formula C21H82O7, and therefore not an
alkaloid.It is probable that the provings and experiments here recorded are from
substances composed of more or less of all of the above active principles, excepting that
the Digitaline prepared after Homolle and Quevenne contains little or no Digitoxine. -T. F.
A.]
Formula
, C5H8O2.
Authorities.
1, Bæhr,
Monograph Digitalis (pulse before experiment averaged, in bed, mornings 51, on rising 60,
after breakfast 63, evening 65, evening after exercise 69, evening in bed 59), took 2d trit.
1/5 gr. at 10.30 A.M. first day, at 10.25 A.M. second and third days, at 9.30 A.M. fourth
day; 1/2 gr. at 10.5 A.M. fifth day, at 9.40 A.M. sixth day; 1 gr. at 10.45 A.M. seventh
day; 1b, same
prover, second proving with 2d trit., 1 1/2 gr. at 10 A.M. first day, 11.45 A.M., second
day, 2 grs. at 9.55 A.M. fourth day, 2 1/2 grs. at 10.45 A.M. seventh day, 2 grs. at 9.10
A.M. eighth day, 2 1/2 grs. at 10.28 A.M. ninth day, 2 grs. at 10.40 A.M. fifteenth day, 2
grs. at 10 A.M. sixteenth day, 2 grs. at 10 A.M. eighteenth day, 3 grs. at 9.59 A.M.
nineteenth day, 3 grs. at 10.30 A.M. and 1 gr. at 10.30 P.M. twenty-first day, 3 grs. at
9.58 A.M. and 1 gr. at 11 P.M. twenty-third day, 3 grs. at 9.30 A.M. twenty-fifth day, 3
grs. at 10.40 A.M. twenty-sixth day; 2, Baehr’s wife,
aged 28, took 2d trit, one dose of 1 gr. (pulse 72 sitting, 92 standing); 2b, same prover took again 2d
trit. 2 grs. first day, 1 gr. evening second day, 2 grs. morning third day, 3 grs. morning
fourth day, 3 grs. morning sixth day; 3, Baehr’s proving
on a man with 2d trit., 1/2 gr. first day, 1 gr. third day, 1 1/2 gr. fifth day; 4, Lembke, provings 1/50 gr. (pure) doses (six provings) N. Z. f.
H. Kl., 4, 177; 5, Homolle et Quevenne, Archiv f. Phys.,
Jan., 1854, first proving with doses of 4 mill. a day for 8 days, 6 mill. on ninth day; 6, same, second proving, doses of 4 mill. a day for 6 days; 7, same, doses of 2 of 6 mill. a day for 8 days; 8, Leroux, effects of overdose, 30 granules in two doses (30
milligrammes), on a patient aged 62, with œdema of legs (L’Union Méd., 1852), from Homolle
et Quevenne; 9, effects of getting some into the eye, H.
and Q., p. 202; 10, Treves, case of attempted suicide,
from Husemann, Pflanzenstoffe; 11, poisoning of the
window De Pauw, from Husemann; 12, poisoning of a woman,
aged 34, by 46 granules (?), Union Med., 1854 (from Tardieu); 13,
Heer, poisoning of a woman by 16 and 40 granules (?), Union Med., 1857; 14, Hardy, poisoning of a pregnant woman, Archiv Gén. de Méd.,
1864; 15, Stadion, general results of experiments on
self, Prag. Vjsch., 74, 97, from Hom. Obs., 1864; 16,
Dubue, poisoning of a man, aged 45, by 45 to 50 granules, Gaz. d’Hôp., 1865; 17, Nunneley, general results of experiments, B. and F.
Med.-Chir. Rev., 1869; 18, Magnin, poisoning of a woman
with an affection of heart by 1/4 of a grain, Gaz. hebdom., 1874; 19,
Homolle, London Chemist, 1845, from Journ. de Pharm., took five doses of 5 milligrammes each
for three days, at intervals of four or five hours; 20,
Winogradoff, effects on several persons of all ages while taking 3/10 to 2/7 of a grain in
twenty-four hours for five days; Virchow, Archiv, from Syd. Soc. Year-book, 1862, p. 452; 21, T. L. Brunton, effects on self (conclusions only taken,
tables and sphygmographic tracings omitted, the latter not at all characteristic),
Monograph, London, 1868, p. 23, et seq.
MIND.
► Strange
hallucinations (after two hours); repeated (second day), [13].
► Agitated, [14]. ► Great agitation (after eleven hours), [13]. ► Irritable and excitable
about trifles (nineteenth day), [1b]. ► Irritable mood and ill-humor, which I have noticed during the
last few days, are decidedly increased to-day (ninth day), [1].
► Very irritable and sensitive during the past few days,
easily vexed by trifles (ninth day), [1b]. ► Intellectual. ► With
the languor and prostration, the mental faculties seemed enfeebled, as, while reading for an
examination, the eye glanced over the words, but the mind refused to receive or retain their
import (12 mill.), (after ninth day), [21].
HEAD.
► Confusion and Vertigo.
► Confusion in the head, especially in the forehead, with
slight stitches through the frontal region, after fifteen minutes, in the evening
(twenty-first day), [1b]. ►
Head confused, especially in the forehead, with pulsating pain in the occiput, relieved by
walking in the open air, and nearly disappearing by evening (ninth day), [1b]. [10.] ►
Feeling of confusion in the occiput, [4]. ► Tendency to vertigo while walking, [4]. ► Vertigo, [8] (after two hours in earlier part of first night), [13], etc. ► Vertigo, with
unsteady vision, while sitting; it seems as though distant objects could only be fixed with
difficulty (twenty-first day), [1b]. ► Vertigo and stupefaction commence after half an hour, with
unsteadiness and trembling of the hands (twenty-sixth day), [1b].
► Very violent vertigo, all objects seem to turn
horizontally from left to right; on closing the lids the vertigo was somewhat diminished,
but returned on opening them; I hoped that repeated opening and closing the lids would put
an end to this unpleasant sensation, which was accompanied by nausea, but it was not so; I
stood up with some difficulty and dressed myself; even slight stooping or looking up
increased the vertigo and also the nausea, together with coldness of the back, quite cold
hands, yawning, and at intervals short dry cough, on waking at 7 A.M. (second morning), [4]. ► Sensation of
vertigo while standing, with indistinct vision and some confusion in the head (ninth day), [1b]. ► Sensation of
vertigo and vanishing of the senses, on waking at night; continues to get worse while lying,
and obliges him to involuntarily rise (this condition was frequently repeated during the
provings), [4]. ►
Dizziness, [7]. ►
Sensation of dizziness, as though the head was compressed (twenty-fourth day), [1b]. ► General Head.
[20.] ► Head thrown
backwards (second day), [12]. ►
Sensation of a rush of blood to the head, in the afternoon (fourth day), [1]. ► Heaviness of head, [7]. ► Heaviness of the
head the whole day, [4]. ►
Sensation of heaviness in the head, with slight vertigo on rising and stooping, in the
evening (twenty-third day), [1b]. ► Intolerable pain in head, [14].
► Head hot and confused towards evening (first day), [1]. ► Headache in the
afternoon (first day), [1]. ►
Slight headache, [8]. ►
Violent headache without disturbance of the intellect, [10].
[30.] ► Intolerable
headache, [11]. ►
Severe lancinating headache, [8]. ► Forehead. ► Sensation
in the forehead and upper part of the nose as though coryza would occur (first day), [3]. ► Heaviness and
pressure in the forehead for several hours, [4]. ► Forehead heavy, with feeling of pressure in it, the whole of
the second day, [4]. ►
Forehead heavy, hot, with here and there pressive pain, [4].
► Pain in the forehead (twenty-fourth day), [1b]. ► Frontal
cephalalgia (second, third, and fifth days), [19]. ► Severe frontal headache (second day), [12]. ► Forehead heavy, full, [4]. [40.] ► Forehead feels full, hot, and heavy, worse while walking, [4]. ► Violent drawing
headache in the right forehead and temple in the evening (twenty-sixth day), [1b]. ► Pressure in the forehead, [4]. ► Pulsating pressure
in the forehead above the right brow (sixteenth day), [1b].
► Pulsating pressive pains in the forehead (ninth day), [1]. ► Transient sticking
headache in the forehead (forty-third day), [1b]. ► Sudden, dull stitches in the left side of the forehead, with
twitching of the lids in the evening while walking (ninth day), [1b]. ► Jerklike throbbing pain in
the forehead (nineteenth day), [1b]. ► Temples. ► Pulsating
pressive pain in the left temple and frontal region (eighth day), [1b]. ► Violent throbbing pain in
the left temple twenty-five minutes after the dose (twenty-third day), [1b]. [50.] ►
Violent throbbing pains in the left temple and forehead (twenty-ninth day), [1b]. ► Vertex. ► A headache which in the morning had affected the vertex
disappeared towards afternoon (sixth day), [2b]. ► Pressure in the vertex, a sensation of distension (after one
hour), [4]. ►
Parietals. ► Headache in the morning, worse in
the afternoon, and increasing in the evening to a violent migraine (that it was not an
ordinary attack of migraine was shown by the fact that the usual attack always occurred in
the morning on rising, when it was much worse), (fifth day), [2b].
► Occiput. ►
Dull pain in the occiput (ninth day), [1]. ► Violent boring in the bone in the left side of the occiput, [4]. ► A peculiar
sensation of drawing, of raising up in the occiput and vertex; afterwards a pressure in the
occiput, [4].
EYE.
► Objective. ► Eye glittering (after two hours and a quarter), [12]. ► Very considerable
exophthalmia of both sides (after seventy-two hours), [13].
► Catarrhal affection of both eyes, with soreness of both
external canthi with slight secretion; the eyes pain on sewing or reading; slight redness
(such an attack had been experienced eight weeks previously, and there was doubt whether
this was the result of Digitalinum; the trouble was rather obstinate but did not last as
long as the former attack), [1b]. [60.] ► Slight pain in the
eye, [9]. ► Eyes
felt as if they had become larger and were starting from their orbits (second day), [13]. ► Violent stitches
through the right eye, lasting several minutes, in the afternoon while lying down soon after
eating (twenty-sixth day), [1b]. ► Orbit. ► Tension above
the orbits, [7]. ►
Pressure in the supraorbital region, extending to the frontal sinuses, lasting one day
(after all three doses), [3]. ►
Lids. ► Eyelids closed (second day), [12]. ► Violent burning
itching in the eyelids, obliging him to rub them, without being relieved thereby, lasting
about an hour (fourth day), [1b]. ► Conjunctiva. ►
Conjunctiva of a lemon color (after seventy-two hours), [13].
► Ball. ► The
crystalline lens has an opalescent appearance, [9]. ► Pupil. ► Pupil very
slightly dilated and less contractile, [9]. [70.] ► Pupils much dilated
(after seventy-two hours), [13]. ►
The right pupil somewhat larger than the left (nineteenth day), [1b]. ► Pupils contracted, [4]. ► Pupils contracted,
but sensitive to light (second day), [12]. ► Vision. ► Impaired
vision (second and third days), [19]. ► Dimness of sight [8]
(after four to five hours), [9]. ►
Sight very dim, [7]. ►
Illusions of vision (40 gram.; after one hour), [13]. ► Muscæ volitantes, at noon while walking for a short time; in
the evening, while walking, it seemed as though the upper part of the field of vision was
covered by a dark cloud (twenty-fourth day), [1b]. ► Black rings and spots float before the eyes, with some
sensitiveness of the eyes to light, [4]. [80.] ► Floating of many black
spots and rings before the eyes, with general heat (after half an hour), [4]. ► Dazzling of the eyes (one
to four days), resembling flashes of light (fourth day), [19].
► The flame of a candle appears surrounded by a
rainbow-colored halo (after four to five hours), [9]. ► Derangement of sight was of two kinds: First, a general
mistiness of objects, such as is seen before fainting; and secondly, a large bright spot
advancing before him, which sometimes resembled a ring showing prismatic colors faintly, and
similar in character to, though less distinct than, that seen round a light when Digitaline
has been introduced into the eye, [21]. ► When Digitaline is introduced into the eye, it causes
smarting and profuse lachrymation, which passes off in a short time and nothing more is
felt, except perhaps an occasional rough feeling of the conjunctiva, till four or five hours
after, when, on looking at a light, you see it surrounded by a halo, presenting the
prismatic colors, and not quite close round the light, but with a dark space between. This
halo increases in diameter the farther you move from the light, and becomes smaller and
narrower as you approach; exactly like the appearance when light cirrhi are crossing the
moon, [21].
EAR.
► Drawing pain in the
left ear towards the forehead (fifteenth day), [1b].
NOSE.
► Objective. ► Frequent sneezing in the afternoon, and in short, all the
forebodings of a coryza (first day), [1]. ► Frequent sneezing, with dry nose (sixth day), [1b]. ► Frequent sneezing, and
occasional paroxysm of coughing, with expectoration of very hard tenacious mucus (eighth
day), [1b]. ►
Frequently obliged to sneeze, with profuse secretion from the nose (first day), [1b]. [90.] ► Found that for some days before vomiting came on, clear drops
of water were always gathering at the nose, [21]. ► A peculiar affection of the mucous lining of the nose,
declaring itself under the form of a violent coryza, seems to constitute a characteristic
symptom, [15]. ►
Violent coryza occurred without known cause, with pressive-throbbing pains in the arms, and
violent headache (this coryza has quite different symptoms from the attacks that I usually
experienced, and is remarkably similar to the attack which I had in the beginning of the
proving; if this has not been caused by Digitaline, still its course seems to have been
modified by it), (thirty-sixth day), [1b]. ► Coryza broke out more violently than I had experienced since
the proving of Digitalis, although during the winter I had several times suffered from
coryza; particularly remarkable was the frequent sneezing, which I did not usually have in
coryza (second day), [1]. [I cannot attribute the
coryza to the action of the remedy, though its great severity and the violent sneezing may
dependent upon it.] ► The coryza continued to decrease,
though not the painfulness of the left nostril; the mucous discharge in the morning is
streaked with blood (tenth day), [1]. ► Symptoms of commencing coryza came on towards evening (third
day), there was no trace of them the next morning, but they came on more violent in the
evening, with complete stoppage of the nose and great confusion in the head (fourth day), [2b]. ► Nasal mucus
streaked with blood in the morning (I do not remember having lost blood from the nose for
several years), (ninth day), [1b]. ► Subjective. ► The
coryza is much better, though the left nostril is very sensitive and painful on blowing the
nose, as far up as the glabella (ninth day), [1]. ► Pain in the left nostril returned as in the previous proving
(second day), [1b]. ►
Smell. [100.] ►
The coryza continues unusually violent; smell is lost (fourth day), [1].
FACE.
► Objective. ► Very sickly expression, so that several asked what was the
matter, during the last few days (tenth day), [1]. ► Face red and hot (after one hour, fifth day), [1]. ► Face red and hot, as though
the blood forcibly pressed behind the eyes (fourth day), [2b].
► Face flushed (second day), [12]. ► Face pale (after two hours
and a quarter), [12]. ►
Paleness of the face, [11]. ►
Extreme pallor of the face (after seventy-two hours), [13].
► Subjective. ►
Hot face, as if feverish, towards evening, in the open air (second day), [1]. ► Lip. ► Constant jerking of the upper lip of the left side (after one
hour and a half), [4]. ►
Chin. [110.] ►
Teeth firmly clenched, [16]. ►
Toothache in the left upper eye-tooth and first back teeth, together with pulsating pressure
in the forehead, above the left brow (sixteenth day), [1b].
► Transient burrowing toothache in the right back lower
teeth, in the afternoon (fourth day), [1b]. ► Pulsating-sticking pains in the left upper incisors, for a
short time (eleventh day), [1b]. ►
Throbbing toothache for a short time in the right upper incisors, in the evening in bed
(twenty-third day), [1b]. ►
Transient throbbing toothache in the lower incisors (nineteenth day), [1b]. ► Tongue. ► Tongue slightly coated, and yellow on sides; dry and
light-red on middle and tip, [8]. ► Tongue large and smooth; with a saburral coating (second
day), [12]. ► Dry,
whitish tongue (40 gram.; second day), [13]. ► General Mouth. ► Mouth
half open (second day), [12]. [120.]
► Large doses occasionally cause a feeling of dryness in
the mouth, along with some salivation, but it is not constantly observed, [21]. ► Saliva. ► I have occasionally noticed salivation from poisonous doses;
Bouley and Reynel observe that the saliva is rather thick, and flows slowly from the mouth, [21]. ► Bitter taste in
mouth (after eleven hours), persistent for some time after general improvement, [18].
THROAT.
► Sensation as
though food remained in the upper part of the œsophagus (nineteenth day), [1b].® 2000
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