Viscum Album

Viscum album, Linn.

Natural order, Loranthacese.

Common name, Mistletoe.

Preparata, Tincture of leaves (and berries).

Aidhorities. 1, Dr. Center, Charleston Med. Journ. and Rev., vol. vi, 1851, 448, two women, set. eighteen and twenty-one years, took Viscum to procure abortion ; 2, Henry Belcher, M.D., Month. Horn. Rev., vol. xii, 1868, p. 282, a girl, set. seventeen years, in whom catamenia had not appeared, but who appeared well, except a severe form of chorea had long troubled her, took 5 drops tincture, three times a day, for a week ; 3, Joseph Dion, Brit. Med. Journ., 1874 (1), p. 224, a boy, set. fourteen years, ate eight berries ; 4, Roll, A. H. Z., 96, No. 10 (Brit. Journ. of Horn., vol. xxxvi, 1878, p. 271), took the tincture, beginning with a drop, and increasing every day by a drop until he took forty at a time.

—Inclined to be violent,^—Spectral illusions,^—Insensibility,^. —Stupor, succeeded by almost entire insensibility, lying motionless, with her eyes closed, as if in sound sleep, hut easily roused by a loud noise, and then would answer any question, but when she relapsed into her former condition there was a slight disposition to stertorous breathing (second day\l

Head

Giddiness (second day)

Eyes

Conjunctiva injected

Pupil slightly dilated and fixed

Pupils contracted, and at first appeared insensible to light (second day)

Face

Countenance suffused

Lips livid

Abdomen

Whole of the alimentary canal paralyzed

Stool

Bowels obstinately constipated,k

Respiratory Organs

Breathing slow and stertorous

Slight disposition to stertorous breathing (second day)

Pulse

Pulse small, quick, and very irregular (second day)

Pulse slow, full, and bounding

Superior Extremities

He felt in the dorsum of the left hand as if a large spider were crawling over it; soon afterwards he felt the same sensation in the dorsum of the right hand (after 40 drops),k

Inferior Extremities

In the same winter suddenly felt in the right foot a violent aching pain from within outwards, that compelled him to take off his boot, as it felt too light; this sensation went off in an hour,k

Generalities

About 10 a.m., when he was going to see a patient, he felt very queer, as if he must fall down; he felt a glow that rose up from the feet to the head, and it seemed to him as if he were on fire, at the same time his face became very pale ; this kind of aura epileptica recurred three times during the winter (after 40 drops),k

Every muscle of the body, except those of the eyes, were paralyzed

Could not speak or swallow, and both died about the eighth or ninth day, literally starved

Frequent recurrence of the symptoms during two years,k

Sleep

Drowsiness (second day)

Fever

Skin warm and very moist (second day)