Arnica

Authorities. 40, J. Peps, M.D., Lancet, 1840-1 (2), p. 365, a lady applied the tincture to corns; 41, Dr. Morrison, Month. Horn. Rev., 1873, ■p. 471, Miss O. B., suffering from toothache, rubbed in some mother tincture; 42, 43, 44, Jas. C. White, M.D., Bost. Med. and Surg. Journ., vol. xcii, 1875, p. 61, cases of poisonous action of the tincture on the skin; 45, E. W. Berridge, U. S. Med. Invest., New Ser., vol. iv, 1876, p. 573, a hoy took 200th (Lehrman); 46, same, a boy, set. nine years, a patient, took lObOth (Jen.); 47, J. Fayrer, M.D., Practitioner, vol. xvi, 1876, p. 52, effects of application of tincture; (48 to 58, A. Imbert Gourbeyre, M.D., Memoir on Arnica, addressed to the World’s Horn. Con., at Philad., 1876); 48, Made me C. took two tablespoonfuls ; 49, a man, set. sixty-nine years, fell five or six meters, and felt so bruised that he took a dose of a decoction of 30 grams of iWnica flowers in two glasses of water ; 50, Errand, Journ. de Chim. Med., Sept., 1869, a man, set. thirty years, swallowed 15 grams of the tincture; 51, Errand, Journ. de Chim. Med., Sept., 1869, a woman took two cups of an infusion prepared with a pint of the flowers; 52, Berlin, Central f. d. Med. Arisen, Nov., 1874, a workman swallowed at one draught 60 to 80 cc. of the tincture, death in thirty-eight hours; 53, Beilt, Diet, des Sci. Med., 1812, a man was gorged with a decoction of the flowers after a fall; 54, Guillemot, Etude sur les Prop. Physiol, et Therap. d I’Arnica, a student took 18 grams of alcoholic Arnica tinct. ; 55, Attomyr, Priineiner Naturg. der Krank., When, 1851, a man, jet. fifty years, rubbed his wounded bund and foot with a weak tincture ; 56, Blake, Month. Horn. Rev., Sept., 1874, Mrs. W., set. fifty years, applied to her sprained ankle a cloth saturated with the pure tincture; 57, an officer applied a compress of pure Arnica to a hydrarthrosis of the left knee; 58, effects on a patient; 59. Chas. W. Earle, M.D., Chicago Med. Journ. and Exam., vol. xxxv, 1877, p. 267, Mr. L. applied to a slight injury of the knee the tincture, which came in contact with other parts ; 60, D. Dyce Brown, M.D., Month. Horn. Rev., vol. xxii, p. 171, a lady, set. fifty-four years, had leucorrhoea and then a bloody discharge, with all the sensations which used to accompany the period, took Arnica 3d, three or four times a dav, and afterwards 2()0th ; 61, R. S. Hamden, New Remedies, 1878, p. 357, a man applied the tincture to the stump of his arm, which had been amputated.

Loss of appetite at supper, for two successive days,‘‘^—Immediately after drinking it she felt a burning pain in the throat, which persisted ; five minutes afterward violent pain at the pit of the stomach, lasting a quarter of an hour; at the same time warmth and sweat, which obliged her to change her chemise. There was also some nausea. At the end of half an hour a small stool, with colic. After this painful cramp of the stomach, an almost irresistible desire to sleep followed. I arrived forty minutes after the accident. I found the patient in bed, face red, pulse frequent, skin hot, panting, complaining of nothing but sleepiness,^®.—Immediately seized with a violent burning in the stomach, followed by colics,“l—Feeling as if the abdomen were all slit down ; worse on stooping,“.—The first effect was to make the toes itch dreadfully, keep)ing her from sleep the greater part of the night. The second effects, those which troubled her most, and were the most painful, presented themselves in the morning; the face was swollen and painful, the pain being smarting, particularly under the eyes ; there was great heat in the face; the patient presenting, be it remarked, the three characteristics of inflammation, swelling, pain, and heat. Besides these symptoms, blotches came out on the cheeks and the forehead, which, together with the swollen condition, did not disappear for three days, then leaving the face rough,^“.—Erysipelas extending over the left cheek, from under border of the lower maxilla to scalp, with intolerable irritation, and considerable constitutional disturbance,^'.—Thursday I took four pilules of Arnica 3d, and three the next day. Towards evening my face ached. Next morning I felt very poorly, I took one pilule early, and another about 12 M., but my face got worse, and by evening I had every appearance of erysipelas, had to go to bed, cover it with flour, and take Bell, and Aconite diligently. During this time I felt extremely ill. I remained in bed till Monday morning, by which time the swelling had gone down, and I gradually got better. I have had erysipelas so often that I am ahvays nervous about it. A few days later, after two globules of the 200th in one day, and one globule the next day, was from home from 9.45 A.M. to 4 P.M., in and out of shops. About an hour atter I came in my face got hot and began to swell, but slightly. However, it was stiff and uncomfortable, so I took Aconite, and though I am still redder than usual and a little stiff, I have had no other ill effect,®''.—A gentleman, sixty-five years of age, slipped and scraped the lower part of his back, to which the tincture of Arnica was applied. In a short time a good deal of itching was felt in the back, which caused the parts to be rubbed vigorously. On examination the skin was found to be already greatly congested, and the irritation of the parts increased during the day and night. On the next day the skin ot the back, nearly to the shoulders, was in a state of active hypersetnia, and already covered with innumerable papules. The inflammatory process spread rapidly downward nearly to the knees, and forwards upon the abdomen and genitals. In a few days these parts presented all the characteristic appearances of acute eczema in its various stages of progression ; general hyperemia, papules, vesicles, excoriating and exuding surfaces, and crusts. The subjective symptoms were intense itching, stinging, and burning in these parts. Scarcely any clothing could be borne in contact with the skin by day, and sleep for a few nights was almost impossible, but the system generally was only slightly disturbed,^^—[920.] In the morning every part of the integument which had been touched with the Arnica was slightly red and swollen, erythematous (second day) ; swelling and redness increased, some fever (third day) ; vesicles between fingers and upon the left knee (fourth day) ; vesicles upon portions of all the integuments (except eyelids) with which the Arnica had come in contact, eczema (fifth day) ; eye nearly well ; integuments less swollen ; considerable itching and burning ; jnistules around tbe margins of the affected parts (sixth day) ; intense itching and burning, and itching of the thorax and abdomen. An examination showed a profuse redness or vascular congestion of the entire surface, and the presence of what Wilson would probably call eczema erythematosum (seventh day) ; eruption on body disappearing; crusts forming on legs; fingers nearly well (eighth to twelfth day) ; crusts clearing; pruritus disappearing; new skin looking healthy (thirteenth to fifteenth day),“®.—A gentleman, sixty years old, applied to his right arm above the ell)owa fomentation of tincture of Arnica on two successive days. The part became generally reddened and swollen in a few days, and the day after the applications were made he consulted me. The arm from the elbow to the shoulder was considerably swollen, of a vivid redness, and covered over the lower half of this district with a very thick eruption of papules, many of which were already partially converted into pimples. Great itching and burning was felt in the part, which gradually ceased as the inflammation subsided. The efflorescence under treatment did not progress to the vesicular stage, and the skin returned to its normal state in ten or fourteen days subsequently,—Arm began to swell and break out with little ])apules, then with vesicles, and finally to become excoriated. The whole arm became intensely red ; the swelling, itching, and burning, accompanied with pain, being very great, and the discharge of serum constant from the excoriated surface,®*.—Swelling followed a strained wrist, to which was apj)lied Arnica; a vesicular erysipelas of the whole arm followed, lasting three weeks. A year after he had erysipelas of the leg, after applying Arnica to an excoriation. He used a gargle of 15 or 20 drops of the tincture to a glass of water for toothache; the mouth and lips became inflamed ; a severe erysipelas of the face followed, which lasted ten days,®*.—To a sprained wrist I applied a weak solution of tincture of Arnica. In a few days a few small papules appeared on the skin, but they quickly disappeared, and the surface seemed sound. About six days later I came in contact with a nettle, which stung the wrist very slightly. On the same evening violent irritation of the part set in, and the skin of the wrist and forearm, exactly corresponding to the early application of the tincture, became hot, painful, and affected with an intolerable itching and burning sensation. The following day it was much worse. The skin was much inflamed, and the pain extended up the arm to the axilla, the absorbents being very painful. The skin was red, brawny, and covered with patches of an eczematous character,‘k—Inflammation of the hand, which acquired a scarlatinous redness, and erysipelas followed,“. —A gentleman, set. fifty-two years, dressed his sprained knee with fomentations of tincture of Arnica and water. After two days’ use the knee became red, the redness extending down the leg nearly to the ankle, and upon this surface there was developed in a few days a general eruption of papules. A similar process, but of less severity, ensued a day or two later upon the inner surface of the corresponding part of the other leg. The efflorescence upon the legs did not pass into the vesicular stage generally, but remained at its height for a week, and then very gradually subsided under treatment. Three days after the use of the fomentations, an inflammation of the skin of the face began, which increased in severity until I saw him, a week after the injury. • His whole face was then very much swollen, of a deep red color, and covered with papules and vesicles towards its periphery, whilst upon the central portions was a very free exudation of serum from many excoriated points, which in parts had stiffened into crusts. The vesicles and papules of the forehead were arranged in prominent and isolated clusters of two or three individuals each. The subjective symptoms were mainly intense itching, with slight burning, and considerable suffering was thereby occasioned for several days,^k—Erysipelas in the course of twelve hours. A band of inflammation about three inches in width, and nearly encircling the ankle-joint; color dusky purple, the upper part raised into large flattened blebs, the lower part slightly suppurated, the foot and leg somewhat cedematous; the swelling extended several inches ; the whole most exquisitely tender, and appearing like a severe scald or burn more than anything else; the general disturbance was very slight, except from want of sleep; one eye was slight}'^ inflamed, and the eyelids were swollen ; a small patch of erysipelas on the palm of the right hand,“.—Two days afterward enormous swelling of the knee and of the thigh. Two days later diminution of the swelling, but appearance on the knee of an eczematous eruption, with crowded lenticular bullse, which lasted three weeks. The compresses having naturally touched the right knee, there was eczema here also, less severe but quite as lasting; it was also upon the fingers of the hand which had touched the Arnica. The eruption was very painful,^k—Violent twitchings, extreme anxiety, a feeling of constriction at the level of the attachments of the diaphragm, paleness, cold sweat, pulse small and frequent, convulsive movement in the limbs, alternating with trembling of the whole body,^*.—[930.] After twenty minutes he had a violent headache, vertigo, nausea, and vomiting; these lasted an hour, followed by drowsiness and deep sleep,^®.—Obstinate vomiting, vertigo, convulsions,^^—Violent vomiting, intense headache, choleraic diarrhoea, epigastric pains and colics, general weakness, shivering of the extremities, pulse very slow and small,^k—In five minutes his pulse fell from 70 to 64; at first irregular, it soon became thready and evaded the finger. He experienced an unendurable precordial anguish ; it seemed to him that his heart stopped, and was going to cease to beat; in fact on applying the hand to the precordial region, one perceived the feebleness and intermission of the cardiac contractions. His face grew pale and almost immediately a great muscular weakness followed; his knees failed him and he felt a desire to sit down, which he could resist only by a strong effort of the will. There were fibrillar contractions of isolated muscular fasciculse, especially manifest in the region of the jaws, and a sort of constriction of the temples. We follow with the fingers the spinous processes of all the dorsal vertebrae. The pressure does not give rise to any phenomenon, but as the finger descends and presses on the dorsal vertebrae a lively and sudden sensation of illness is felt, and some involuntary jerks in the muscles of the nape of the neck^and of the back ; the head is thrown backward, the trunk is upright. At the level of the last dorsal vertebra the sensation of illness provoked by the pressure is so great that the patient shrinks from our observation. This rather strange localization of the pain, on the level with the last dorsal vertebra, seems to us remarkable; we will attentively study the phenomena which accompany it. Pressure develops pain in the waist at this point only, these pains radiate to the epigastrium ; the patient complains of suffocation, and of a sensation like a weight on the chest. These rather alarming symptoms did not last more than twenty minutes. After half an hour there was only great weakness, depression, paleness, a sensation of emptiness in the bead, a slight trembling of the hands, stone nausea, then great sleepiness. This condition lasted until evening. At 10 P.M. the pulse was still feeble and irregular, temperature 36y'’j5^° C. ; the night was pretty good. The illness terminated the next day by some loose stools, with tenesmus,®*.