Elaterium

Volume II — Main text

ELATERIUM .

Ecbalium officinarum, Richard. Squirting cucumber. Nat. Ord., Cucurbitacea. I. Provings.- 1 . " The experiments from which the following symptoms were obtained were made with pellets moistened with the and dil., prepared from the extract; 20 or 30 pellets were given, andevincedthe same symptoms in several individuals on whom it was tried, soon after its administration. " Incessant gaping, lasting for nearly an h.; sharp fugitive or dull aching pains, now here now there ; pains mostly affecting 1. side, but also r.; chilliness with continued gaping, as if an attack of intermittent fever was approaching ; depression of spirits; fear of some approaching disaster; dull pain in region of causality and of combativeness; pains in temples; sticking as of a splinter in inner canthus of1. eye ; sticking pain near rim of cartilage of 1. ear; bitter taste in mouth; feeling as if choana and upper œsophagus was enlarged ; sharp pains at lower part of sternum, passing through to spine or lower angle of r. shoulder-blade; dull pains in bowels ; watery discharges from bowels of frothy character; discharges of dark masses of bilious mucus ; dull olive-green discharges ; costiveness ; dull pain in epigastrium; feeling of stricture or oppression at ; ofmed.; dull pain in r. hypochondrium; constant nausea and disposition to vomit ; eructations of flatus ; pain of a dull, aching, pressing kind over crest ofr. ilium, round to back, extending deep into pelvis ; bleeding of hæmorrhoidal tumours ; increased flow of limpid urine; pains under r. shoulder-blade; pains in 1. sterno-cleido-mastoideus muscle, near its insertion into the sternum; fugitive sticking pains in lumbar region, more on r. side; sharp shooting pains in 1. axilla, near insertion ofpectoralis major muscle ; pains extending from shoulder to ends of fingers and shooting back up to elbow; sharp sticking pains in muscular parts of thumb ; sharp sticking pains in fingers of 1. hand, r. shoulder, forearm and hand, extending to fingers; shooting and also dull aching pains in 1. thigh, in course ofsciatic nerve, extending downto instep, and out to extremities of toes ; pain in r. knee, extending into instep and toes ; painingreat toe of arthritic character. (Dr. CALEB MATTHEWS, in Mat. Med. of Amer. Provings.) 2. a. Dr. COOPER took 12 dr. of 1, dil, every m, on rising, with no perceptible effect till 5th d., when quantity of urine seemed increased. On 6th d.,dirty watery stool 2 h. after breakfast. Repeated dose at 3.30 and 9.30 p.m. A stool at 8.30, first part natural, second soft. Woke next m. at 7 withdesire for stool but had none. Passed more water than usual; slight aching in forehead. At 8.30 and 11 a.m., and 2.30 p.m., same dose, without effect save very slight aching in 1. kidney during d. b. Dr. C- now took a tincture prepared by treating I gr. of solid E. with 150 dr. of alcohol. Took 24 dr. at 6.15 p.m., without effect, and 50 at 8. Felt very weak when going to bed at 10; woke next m. with desire for stool, and had a very copious liquid motion, painless, followed by about 5 others in course ofm., all painless and very liquid, ofdirty colour, at irregular intervals, seeming to continue until bowels were fairly emptied. There was some soreness at anus. At 7 vomited a dark brown fluidmixed with food, without pain, flatus, or nausea, but with much prostra-

tion and feeling of great weakness about stomach. One more stool, like the others, at to next m. About 2 weeks later took 3 dr. of same. About h . afterwards pain in back of throat, as if scalded, and feeling ofsickness. On 2nd d. same dose with. out effect, but on 3rd d. same made him feel very sick for 2 or 3 h., had to lie down topreventvomiting. Slight pain inregion of 1. kidney. Remained 1 d. without med., then repeateddose, without symptoms till e.,when he had severe pain inhead, not aggravated by an extra drop taken in experiment. On 6th d. same dose. Breath smells badly, tongue coated with dirty brown fur. Sp. gr. ofurine 1028, highcoloured, scanty; no deposit with heat. (M. H. Rev., xiii, 421.) 3. Morriss gave to a person in health th gr. ofelaterin, which at end of2 h. produced vomiting and copious dejections. Christison administered it in 4 cases in doses of TOth gr. In two ofthem vomiting and purging were produced, in a third griping, and in one no effect. (Ed. Med. and Surg. Journ , xxxv, 342.) 4. Two medical students took 0.05 gr. of crystallised elaterin. On chewing it, it felt rough under the teeth, was bitter, dissolved with difficulty in the saliva, remained long on the tongue and caused salivation. In one after 45 m. it caused nausea, inclination to vomit, and vomiting of slimy fluid ; the vomiting was repeated 4times in 2 h. and evacuatedbilious matter; thesalivation increased considerably ; eructation ofair, flatulence, rumbling in belly, scraping in throat. These symptoms went off in the heat of bed, and instead there came abdominal pain, confusion of head, later headache, and after 6 h. the 1st stool, at first liquid, brown, later yellowish white ; 1 h. later along with increase of the headache and bellyache the 2nd, and some h. laterthe 3rd liquid stool. The head continued thereafter tobe confused,belly retracted, with disagreeable empty feeling in it, anorexia. In the other prover there was tiresome eructation, great nausea, relieved by sneezing, and after 6 h. the Ist, after 9 h. the 2nd watery stool ; after II h. violent vomiting, profuse salivation and epistaxis, which was not repeated though the nausea continued and eructation with the smell of rotten eggs. The following d. there were seven liquid stools, and three the 3rd d., while the nausea, the ill-smelling eructations and great weakness and prostration lasted through both d. (SCHROFF, Pharmakologie, 369.) II. Poisonings.-1 . Dr. Dickson carried a specimen of the plant in his hat. After h. he had violent headache with feeling of constriction at the temples and forehead. At same time pains in scrob. cordis, and violent colic. Soon vomited a small quantity of clear fluid. The vomiting was repeated at short intervals. After 3 h. had copious exhausting vomiting of all contents of stomach, together with green bilious matter. These symptoms, which commenced at 5 p.m., were attended by pain and lasted till next d. The vomiting continued nearly all n., and recurred 8 to to times. When it ceased towards m., great weakness supervened. (A. h. Z., lxxiii, quoted from Froriep's Not., xxi, No. 455.) III. Experiments on animals.- 1 . On the lower animals its action is much less certainthanon man. Viborg asserts that a horse was unaffected by a pound of the fruit; and I have given I and even 2 gr. of a presumably active elaterium to adog, without producing very obvious results. If the dose be sufficiently large, however, all animals are probably affected fatally by E., perishing by progressive depression. Stillé asserts that death is not rarely preceded by violent vomiting and purging ; and even when these are absent during life, post-mortem examination reveals congestion and inflammation of the gastric and intestinal mucous membranes. Innone of my own experiments (which have not been verynumerous) has any purging been present; further, in Dr. Köhler's elaborate investigation (Virchow's Archiv, 1, 287), Ε. dissolved in alcohol was injected under the skin, powdered E. put into the rectum and given by the mouth after the gall-duct had been tied so as to prevent the flow Elaterinum, C20H230 , an alkaloid found in E.

ofbile intothe intestine, and in neither case was there any purging, but prostration apathy, disturbed respiration, salivation, and violent convulsions, ending in death. From these experiments Köhler draws the conclusion that E. exerts a general action upon the system, for which its introduction into the blood is all that is requisite, and also a purgative influence, for which it is necessarythat there be bile in theduodenum to dissolve the E. and cause it to act locally on the intestine. The objection to the latterconclusion is that our present light seems to indicate that E. does not purge dogs and rabbits, evenwhen given under ordinary circumstances. (H. C. WoOD, op. cit.)