Doryphora decemlineata

Volume I — Special Symptomatology

{Colorado Potato Bug)

Description. — This insect belongs to the same family as the squash bug, the black potato bug, and the Cantharides — all possess the power of blistering the skin if bruised upon it. The Colorado potato bug has its original home in the Rocky Mountains, where it fed on a species of Solanum indigenous to that locality}'. It got a taste of the S. tuberosum, the common potato, and rapidly traveled east, until it has reached the Atlantic.

Officinal Preparations. — Tincture or trituration of the whole bug.

Analogues. — Agaricus, Apis, Belladonna, Aethusa, Crotalus, Lachesis, Stramonium.

Mental.

Delirium, with red, bloated face, protruded eyes, and pulse

one hundred and twenty-four. Irritable temper.

Delirious; talking and muttering about business matters.

Head.

Congestion of blood to the head.

Meningitis. (?)

Congested brain (post mortem).

Face and Eyes. Face bloated, giving the prover the appearance of a confirmed drunkard.

Bloated face, mottled, with red, staring eyes, and high fever,

with delirium, vomiting and stupor. Inflammation of the eyes. Eyes red, congested, and protruded. Pupils dilated.

Sight much impaired; a sensation of dimness and blackness

before the eyes. Erysipelas of the head and face.

Mouth, Throat and (Esophagus. Burning in the throat down the oesophagus, with pain in the

stomach.

Dark brown coating on the tongue.

Gastric Symptoms. Vomiting of dark, grumous and acrid matters. Vomiting attending the stupor and delirium. Vomiting of dirty brown fluid, and diarrhoea. Pain in the stomach.

No appetite, but great thirst; craving for sour things.

Abdomen and Stool. Pain in the bowels, chiefly in hypogastric region. Discharges of bloody and slimy matters, with intense pain in

the rectum. Loud rumbling in abdomen, with stupor. Violent pain in bowels, in right side, passing downward to the

rectum.

Continued bloody, slimy diarrhoea.

The pain in bowels increased by eating or drinking.

0 Dysentery, with intense pain in rectum.

Urinary Organs. Retention of urine from morning till night. Difficult urination.

Voided a large quantity of urine of a dark red color, dirty sediment, and much pain.

• Dysuria, with burning, stinging pain. 0 Gleet and gonorrhoea.

Extremities.

Swelling of the whole arm, very painful; the abraded spot on the wrist developed into a deep ulcer, angry, red, with sticking, stinging pains through the arms; the ulcer assumed a malignant character, eating until it exposed the bones of the wrist (from the local effects, through an abraded surface).

Great trembling in the extremities.

Could not guide his pen when endeavoring to write.

Trembling in right arm and leg as if from a galvanic (induced) current.

Swelling of the feet, with burning and stinging, and sensation

as if full of pins. Icy coldness of the hands and feet.

Generalities.

Great weariness, increased by talking. Fatigued by the slightest exercise. Fainting sensation when walking.

Sensation as if he would fall at every step, with dimness of sight.

Enormous swelling of the whole body, with the mental and

cerebral symptoms above named. The general swelling of the whole body was elastic, would not

"pit."

Pain all over the body, especially in the region of the spleen. Nervous restlessness; twitching and spasms. Great, general prostration, ending in collapse.

Fever.

Violent fever, with cerebral congestion, vomiting, and delirium;

pulse 120 to 140. Fever; skin alternately cold and clammy then hot and burning. Violent fever from 8 a. m. to 2 p. m. Fever of typhoid character. Pulse very weak, with coldness and collapse.

Sleep.

Great sleeplessness till 12 at night, then restless sleep, with terrifying dreams.

Comatose slumber; while sleeping has wild dreams, and

screams as if in great distress. Stupor, with muttering and loud rumbling in the bowels. All the symptoms worse after smoking.

The blood will not coagulate; the blood globules are disorganized as after serpent poisoning.

Volume II — Special Therapeutics

The poison of the Colorado potato-bug appears to resemble Cantharides, with which it is closely allied. I collected many cases of poisoning, some fatal, together with a partial proving by Dr. Ruden, and published the symptoms in the third edition. Its analogues are the narcotic poisons, Belladonna, Stramonium, Agaricus; and the animal poisons, Apis, Lachesis, and Crotalus.

I have never used it. The only clinical experience yet reported is the cure of a few cases of dysuria , gonorrhoea, and dysentery.

Its pathological effects are more malignant than those of Cantharis, and less so than Lachesis.

Y ou may find it specific in some cases of meningitis, cerebral congestion, ophthalmia, enteritis, malignant erysipelas, anasarca, and inflammation of the urinary organs.

The keynote for the selection of this medicine will be the presence of its peculiar urinary symptoms, when occurring in the conditions above named.