COLCHICINUM.

Alkaloid from Colchicum autumnale; Formula, C17H19

NO5

Preparation , Triturations.

Authorities.

1 , Schroff's provings, Œst. Zeit. f. Pract. Heilk., 1856, 22-24, Heinrich took .01 of a gramme, and after a week took .02 gramme; 2 , the only case of poisoning known, Ber. Rudolph-stift, 227, 1867, a woman, aged twenty, took a solution of 45 milligrammes (Husemann's Pflanzenstoffe, 498).

EYE

• Pupils widely dilated, 2.

FACE

• Tearing pains in the face, 2.

MOUTH

• Increased secretion of saliva, 1.

STOMACH

• Eructation.
• Eructations, nausea, and great desire to vomit, 1.
• Nausea and Vomiting.
• Slight nausea, and an uncomfortable sensation, which distracted the attention of the prover from the lecture to which he was listening, 1.
• On rising from bed, at night, nausea suddenly increased, and was followed by vomiting of undigested food, and afterwards of a bitter greenish fluid; the vomiting was repeated early in the morning, 1.
• Vomiting of greenish substances, frequently repeated, 2.
• Vomiting of blood for nine or ten days, 2.
• Stomach.
• Pains in epigastric region (after four hours), 2. [10.]
• Excessive sensitiveness of epigastric region, 2.

ABDOMEN

• Distension and sensitiveness in the abdomen, 1.
• Frequent rumbling in the bowels, 1.

RECTUM AND ANUS

• Urging to stool, causing him to leave his bed, followed by copious pasty evacuation, with excessive tenesmus; this was repeated three times within a short period, 1.

STOOL

• Two stools on the second day, one on the third day, three on the fourth day, all accompanied by tenesmus, and consisting of a thin fluid with numerous flakes, looking like the cooked white or an egg, in pieces from two to four lines long, 1.
• Stools thin, yellowish-green, and slimy, accompanied by pain (second day), 1.
• Liquid stools, 2.

URINARY ORGANS

• Urine turbid, depositing a copious white sediment, 1.

HEART AND PULSE

• Pulse 96, 2.
• Pulse during the first two hours gradually sank about eleven beats, 1.

SUPERIOR EXTREMITIES. [20.]

• Convulsive jerkings of right hand, 2.

GENERAL SYMPTOMS

• Very great exhaustion on the second day after taking Colchicin, increased to a feverish excitement, lasting for two days, so that he was obliged to keep his bed on the second day, 1.

SLEEP AND DREAMS

• Slight somnolency and collapse, 2.
• Awakened from sleep soon after midnight by uneasy dreams, 1.

FEVER

• The fever appeared as a chill about noon on the first day, followed by violent heat, lasting several hours, with increased thirst, very rapid pulse, confusion of the head, uneasiness, and sleeplessness, 1.