Ferrum Muriaticum

Ferrum Chloratum; Ferrous chloride or dichloride, FeCl2

4OH2 (crystals).

Preparations , Tincture, consisting of 25 parts of crystals to 225 parts of Alcohol.

Authorities.

1 , Rabuteau, experiment with 50 centigrammes in 60 grammes of water and 40 grammes of alcohol, L'Union Méd., 1872; 2 , Drummond; a boy aged 13, growing rapidly, complaining of weariness, took cod-liver oil and five min. doses of Ferrum muriaticum three times a day, Am. Observer, 1865, p. 22; 3 , Venot, fatal poisoning by concentrated solution injected into the urethra for gleet, L'Art Méd., 1857, p. 53 (from Journ. de Méd. de Bordeaux, 1857); 4 , Markwich, effects of 5 drops of tinct. three times a day, in a lady, B. J. of Hom., 19, 310; 5 , Sir James Murray, poisoning by three ounces of undiluted tinct., Ranking's Abstract, 13, 342; 6 , Warburton, poisoning of a woman by one ounce ("undoubtedly caused by free hydrochloric acid"), Lancet, 1869, Jan.

MIND

• Loquacity, 3.
• Much depressed in spirits, 4.

HEAD

• Headache, 4.*
• He improved for six weeks and then complained of severe pain in the right temple and right side of the face , stopped the medicine and the pain quickly subsided; he resumed the steel drops, and in two days he was a bad or even worse than before; again they were discontinued and no other medicine was given, and the pain disappeared the next day; after being free from the neuralgia for four days, he again took the steel, and the day but one after the neuralgia returned with increased severity, and continued to return in irregular paroxysms for the next three days, when it again disappeared, 2.

EYE

• Eyes injected, 6.
• Bright redness of the margin of the lids, 3.

FACE

• Face somewhat flushed, 6.
• Face swollen and livid, 6.
• Flushed cheeks, 3.

MOUTH. [10.]

• Tongue very coated, 4.
• Tongue swollen and protruded, with ropy mucus from the mouth, 5.
• Dryness of the tongue, 3.
• Palate and interior of mouth burnt, and presented a parboiled appearance, 5.
• Unable to speak, and apparently unconscious, 6.

THROAT

• Extremely severe sense of burning and constriction in the throat, 5.

STOMACH

• No appetite, 4.
• Rather thirsty, 4.
• Hand riveted to region of stomach, as the principal seat of pain, 5.

ABDOMEN

• Complaining of great pain along the whole length of the colon; much increased by pressure and any movement of the body, 4. [20.]
• Hypogastrium swollen and very sensitive, especially above the pubis, 3.
• Piercing pains in the hypogastrium (immediately), 3.

STOOL

• Diarrhœa.
• Half an hour after the sickness, had an attack of diarrhœa, with black stools, which soon ceased, 6.
• She had had diarrhœa for the two previous days, which last night assumed a decidedly dysenteric character, the bowels having been repeatedly moved, with considerable pain and tenesmus, the evacuations consisting entirely of blood and membranous shreds, 4.
• Stools darker than usual (first day), 1.
• Stools sometimes rather darker than usual, 1.
• Nearly two quarts of inky evacuation passed off at stool, 5.
• Constipation.
• Obstinate constipation, 3.

URINARY ORGANS

• Micturition.
• Urine rather scanty, 4.
• Almost complete retention of urine, 3.
• Urine. [30.]
• Amount of urine 1225 grammes during first twenty-four hours; next day, 1075 grammes, 1.
• Urine acid, depositing neither uric acid nor urates, and containing only 1 or 2 centigrammes of iron; i. e. , three or four times the normal amount, 1.

RESPIRATORY ORGANS

• Respiration noisy and stertorous, and suffocation impending, 5.
• Noise of breathing resembled that of a bad case of croup, 5.
• Breathing, especially inspirations, became oppressed, 5.

HEART AND PULSE

• Pulse small and accelerated, 6.
• Small, frequent, and concentrated pulse, 3.
• A quick, small pulse, 120, 4.
• Pulse very feeble, 5.

GENERAL SYMPTOMS

• Blood, on venesection, remarkably black, and so thick and viscid, that it would not flow until he cut a much larger orifice in another vein, 5. [40.]
• Violent convulsions affecting the whole body, which was much contorted; the muscles of the extremities contracted violently, and the teeth were clenched and ground together. Required to be restrained upon the couch, and her hold upon those near her could not be unloosed until the spasm suddenly ceased; duration of attacks about two minutes, that of the intervals three, 6.
• Exceedingly weak, with an anxious, feverish countenance, 4.
• Restlessness, 3.

FEVER

• Skin cold and clammy, 5.
• Skin hot and disposed to be clammy, 4.