Tanacetum

Tanacetum vulgare, Linn.

Natural order , Compositæ.

Common names , Tansy; (G.), Rainfarn; (F.), Tanaisie.

Preparation , Tincture of the plant.

Authorities.

1 , Hering, Archiv., 13, pr. 1, p. 170, a boy, æt. twelve years, took 1 1/2 ounces of extract for worms; 2 , Ely Van de Warker, M.D., The Detection of Criminal Abortion, p. 75, 10 minims of oil of tansy in simple syrup; 3 , same, two 15-minim doses at intervals of four hours; 4 , same, another case; 5 , W., Bost. Med. and Surg. Jour., vol. 10, 1834, p. 30, a woman took a large dose of the oil; 6 , same, X. Y. Z., took repeated doses of 10 to 20 drops; 7 , same, took 209 drops in one hour and thirty-six minutes; 8 , Charles T. Hildreth, M.D., Med. Mag., 1834 (Am. Journ. of Med. Sci., 1835, p. 256), a woman took 1/2 ounce of the oil, death in two hours; 9 , Dr. H. C. Raymond, Am. Journ. of Med. Sci., 1841 (2), p. 514, a woman took an overdose of same; 10 , W. W. Ely, M.D., Am. Journ. of Med. Sci., 1852 (1), p. 279, a young lady took a tablespoonful of same, death in an hour and a quarter; 11 , John C. Dalton, Jr., M.D., ibid., p. 136, a girl, æt. twenty-one years, took 11 drachms of same to procure an abortion, death in three hours and a half; 12 , Dr. Chapin, Bost. Med. and Surg. Journ., vol. 57, 1857, p. 383, a woman took 1/2 fluid ounce of same; 13 , Dr. Underwood, ibid., a young woman took the oil to produce abortion; 14 , John E. Pendleton, M.D., Am. Med. Times, vol. 2, 1861, p. 177, a girl, æt. twenty-one years, took a strong decoction of Tansy to procure abortion, death in twenty-six hours; 15 , E. M. Hale, North Am. Journ. of Hom., vol. 13, 1865; 16 , William H. Burt, M.D., Med. Invest., March, 1865, p. 63, took the pure oil, 4 drops (first day), 6 drops (second day), 10 drops (fourth day), 25 drops (sixth day); 17 , A. C. Blodget, M.D., Buffalo Med. and Surg. journ., 1868, p. 136, Mrs. O., æt. thirty years, about three months pregnant, took 3 drachms of oil; 18 , E. M. Hale, M.D., West. Hom. Obs., vol. 6, 1869, p. 345, a young woman took two tablespoonfuls to procure abortion; 19 , W. Aldright, M.D., Canada Med. Journ., vol. 6, 1870, p. 212, Miss ---, pregnant, took half a teaspoonful; 20 , A. D. Binkerd, M.D., Med. and Surg. Rep., vol. 22, 1870, p. 538, Mrs. B., æt. twenty-eight years, accustomed to take 5-drop doses without inconvenience, now took 15 or 20 drops; 21 , Dr. Henry Flood, Med. Rec., vol. 11, 1876, p. 339, Mrs. S., æt. twenty-five years, took a teaspoonful of the oil to procure abortion, and Mrs. D., in second month of pregnancy, took a strong decoction with like results; 22 , Dr. Welch, Med. Rec., vol. 12, p. 348, a young girl, to procure abortion, took small doses of the oil for two weeks, and then a heavier dose.

MIND

• Slight exhilaration from some cause, 6.
• Nervousness, 20.
• Moaning and general appearance of distress (after three-quarters of an hour, 17.
• Great confusion of mind, 16.
• Fatigue of mind after the least mental exertion, 18.
• Intellect enfeebled, with tendency to stupor (after three-quarters of an hour); completely unconscious (after one hour and a quarter), 17.
• Upon questioning her, I detected an indifference to my interrogatories and incoherence in her replies to the point inquired after (after two hours), 14.
• Unable to fix my attention on anything, and it seemed as though the next instant my reason would leave me, 7.
• Dulness of all the senses, 16. [10.]
• Partially unconscious, 12.
• Loss of consciousness, 9, 10.
• Total unconsciousness, 11.
• Uttered a shriek and fell senseless to the ground; she continued in this comatose condition over an hour, when she vomited again and recovered consciousness, 20.
• Perfectly unconscious, though not profoundly comatose, 19.
• Perfectly comatose (after six hours), 14.

HEAD

• Dizziness, 3, 10, 20.
• Dizziness and confusion of mind continuing to increase, particularly the latter, 7.
• Slight giddiness (in half an hour), 2.
• When first attacked, her condition, judging from the description of those who saw her, was very similar to a person in apoplexy, 18. [20.]
• Sense of weariness, but not pain in the head (after three hours and a half), 4.
• Strange fulness and sense of pressure within the head, amounting to pain (after one hour), 3.
• Very unpleasant sense of fulness within the head (in fifteen minutes), 2.
• Sense of fulness of the head and face (after fifteen minutes), 2.
• Agonizing pain in head, 20.
• Constant dull heavy headache for a number of days, 16.
• Severe frontal headache, with great fulness of the head, 16.
• Dull frontal headache, with cutting pain in the temples, 16.

EYE

• The sclerotic coat of the eye was so congested that it had a dark-purple glassy appearance, and was so badly swollen that the cornea seemed to be depressed (after two weeks), 18.
• Eyes open and very brilliant; pupils of equal size, widely dilated, and immovable; sclerotics injected, 11. [30.]
• A little inward strabismus of the right eye, 11.
• Occasionally a slow, lateral, rolling motion of the eyeballs, 16.
• Agglutination of the lids, in the morning, 16.
• Dull aching pains in the eyeballs, 16.
• Pupils slightly dilated, 19.
• Pupils contracted (after two hours), 14.
• Pupils, during the first hour, very closely contracted, afterwards very much dilated, 3.

EAR

• Stitches in the internal ear, 16.
• A sensation as if something closed the ears very suddenly, 16.
• Roaring in the ears, 16. [40.]
• Ringing in ears (in twenty minutes), 3.

NOSE

• Profuse secretion of mucus in the nose, with frequent coryza, 16.
• Dryness of the nostrils, 16.

FACE

• Features seemed fixed, giving to the physiognomy an expression of deep solemnity (after two hours), 14.
• Duskiness of the countenance (after two hours), 14.
• Face flushed, 2.
• Cheeks flushed, of a bright-red color, 11.

MOUTH

• Tongue feels rough, with a white coating on it, 16.
• Mouth and nose drawn a little to the right side, 11.
• Frothing at the mouth, 19. [50.]
• Bloodstained mouth, 22.
• Flat insipid taste, 16.

THROAT

• Roughness of the throat, 16.
• Feeling in the throat as if I would cough all the time, without being able to cough through the whole proving, 16.
• Unable to swallow, 21.

STOMACH

• Thirst.
• Thirst (after two hours), 2.
• Eructations.
• Constant eructations, tasting of the oil for twenty-four hours after taking it, 16.
• Eructations of sour air, at night, 16.
• Repeated Tansy eructations and borborygmus (after three hours and a quarter), 3.
• Flatulent eructations from the stomach, tasting intensely of Tansy (after half an hour), 2.
• Nausea and Vomiting. [60.]
• Some nausea, 7.
• Suffering from nausea and vomiting, which having been promoted by copious draughts of warm water, had continued freely for the last twenty minutes (after three-quarters of an hour), 17.
• Vomiting, 12.
• Vomited freely twice, 20.
• Vomiting; the matter ejected had the odor of Tansy, 9.
• Faint and sick at the stomach (after ten minutes), 17.
• Stomach.
• Slight glow in the stomach, 6.
• Burning in stomach, 20.
• Burning sensation in the stomach, 21.
• Great heat of stomach and bowels, 2. [70.]
• Immediate sense of heat in the stomach, 2.
• Weight at the stomach (after three hours and a half), 4.
• Drawing-cutting pains in the epigastrium many times, 16.

ABDOMEN

• Dull pains in the right hypochondrium; sharp pains in the left, 16.
• Frequent colicky pains in the umbilical region through the day, and especially at 4 A.M., for two weeks, 16.
• Sharp sticking pains in the whole umbilical region, 14.
• Hard, dull, aching pains in the whole of the bowels, constant symptom, 16.
• Feeling as though the bowels were full of limpid secretion from taking a cathartic (second morning), 6.
• Constant hard drawing pains in the left groin, 16.
• The pains are mostly all in the region of the small intestines; from small doses, they are of a cutting-stitching character; from large doses, constant dull, heavy, aching pains, with frequent spells of sharp, cutting, colicky pains, worse at night, and especially after midnight, 16.

STOOL. [80.]

• Soft papescent stools, preceded by sharp cutting pains in the umbilicus, 16.
• A loose stool, and a second about half an hour after, 7.
• Two loose evacuations from the bowels, and a feeling as though he would have more, 6.
• Constipation (secondary); (primary), diarrhœa, from large doses, 16.

URINARY ORGANS

• Urine produced a slight scalding (after one hour), 3.
• Constant inclination to urinate, with dull heavy pains in the small of the back (secondary), 16.
• Desire to urinate constantly present, but not strangury (after one hour and twenty minutes), 3.
• Constant desire to urinate still present (after three hours and a half), 4.
• Marked diuretic action; obliged to rise and urinate, a very unusual occurrence; the urine strongly impregnated with the Tansy odor, 2.
• Urinated three times in four hours, 2. [90.]
• At first, suppression of urine, followed by profuse flow of urine, 16.
• Urine very fetid, 16.
• Urine very high-colored (primary); very light-colored (secondary), 16.
• Urine passed in increased quantity, high-colored, and of strong odor of the drug (after half an hour), 2.

SEXUAL ORGANS

• There was inflammation of the vaginal walls of the internal and external labia, which resulted in an enormous abscess in one labia (after two weeks), 18.
• (1st.) It will cause abortion in the early months of pregnancy; I have known one case at the second, one at the third, and one in the fourth month of gestation, the two former from large quantities of the warm infusion, the latter from the oil (how much I could not ascertain). (2d) I have known it to bring back the menses after a suppression of several days, not naturally, but very profusely, with severe laborlike pains (from large draughts of the infusion). (3d.) Cases have come under my observation where its use, in moderate doses of the infusion, had the effect of preventing a threatened abortion (it was taken to hasten the abortion), 15.
• At full term a child was born, not larger than a rat ; the child lived three weeks, 12.

RESPIRATORY ORGANS

• Mucus had collected in the larynx and fauces, which very much disturbed respiration (after six hours), 14.
• Constant tickling sensation in the larynx and fauces, that produces a constant inclination to cough, but no coughing, 16. [100.]
• My voice had a strange sound to my ears, 7.
• Breathing slightly oppressed (after three hours and a half), 4.
• Respiration disturbed, 22.
• Breathing much distressed (after three-quarters of an hour); labored (after one hour and a quarter), 17.
• Strong desire to draw a full breath, which did not give relief to the oppression in the chest when drawn (after two hours), 2.
• Laborious respiration, 10.
• Respiration 14 to the minute, with some labor of the respiratory muscles (after two hours); 12 to the minute (after six hours), 14.
• Respiration hurried, labored, stertorous, and obstructed by an abundance of frothy mucus, which filled the air-passages, and was blown from between the lips in expiration; the breath had strong odor of Tansy, 11.
• Respiration laborious, not stertorous; blowing the mucus and saliva from her fauces and mouth, but the saliva did not appear to enter the larynx; this respiration was more marked after each spasm, but not very unlike that of sound sleep a part of the time when most quiet, 8.

HEART AND PULSE

• Feeble cardiac action, and all the signs of impending dissolution, 22. [110.]
• Pulse 115 (after two hours and three-quarters), 3.
• Pulse 110, small and feeble (after three-quarters of an hour); almost extinct (after one hour and a quarter), 27.
• Pulse 98 (after half an hour), 2.
• Pulse decidedly increased in force and a little in frequency (soon), 7.
• Pulse slightly increased, but a little slower than natural (after two hours); 60, with a peculiar measured beat (after six hours), 14.
• Pulse quite full, forcible, 128, 11.
• Pulse fuller and more incompressible, 6.
• Pulse feeble and somewhat frequent, 19.
• Irregular pulse, 10.
• Pulseless, 22.

BACK. [120.]

• Severe attack of lumbago one evening, lasted all the evening, 16.
• Constant dull aching pains in the lumbar region, for ten days, 16.

EXTREMITIES

• Feeling of numbness, with a sensation as though her arms and legs were suddenly swelling (after ten minutes), 17.
• A sense of cold numbness crept over her limbs (after three hours); the numbness increased till it amounted almost to paralysis, 20.
• Pricking sensation coming and going over the extremities and along the spine (after three hours and a half), 4.
• Prickling sensation in extremities, with flashes of heat (after one hour), 3.

SUPERIOR EXTREMITIES

• Left wrist very lame and sore, in the morning, 16.

INFERIOR EXTREMITIES

• Great weakness of the legs, with general prostration of strength, 16.
• Unsteadiness of step, with a feeling I cannot describe, but far worse than pain, 7.

GENERALITIES

• Trembling, 7. [130.]
• Paroxysms, 12.
• Convulsions, 9.
• Convulsions, supposed from the description given by those around her to be epileptic, in which the shoulder was dislocated, 5.
• A succession of convulsions supervened, with frothing at the mouth, laborious respiration, and irregular pulse, 10.
• Convulsions of a severe and dangerous character, 21.
• She was seized with convulsions, after which she vomited freely, then was carried in a state of catalepsy to bed, 20.
• Violent convulsions, 13.
• Clonic spasms (after three-quarters of an hour), 17.
• Violent clonic spasm, 22.
• Spasms occurred once in about twelve minutes. They were the most violent rigid kind of clonic spasms, but not convulsive; they came on instantaneously and generally, and continued about one minute. They were attended with slight, if any, motion of the arms; it might be called a trembling. The arms were peculiarly affected, and invariably in the same way; they were thrown out, forward of, and at right angles with the body; the hands, at the wrists, bent at right angles, with the forearm supinated, the points of the fingers nearly in contact, the fingers straight, and slightly bent at the joint which united them with the hand. The muscles of respiration were strongly affected during each paroxysm; air was forced from the chest slowly but steadily, and made a slight hissing noise as it escaped from between the patient's lips. During the intermission of spasm, the muscles were perfectly flexible, and the transition seemed very sudden. The jaws were the only exception to this rule; they were for the first hour and a quarter rigidly closed, and were with difficulty opened, but after that, were subjected to the same action as the rest of the body; when the spasms were on, they were rigid, and when they were off, they were relaxed. After the patient grew weaker, the spasms were more frequent, but had about the same severity and length, 8. [140.]
• At intervals of five or ten minutes the body was convulsed by strong, spasms, in which the head was thrown back, the respiration suspended, the arms raised and kept rigidly extended, and the fingers contracted. After this state of rigidity had continued for about half a minute, it was usually succeeded by a tremulous motion, often sufficient to shake the room, together with very faint and imperfect attempts at inspiration. The whole interval, from the commencement of the convulsion to the first full inspiration, varied from a minute to a minute and a half. Occasionally, the tongue was wounded by the teeth, and the saliva slightly tinged with blood. Immediately after a convulsion, the countenance was very pallid and livid, from the suspension of respiration, and the pulse exceedingly reduced in strength and frequency. The pulse and color then gradually returned until the occurrence of the next spasm. It was very common, a few seconds after the termination of a convulsion, for the head to be drawn slowly backward, and the eyelids, at the same time, stretched wide open. In the intervals of the convulsion, the limbs were mostly relaxed, but the jaws remained clenched, .

SLEEP

• Somewhat drowsy (after three hours and a quarter), 3.
• Went to bed drowsy, but not restless (after three hours and a half), 4.

FEVER

• Surface cool and moist (after three-quarters of an hour); cold and clammy (after one hour and a quarter), 17.
• Surface below its normal temperature, still cooler towards the extremities (after two hours), 14.
• Temperature 100.5° F. (after two hours and three-quarters), 3. [150.]
• Temperature 99.5° F. (after half an hour), 2.
• Feeling of warmth diffused over whole abdomen (after fifteen minutes), 2.
• Skin warm, but not remarkable as to moisture, 11.
• Cold clammy perspiration covered the surface (after six hours), 14.

CONDITIONS

• Aggravation.
• ( Night ), Sour eructations; 4 A.M., colicky pains in umbilical region.

SUPPLEMENT: TANACETUM. Authority.

23 , A. E. Spaulding, M.D., Philad. Med. Times, vol. vii, 1877, p. 467, a woman, æt. twenty-one years, took a teaspoonful of the oil to bring on the menses.

• Convulsion; powerful tonic contraction of the flexor muscles, the forearms were drawn forcibly against the thorax, face deeply congested and livid, foamy saliva was ejected from the mouth, eyes were wide open, and remained so during the convulsion, which lasted from one to two minutes, 23.