Viscum Album

Viscum album, Linn.

Natural order , Loranthaceæ.

Common name , Mistletoe.

Preparation , Tincture of leaves (and berries).

Authorities.

1 , Dr. Center, Charleston Med. Journ. and Rev., vol. vi, 1851, 448, two women, æt. eighteen and twenty-one years, took Viscum to procure abortion; 2 , Henry Belcher, M.D., Month. Hom. Rev., vol. xii, 1868, p. 282, a girl, æt. seventeen years, in whom catamenia had not appeared, but who appeared well, except a severe form of chorea had long troubled her, took 5 drops tincture, three times a day, for a week; 3 , Joseph Dixon, Brit. Med. Journ., 1874 (1). p. 224, a boy, æt. fourteen years, ate eight berries; 4 , Pröll, A. H. Z., 96, No. 10 (Brit. Journ. of Hom., vol. xxxvi, 1878, p. 271), took the tincture, beginning with a drop, and increasing every day by a drop until he took forty at a time.

MIND

• Inclined to be violent, 3.
• Spectral illusions, 3.
• Insensibility, 3.
• Stupor, succeeded by almost entire insensibility, lying motionless, with her eyes closed, as if in sound sleep, but easily roused by a loud noise, and then would answer any question, but when she relapsed into her former condition there was a slight disposition to stertorous breathing (second day), 2.

HEAD

• Giddiness (second day), 2, 3.

EYE

• Conjunctiva injected, 3.
• Pupil slightly dilated and fixed, 3.
• Pupils contracted, and at first appeared insensible to light (second day), 3.

FACE

• Countenance suffused, 3. [10.]
• Lips livid, 3.

ABDOMEN

• Whole of the alimentary canal paralyzed, 1.

STOOL

• Bowels obstinately constipated, 1.

RESPIRATORY ORGANS

• Breathing slow and stertorous, 3.
• Slight disposition to stertorous breathing (second day), 2.

PULSE

• Pulse small, quick, and very irregular (second day), 2.
• Pulse slow, full, and bounding, 3.

SUPERIOR EXTREMITIES

• He felt in the dorsum of the left hand as if a large spider were crawling over it; soon afterwards he felt the same sensation in the dorsum of the right hand (after 40 drops), 4.

INFERIOR EXTREMITIES

• In the same winter suddenly felt in the right foot a violent aching pain from within outwards, that compelled him to take off his boot, as it felt too light; this sensation went off in an hour, 4.

GENERALITIES

• About 10 A.M., when he was going to see a patient, he felt very queer, as if he must fall down; he felt a glow that rose up from the feet to the head, and it seemed to him as if he were on fire, at the same time his face became very pale; this kind of aura epileptica recurred three times during the winter (after 40 drops), 4. [20.]
• Every muscle of the body, except those of the eyes, were paralyzed, 1.
• Could not speak or swallow, and both died about the eight or ninth day, literally starved, 1.
• Frequent recurrence of the symptoms during two years, 4.

SLEEP

• Drowsiness (second day), 2.

FEVER

• Skin warm and very moist (second day), 2.