Xanthoxylum

Xanthoxylum Americanum, Mill.

Natural order , Rutaceæ.

Common name , Prickly ash.

Preparation , Tincture of the bark.

Authorities. (Charles Cullis, M.D., Pub. Mass. Hom. Soc., vol. ii, 1861-6, p. 267).

1 , Mr. S., aged twenty-nine years, took 4 drops tincture at 10 P.M. (first day), 10 drops in the morning (second day), 12 drops at 8 P.M. (fourth day), 20 drops at 3 P.M. (sixth day); 2 , same, seven weeks later, took 25 drops at 8 P.M.; 3 , Mr. A., aged twenty-seven years, took 3 drops at bedtime (first day), same in the morning (second day), 5 drops at 6.30 A.M., and 12 drops at 8.30 P.M. (third day); 4 , a prover, aged thirty-three years, took 2 drops; 5 , Miss D., aged twenty-six years, took 12 drops; 6 , Mrs. H., aged thirty years, took 10 drops at 9.20 P.M. (first day), 20 drops in the evening (second day); 7 , Mrs. J., aged twenty-eight years, took 20 drops at 8 P.M. (first day), same at 11 A.M., 22 drops at 2 P.M., 25 drops at 3 P.M., and 20 drops at 8 P.M. (second day).

MIND

• A feeling of depression and weakness (soon), 6.
• Great depression (second day), 3.
• Terrible, nervous, frightened feeling (five minutes after fourth dose), 1.
• Indifference and malaise (second day), 4.

HEAD

• Head dull and aching (two hours after second dose, third day), 3.
• Headache, with sleepy feeling, in the morning (third day), 3.
• Head feels full (five minutes after fourth dose), 1.*
• Pressure in the head, with fulness of the veins (in five minutes), 5.
• Shaking the head produces a feeling of looseness or quivering of the brain, followed by dizziness (first day), 4. [10.]
• Tightness of the head, with pain increasing over the eyes (five minutes after fourth dose), 1.
• A tightening of the scalp, and heavy pains in temples (twenty minutes after first dose); same feeling (after second and third dose); increase of head difficulties, with a great heat and quiet flowing (menstrual), being two days in advance of proper time (after fourth dose); some headache (after fifth dose), 7.
• Throbbing headache (three-quarters of an hour after third dose), 1.
• Frontal headache (after five minutes), 2.
• Diffused pain in the upper part of the forehead; worse in the right side; pain extends to the base of the brain, with soreness (first day), 4.
• Severe frontal headache, with dizziness (five minutes after fourth dose), 1.
• A dull headache, in space not larger than half a dollar, over the nose (five minutes after second dose), 1.
• Throbbing headache over right eye with nausea (half an hour after third dose), 1.
• Darting pain in the left temple, recurring again and again (fifteen minutes after second dose, third day), 3.
• About the upper part of the cranium, an achy feeling accompanied by flashes of throblike pain, as if the top of the head were about to be taken off (fifteen minutes after second dose, third day), 3. [20.]
• Heavy feeling in the top of the head (in one hour), 5.
• Pain in left side of head and left elbow (in one hour), 5.
• Pain in the back of the head, also a bewildered sensation (in fifteen minutes), 5.

EYE

• Dull, heavy, grinding pain in the left eye (first day), 4.
• Pain over right eye (five minutes after fourth dose), 1.
• Pain in the lid of the right eye (in fifteen minutes), 5.
• Watering of the eyes and nose (five minutes after fourth dose), 1.

EAR

• Darting pain under and back of the right ear (five minutes after second dose, third day), 3.
• A dull pain in the right ear, seeming to affect the jaw-socket, the kind of pain which one has when he don't know whether it is his tooth or ear that aches; this pain lasted two hours, and then gradually more away (after one hour, second day), 1.
• Ringing in ears, more particularly in right ear (three-quarters of an hour after third dose), 1.

NOSE. [30.]

• Discharge of mucus from the nose, with congested feeling, as if it were about to bleed (first day), 4.
• Discharge of dry and bloody scales of mucus from the nose (second day), 4.
• Decided catarrhal symptoms (five minutes after fourth dose), 1.
• Right nostril seems filled up (five minutes after second dose, third day), 3.
• Dryness of both nostrils (after third dose), 1.

FACE

• Pain in lower jaw and left side (in two hours), 5.

MOUTH

• A smart peppery taste in mouth and fauces (immediately after first dose); same sensation in mouth and throat, with soon extended to stomach (after second dose), 1.
• Strong peppery sensation in mouth and throat (soon after second dose, third day), 3.
• Burning and dry feeling in mouth and tongue (first day), 4.

THROAT

• Sensation of soreness in right side of throat (five minutes after second dose, third day), 3. [40.]
• Soreness of throat, with expectoration of tough mucus (two hours after second dose, third day), 3.
• Pain in right side of throat (in one hour), 5.
• A feeling of enlargement of the throat (in one hour), 5.
• After dinner, felt a bunch in the left side of the throat when swallowing; on going to bed, bunch in throat shifted to right side (second day), 3.

STOMACH

• No appetite (fifth day), 1.
• Anorexia, could eat but a few mouthfuls at breakfast, and could only drink half a cup of coffee, which was vomited soon afterwards (second day), 4.
• Empty eructations, with slight taste of ingesta (first day), 4.
• Nausea (after five minutes), 2.
• Slight nausea, with sense of oppression at the stomach; nausea increased, accompanied with frequent chills (after ten minutes), 6.
• Nausea, with headache (half an hour after third dose), 1. [50.]
• Feeling of fulness or pressure at the epigastrium (first day), 4.

ABDOMEN

• Some pain in right side below ribs (two hours after second dose, third day), 3.
• Flatulence, 1, 2.
• Rumbling of the abdomen, with soreness on pressure (first day), 4.
• Soon after waking, at 7 A.M., next morning, had severe griping abdominal pains, with thin, brown, diarrhœic discharge, mixed with some mucus (first day), 4.
• Griping pain, on waking in the morning, continued at intervals through the day, with a general feeling of indifference and malaise (second day), 4.

STOOL

• Constipation in the morning, after supper discharge from bowels (second day); in fifteen minutes discharge from bowels; also another after breakfast and at 6 P.M. (third day); a discharge before breakfast, and one after (fourth day), 3.

URINARY ORGANS

• Urine at night, and the next morning, scanty and high-colored (after fourth dose), 1.

SEXUAL ORGANS

• Quite flowing, with increase of head difficulties, being two days in advance of proper time (second day); went to sleep as usual, and awoke in dreadful distress and pain , baffling description; profuse flowing; the pain (or agony) continued until noon of next day, when it gradually subsided, 7.
• Menses appeared next morning, being one week before the usual time; attended with a good deal of pain, 6.

RESPIRATORY ORGANS. [60.]

• Hoarseness, with some husky feeling in the throat; obliged to clear the throat frequently. This hoarseness and obstruction of the throat continued some days after the other symptoms had subsided, 4.
• Slight hacking cough (third day), 3.
• Constant desire to take a long breath (after third dose), 1.
• Continual desire to take long and deep respirations (five minutes after fourth dose), 1.
• Increased desire for long respiration (fifteen minutes after fourth dose), 1.

CHEST

• Felt a good deal of tightening about the chest, which continued, with much inclination to gape (one hour after second dose, third day), 3.
• Sharp shooting pains in right side (like pleurisy pains), occasionally extending through to the shoulderblade; these pains increased in severity, and lasted half an hour (fifteen minutes after second dose); during this time, there was a continual desire to take a long breath, 1.

PULSE

• Increased pulse (after second dose), 1.
• Pulse 100 (three-quarters of an hour after third dose), 1.
• Pulse 100 (in five minutes); 100, but more feeble (after twenty minutes); 82 feeble and irregular (after one hour), 2. [70.]
• Pulse 80 (before experiment); 74, soft (in ten minutes), 6.

EXTREMITIES

• Dull pain in left knee; also in left elbow, extending to the hand; then in left side and top of left foot (in one hour), 5.

SUPERIOR EXTREMITIES

• The whole left arm and shoulder numb (in two hours), 5.
• Severe pain in the right arm, commencing just above the bend of the elbow (half an hour after third dose), 1.
• Pain in right arm (fifteen minutes after fourth dose), 1.
• Slight pain inside right arm, just above elbow (fifteen minutes after second dose, third day), 3.
• Pain in both elbows (in fifteen minutes), 5.
• Dull pain in left elbow, passing to the palm of the hand, then to the shoulder (in one hour), 5.
• Pain in left elbow and left side of head (in one hour), 5.
• Severe pain in the wrist, and extending to the thumb (half an hour after third dose), 1. [80.]
• A flash of pain in right thumb, extending to hand (two hours after second dose, third day), 3.

INFERIOR EXTREMITIES

• Weakness of the lower limbs, with pain in the knees (soon); pains of the extremities increased, accompanied with frequent chills (after ten minutes), 6.
• Pain in the left leg, between the hip and knee (in one hour), 5.
• Pain in left knee (in one hour); very severe (in two hours); the pain has lasted without cessation, a little more than half an hour, 5.
• Dull pain in right knee (in ten minutes), 5.
• Pain in right knee (fifteen minutes after fourth dose), 1.
• Legs and feet feel tired (two hours after second dose, third day), 3.
• Pain in right leg (second morning), 3.
• A flash of pain in calf of right leg (two hours after second dose, third day), 3.
• Pain in ankle (in one hour), 5. [90.]
• Pain in both feet, shooting up to the knees (in two hours), 5.
• Pain in left heel (in one hour), 5.

GENERALITIES

• Awoke in the morning, languid and depressed (fifth day), 1.
• Pain in left side (in one hour), 5.
• Slight pain in left side, and under the left shoulderblade, also the left hip (in two hours), 5.
• Some pain in the left side (after second dose), 6.
• Sharp pains in right side of a neuralgic character (half an hour after third dose), 1.
• Pain in right side (five minutes after fourth dose), 1.
• A feeling of numbness through the whole of the left side of the body from head to foot, the division made perceptible in the head, affecting half of the nose; this feeling lasted two or three minutes (in one hour), 5.
• Sharp shooting pain (five minutes after fourth dose), 1.

SLEEP. [100.]

• Gaping (after third dose), 1.
• Continued gaping (two hours after second dose, third day), 3.
• Drowsiness, all the evening (after fourth dose), 1.
• Drowsy symptoms appear prominent (fifteen minutes after second dose, third day), 3.
• The same desire for sleep and long respirations (immediately), 2.
• Sleepy all the morning (after dose, second and third days), 3.
• Slept soundly without dreaming (first day), 4.
• Slept hard all night (first and fourth nights), 1.
• Slept hard and heavy; dreamed of flying about over tops of houses (first night), 3.

FEVER

• Frequent chills, with pains in the extremities (after ten minutes), 6. [110.]
• Great heat (after fourth dose), 7.
• Flash of heat (in one hour), 5.
• Sense of heat all over the veins, with a desire to be bled; flash of heat from head to foot (in half an hour), 5.
• A degree of heat all over the body (after second dose), 1.