Cicuta Maculata
By Timothy F. Allen — The Encyclopedia of Pure Materia Medica
Cicuta maculata, Linn.
Nat. order , Umbelliferæ.
Common names , Water hemlock, spotted cowbane, beaver poison, musquash.
Preparation , Tincture of the root gathered in summer.
Authorities.
1 , Charles A. Lee, poisoning of two boys from eating the root, Jour. of Mat. Med., May, 1871 (Am. Obs., 8, 412); 2 , Montreal Med. Gaz., 1844, Hempel's Mat. Med., 2, 183, eating the root; 3 , N. E. Med. Gaz., 7, 219, eating the root.
MIND
- Fell on their way, and were picked up unconscious (after one hour), 1.
HEAD
- Dizziness (after one hour), 1.
EYE
FACE
- Face very livid, and even purple, from congestion, 1.
- Whole face puffed and bloated, resembling the appearance of the head of a person who has been drowned (two cases), (after two hours), 2.
- Jaws rigidly fixed (two cases), (after two hours), 2.
MOUTH
- Bloody froth issued from mouth and nose, 1.
STOMACH
- Extreme nausea (after half an hour), 2.
- Sickness of stomach (after one hour), 1.
- Vomiting (one case), 2.
- Vomited a frothy, glairy fluid, 1.
- Puked, and brought up a teacupful of masticated root, 3.
- Burning pain at epigastrium (after half an hour), 2.
ABDOMEN
RECTUM AND ANUS
- Felt as if he had a call to a dejection, but on going to stool he could do nothing, 3.
RESPIRATORY ORGANS
- Stertorous breathing (two cases), (after two hours), 2.
HEART AND PULSE
- Pulse intermitting, sometimes imperceptible (two cases), (after two hours), 2.
- Scarcely any pulse perceptible, 1.
GENERAL SYMPTOMS
- Violent spasms (after one hour), 1.
- Every muscle of the body affected with powerful clonic spasms, contracting and then partially relaxing with wonderful rapidity; his movements required four strong men to control; no cessation to the spasms, 1.
- Tetanic convulsions (two cases), (after two hours), 2.
- Fell backwards in convulsions, which with various remissions and exacerbations continued till he died; they consisted of tremors, violent contractions and distortions, with alternate and imperfect relaxations of the whole muscular system, astonishing mobility of the eyeballs and eyelashes, with widely dilated pupils, stridor dentium, trismus, frothing at mouth and nose, mixed with blood, and occasionally violent and genuine epilepsy; the convulsive agitations were so powerful and incessant that I could not examine his pulse with sufficient constancy to ascertain its character, 3.
SLEEP AND DREAMS
- Complete coma (two cases), (after two hours), 2.
FEVER
SUPPLEMENT: CICUTA MACULATA. Authorities.
4 , G. W. Wright, Bost. Med. Intelligencer, vol. ii, 1825, p. 171, poisoning of a youth; 5 , "W.," Bost. Med. and Surg. Journ., vol. x, 1834, p. 107, a man chewed and swallowed about 15 grains of the green root; 6 , Dr. John Stockbridge, New Eng. Journ. of Med. and Surg., vol. iii, p. 334, a boy, æt. fifteen years, ate about 1 drachm of the root; 7 , same, a boy, æt. seven years, ate about 1/2 drachm of root; 8 , a boy, æt. five years, ate about the same quantity; 9 , G. W. Norman, M.D., Virginia Med. Month., fatal poisoning of a young man, æt. seventeen years, by the root.
MIND
HEAD
- Began to feel queer about the head (after half an hour), 5.
EYE
- Eyes glassy and wandering, 4.
- Pupils dilated, 7, 9.
- Pupils were greatly dilated, and did not contract when a candle was presented, 8.
- Pupils dilated and insensible, 4.
- Eyes too sensible to light (after half an hour), 5.
FACE
MOUTH. [40.]
- Frothing at the mouth, 9.
THROAT
- Muscles of deglutition spasmodically affected, on presenting any substance to the mouth, 4.
STOMACH
- Nausea and vomiting, 4.
- Vomiting, 5, 6, 8.
- Sick at the stomach (after one hour), 9.
- Vomiting several times, 7.
- Ejections of frothy mucus, mixed with a dark flocculent sediment and blood, 4.
- Every few minutes he complained of a sensation of universal distress, with oppression of the stomach, 7.
STOOL
- Inclination to stool, 6.
RESPIRATORY ORGANS
- Stertorous breathing, 9.
PULSE. [50.]
- Pulse hardly perceptible, 4.
- Pulse very feeble, 65, 7.
- Pulse 50 to the minute, 9.
- The pulse was almost, and at times quite imperceptible, 8.
- Pulse before the convulsion 51, and of the ordinary strength, afterwards weak; could not be felt during the convulsion, 5.
GENERALITIES
- Frequent twitching of the muscles of the body and extremities, 8.
- Constant jactitation, 4.
- Antagonizing muscles alternately convulsed, drawing the eyes and angles of the mouth right and left, in quick succession, 4.
- Convulsions, 4.
- Violent convulsive fits, with frothing at the mouth, which continued for about an hour and a half, when he died, 6. [60.]
- Convulsion of a decidedly epileptic kind, lasting four or five minutes, marked by frothing at the mouth, distorted, livid countenance, and short spasms of all the muscles (after half an hour), 5.
- Several convulsions at intervals of ten or fifteen minutes, 9.