Coniinum

An alkaloid from Conium maculatum, L.

Formula

, C8H15 N. (Conicine).

Preparation , Tincture.

Authorities.

1 , Dr. Pohlmann, proving with 1 to 50 drops of the 1st dil., Hygea, 10, 468; 2 , C. v. Schroff, twenty-seven experiments on three healthy persons with doses of 0.003 to 0.085 grmm., Lehrbuch d. Pharm.; 3 , Reil, J. f. Pharm., 1, effects of application of Coniin. with of cinnamon to a carious tooth; 4 , Albers, Deutsch. Klin., 1853, a woman suffering with cancer of the breast, violent headache, and roaring in the ears, took for the severe pain in the cancer 1/16th of a grain daily; 5 , same, a young man, effects of smelling the alkaloid (smells like Nicotin); 6 , a second man, same; 7 , Dr. J. W. Burman, effects of a subcutaneous injection of m. x. of a solution of Conia (equal to 2 min. of the alkaloid); 8 , Effects of subuctaneous injections on several hospital attendants (healthy), with record of the dynamometer, see Table III.

MIND

• Emotional.
• A great feeling of calm and tranquillity, and some slowness of the mental processes (after one hour and ten minutes), 7.
• I was fast losing all interest in the game, and doubted whether I could go on with it; but I managed to do so by dint of great effort (after forty-five minutes), 7.
• Intellectual.
• Loss of consciousness, like a faintness, 4.

HEAD

• Confusion and Vertigo.
• Confusion, heaviness, and a sensation of pressure in the head; these symptoms became very severe, were conjoined with vertigo and inability to think or fix the attention on any subject (soon), 2.
• Vertigo, 3, 5.
• Vertigo, with loss of power, lasting the whole day; indeed the inclination to vertigo and excessive weariness lasted three weeks, 6.
• She suffered from vertigo with great prostration for four weeks, 4.
• Slight vertigo, 1.
• The free open air relieved the vertigo and confusion of the head, but in one experiment it caused pain along the course of the nervus supraorbitalis and cutaneus malæ, 2.

EYE

• Lids. [10.]
• Eyelids felt heavy (after twenty minutes), 7.
• Pupil.
• Pupils dilated, 2.
• Vision.
• Vision indistinct; all objects swim, 2.
• Confusion of vision (after fifteen minutes); much confusion (after thirty-five minutes); almost right again (after two hours and ten minutes), 7.
• Special distortion of vision, so that all objects seemed to waver, or seemed excessively large, as for example, one thought he saw his own nose as a shapeless mass, 3.

EAR

• Hearing weakened; the ears feel as if stopped with cotton, 2.
• Illusions of hearing, 3.

FACE

• Face sunken, pale, 2.
• Numbness of the muscles about the jaws, 7.

MOUTH

• Tongue.
• Tongue pale, paralyzed, and numb, soon, 2. [20.]
• The epithelium of the tongue was denuded in several places; the papillæ were very prominent (soon), 2.
• General Mouth.
• Violent burning in the mouth (immediately), 2.
• Saliva.
• Accumulation of saliva (soon), 2.

THROAT

• Scraping in the throat (immediately), 2.
• Dysphagia, 3.

STOMACH

• Eructation.
• Eructations, 2.
• Nausea and Vomiting.
• Nausea, with inclination to vomit, and vomiting in one case, 2.
• Slight feeling of nausea with the giddiness (one or two cases), 8.
• Vomiting (one case), 8.

ABDOMEN

• Rumbling, with distension of the abdomen, 2.

RECTUM AND ANUS. [30.]

• Inclination to diarrhœa (in some cases), 2.

RESPIRATORY ORGANS

• Voice was rather thick, and I mumbled my words somewhat when speaking (after thirty-five minutes), 7.
• Respiration frequently yawning, 2.

HEART AND PULSE

• Pulse at first from large doses became somewhat increased, afterwards always diminished; this diminution was not in proportion to the doses (as is the case with Aconite), for the pulse usually sank lower from small doses, when it was always small and weak, 2.
• Pulse (previously 70), small, 59 (after ten minutes), 68 (after twenty-four minutes), normal (after half an hour), 1.
• Pulse (previously 72), 62 (after six minutes), 60 (after eight minutes), normal (after half an hour), 2d proving, 1.

NECK AND BACK

• Spasmodic distortion of the neck, with spasms in the face, which drew the mouth up to a point, 4.
• Pain in the left lumbar region, like a slight rheumatism, lasting two hours, and gradually disappearing (after three hours), 1.

EXTREMITIES IN GENERAL

• In fifteen minutes slight weakness of the legs; in twenty-five minutes the weakness of the legs and knees was more marked, and there was a certain amount of unsteadiness in my gait as I walked around the table; in thirty-five minutes, the numbness and weakness of both legs and arms were well marked, and I felt that I handled the cue awkwardly, and that, when standing still, there was an inclination to sway backwards and forwards, while the knees began to give way under me; in forty-five minutes the weakness of both arms and legs was intensified; I could not now walk without swerving to one side or staggering; in one hour and ten minutes my legs were very stiff, and awkward in motion, and it was just as much as I could do to get along. I had to progress slowly. I felt, with regard to my limbs, as if I was getting up to walk after a short rest at the end of a day's good pedestrianism, or as if I had just landed after a long swim, and altogether, a quiet rest on the sofa would have been most acceptable to me. It was now only possible to get upstairs with the greatest effort, and I did so in a very awkward manner; and often knocked my toes against the steps, but, strange to say, I felt it more difficult to go down than up stairs. When I sat down I had to let myself drop suddenly when within a few inches of the seat. In two hours and ten minutes, my limbs were rapidly regaining their strength. In two hours and twenty minutes, the legs were nearly all right again, but the arms still weak. Three hours after the injection I felt quite well again, and could move about with ease as before the injection, 7.
• Excessive heaviness of the arms and legs, especially of the left arm, 1.

SUPERIOR EXTREMITIES. [40.]

• No means were at hand for testing the exact loss of power in the legs; but, by the use of "Salter's improved dynamometer," I was enabled to measure, pretty accurately, the loss of power in the arms and muscles of the back. On two occasions I took seven healthy adults, and previous to injection, made them exert their utmost strength in pulling the handle of the dynamometer. I then injected each m x of a solution, according to my formula, m ij of Conia, and made them pull at the dynamometer every quarter of an hour for two hours and a quarter afterwards. The following plate exhibits charts (obtained from three different persons) typical of the results I got. The rapid loss of power after injection, and the gradual return to the status quo , as the effects of the drug pass off, are alike well shown. The amount pulled is given in stones and halves of stones, 8 . See Plate III.
• Could only move the upper extremities with great exertion, 2.
• Some numbness with tingling of the arms (after twenty minutes), 7.
• Tonic cramp in the muscles of the ball of the thumb, with a painful sensation on strongly adducting the thumb, 2.

INFERIOR EXTREMITIES

• Objective.
• Gait unsteady and tottering on account of weakness in the lower extremities; the weakness continued even the next day, with trembling, 2.
• The muscular weakness was especially marked on going out to walk; the gait seemed automatic, inasmuch as there was a tendency to carry the body forward, so that as little muscular power as possible should be used, 2.
• Subjective.
• "Legs felt independent, and as if they didn't care for him or anybody else," 8.
• "Legs felt as if they weighed a ton," 8.
• Tendency to cramp in one of the calves, 7. [50.]
• Cramp in the muscles of the calves, on ascending steps, or on drawing off the boots, together with cramps in various groups of muscles, on exerting them, 2.

GENERAL SYMPTOMS

• Objective.
• All movements were slow and labored (after one hour and ten minutes), 7.
• Remarkable weakness and prostration, so that it was difficult to keep the head erect, 2.
• Faintness and nausea, 5.
• Subjective.
• Touch indistinct; a sensation as though the skin were covered with a furze, with formication, 2.
• Great disturbance of the general condition; feeling as after a debauch, 2.
• Felt as if he "had been working hard all day," 8.
• "Felt as if he had been fashed ( sic ) a bit night before, and tired-like," 8.
• One felt as if he had been "up all night on special extra night duty, and should like to go to bed," 8.
• Considerable local smarting for a few seconds after the injection, 7.

SLEEP

• Overpowered with sleep, 2.

FEVER. [60.]

• Hands bluish, cold, 2.
• Head and face became very warm (after three minutes), 2.
• Moisture on the tips of the fingers; in large doses the fingers as well as the hands become even wet, in all the provers, 2.

CONDITIONS

• Aggravation.
• ( On ascending steps ), Cramp in calves.
• ( On drawing off boots ), Vertigo, etc.
• Amelioration.
• ( Open air ), Vertigo, etc.