Chenopodium Anthelminticum

Chenopodium anthelminticum, Linn.

Natural order , Chenopodiaceæ; Common name , Wormseed.

Preparation , Trituration of the seeds.

Authority.

Dr. Jeanes, Raue's Record, 1872, p. 30.

• Pains through the breast, under the right scapula, and in the right shoulder.
• Pain in the head and eyes; neuralgia.
• The slight dull pain a little lower than the inferior angle of the right scapula, but nearer the spine has been proved to be important. (Jeanes.)*

SUPPLEMENT: CHENOPODIUM ANTHELMINTICUM. Authorities.

2 , P. T. T., Bost. Med. and Surg. Journ., vol. xlv, 1851, p. 373, poisoning of a child; 3 , Mr. Wm. Smith, Pharm. Journ., Sec. Ser., vol. iv, 1862, p. 330, a man took about half an ounce; 4 , T. R. Brown, M.D., Maryland Med. Journ., November, 1878, p. 20, Mr. X. æt. thirty-one years, took about 1 1/2 ounces of wormseed oil, and 30 drops of turpentine, death in five days.

• The symptoms were those of a narcotico-acrid poison, affecting the brain, spinal system, and stomach. He was insensible, convulsed, and foaming at the mouth; he, however, recovered under the use of emetics, combined with stimulants and demulcents. All remembrance of having taking the poison was completly wanting on recovery, 3.
• Deep, heavy, stertorous breathing, accompanied by a very peculiar rattle, as if there were a ball rolling loose in the trachea; pulse small, weak, frequent, and feeble; eyes insensible to light, or even external objects; convulsive movements of the right half of the body; extremities cold; any attempt at deglutition threatened instant suffocation, 2.
• Disagreeable eructations; nausea; staggering like a drunken man when walking; deafness to the sound of the voice, but exquisite sensitiveness to the sounds of passing vehicles; he remarked as each vehicle rolled by that it sounded like the roaring of immense cannons right into his ear; also annoying buzzing in ears. His manner in smoking was peculiar. He would scarcely light the cigar before he would lay it down again, and take a fresh one, arguing clearly some perversion in taste. This was kept up until interdicted, and by the afternoon his mantel-piece was strewn with cigars only slightly used. Not the least disposition to engage in conversation. To one of his attendants he showed signs of distinct aphasia. He clearly wanted him to get or do something for him, but could not make himself understood. His friend replied by writing, "Don't understand," at the same time handing him the paper and pencil with which to make known his wish. After holding them in his hand in a pensive state for some minutes, with a sort of flourish, he wrote in a perfectly distinct hand, "The paper mu," waited awhile, and then with a painful expression of the realization of his difficulty, returned the materials and lay down. I then repeated the attempt by asking him what medicine he had bought while away from home. After similar preliminaries as before he only managed to write two letters, "Th." In reply to my question as to how he felt, he responded, "I feel all right." The latter, like the other words, were written in a perfectly distinct manner. During all this time his deafness, as described, was progressive, and became so pronounced as to make it impossible to talk to him. Still there was the same kind of sensitiveness to other sounds. For example, when the tea-bell rang, though he was in the third-story, three flights from where the sound came, he, without notice from members of his family, to their utter astonishment, got up and walked as deliberately as ever into the dining-room. He did not seem to know his accustomed seat, and sat at the wrong place. During the afternoon the aphasia was complete, so that he no longer found it possible to express his ideas to any one, which seemed to amuse him very much, as he laughed heartily. His behavior all this time deserves comment. Whatever he did he would keep repeating it for a considerable time. When I entered the room he rose, shook me cordially and firmly by the hand, and then took his seat. In about a minute he arose, solemnly came forward and again shook hands with me, so that by twenty minutes he had shaken hands with me as many times. He then began to wash his hands, and though the basin contained no water, he went through the form of using soap and wiping with a towel as often as a dozen times in one hour. Many acts of similar import might be offered, some of which I observed and others were described by members of his family. I joined the patient at tea for the purpose of watching what up to this time had been to me an unsolved mystery. He appeared to relish his food, taking singly tea and bread. Towards the close of the meal, while grasping a fragment of bread, there was a distinct spasm of the right forearm and hand. His fingers were firmly clenched, and his hand forcibly flexed on the forearm. He was assisted to his room, his walk entirely natural, and when being placed on his bed he showed some resistance in striking at me. He at once commenced to groan, drawn himself up, and tossed from side to side of the bed, suggesting abdominal distress. He soon became unconscious, and from his movements in bed it was clear that he was paralyzed in the right arm. This member was dragged helplessly after him, as my attention was first called to it by a looker on. The next day there continued impairment of motion and sensation of the right side, together with insensibility to touch of the right eyeball. During the third day there were frequent twitchings and stiffness of the right limbs, these culminated in a unilateral convulsion at daylight on the fourth day. At about noon of the third day he passed, as he continued to do to the end, except when drawn off, a large quantity of urine involuntarily in bed. In the afternoon the heavy breathing, with flopping of the cheeks, of apoplexy appeared. There was also more or less constant regurgitation of yellow frothy material from the mouth, which like the evacuation from his skin smelled of wormseed. The accumulation of this material would at times be so profuse as to embarrass respiration. During one of the attacks of dyspnœa, and while in a drenching sweat, which suggested the approach of dissolution, he was gently turned in bed, immediately a general convulsion, markedly opisthotonic, appeared, lasting about two minutes, despite the use of chloroform. By this time a decided icterus appeared, which had been only noticed the day before. He died about five days from the beginning of his illness in a profound coma, and with a high temperature in his axilla, .