Iodoformum
Clarke - Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica · John Henry Clarke · 10,981 chars · source ↗
General
Iodoformum.
Iodoform. CHI3. Trituration. Solution.
Clinical
Breast, pains in. Chancre. Cough. Delirium. Diplopia. Eczema. Enteric fever. Eye, affections of. General paralysis. Headache. Heart, affections of. Hydrocephalus. Locomotor ataxy. Mania. Meningitis. Tuberculosis.
Characteristics
Iodoform has been proved by Underwood and Haines. To the symptoms experienced by them have been added the recorded effects observed on patients treated with it in old-school practice. Many cases of fatal poisoning have occurred. All the symptoms of acute meningitis have been produced in some instances, and this fact has been turned to good account by homoeopathists.
An excellent collection of the pathogenetic effects of Idf. will be found in C. D. P., from which I take the following: A boy of 10 had Idf. thickly applied to a point in amputated limb at which the stitches did not hold well. On the third day he was sleepy, after a restless night with frequent sighing.
The dressing was renewed, and on the same day, not having eaten anything since the day before, he had several attacks of vomiting, bilious and easy. All these symptoms increased during the next few days. The child was constipated and seemed to suffer from his head. Nights very restless; sleep interrupted by sighing and cries like those of meningitis.
Drowsiness during day. Pupils unequally contracted; reacted slowly to light. He was perfectly indifferent and did not recognise those about him. Later, nightly agitation was replaced by tranquil delirium.
Pulse rapid and small. On the sixth day the dressing was changed, on the seventh day the symptoms began to abate, and disappeared after the ninth. W. J.
Martin (Hahn. Month., xxxi. 799) cured two cases of tubercular meningitis with Idf. 2x. He put 4 grains in half a tumbler of water, and gave a teaspoonful every two hours. One case was that of a child, fourteen months old, and the symptoms were: Sleeps much; moves mouth constantly as though chewing or sucking; bores head back and rolls it from side to side.
Had been ill twelve days. Violent convulsions followed, face distorted, eyes squinting, head retracted, neck and back stiff, automatic movement of one arm and leg. The child was expected to die that night, but Idf. was now given, and improvement set in. Fever abated, and in one week all symptoms had passed away.
Drowsiness is a marked feature. In cases of medicinal poisoning the symptoms sometimes come speedily, and sometimes only after a long period of medication, when they set in with great suddenness and intensity. For instance, a woman, 26, who had taken 42 grains of Idf. in eighty days, suddenly after a hot bath felt very dizzy and weak in the legs, felt unable to knit, and diplopia set in. Symptoms of mania followed; weakness, staggering on closing the eyes.
For twelve days she was unable to walk alone. These symptoms having set in suddenly after a hot bath seems to show that the "< by heat, and by damp" of Iod. is reproduced in Idf. Treves has observed evidences of poisoning develop slowly and insidiously: Malaise, loss of strength and of appetite, occasional vomiting; and the patient is weighed down with a sense of depression; moderate fever, rapid pulse; drowsiness; complete hebetude; wasting. The external use of it has set up eczema.
In one case, that of a soldier (H. W., xxv. 292) who had had Iodoform applied to his arm, a scarlatina-like rash appeared, spreading from the arm over the body, and ending in desquamation. Scarlatina was actually diagnosed, but some doubt was raised, and, suspicion being thrown on the Idf., a piece of silver was placed in the mouth. Immediately a garlic taste was experienced showing the presence of Idf., which other tests confirmed.
Idf. imparts a garlic odour to silver. The symptoms are < at night; by warmth; by motion; by touch; by riding in cars. > By uncovering.
Relations
Antidoted by: Hep.; Sang. (skin). Compare: Iod.; Kali iod.; Merc.
Mind
Elated
Excitement interrupted by broken sleep
Transient irritation interrupting somnolence
Excitement, melancholia, hallucinations of sight and hearing
Screams out, leaves her bed but falls down after walking a few steps, talks nonsense unconnectedly, is unable to hold anything, sees everything double
Talkativeness excessive; fear of death with anguish; holds fast to any person near her bed, and bemoans her approaching death
Drowsiness developing into perfect coma
Suddenly began to behave as if out of his mind; answered questions unwillingly and hesitatingly
Delusions, dressing himself in strange costumes; imagining himself a prodigious height and growing rapidly
His ideas all of an exalted kind; imagined he had the best tenor voice in the world and proceeded to hire a large concert hall.
(After insufflation of Idf. into tunica vaginalis; he was sent to an asylum and recovered in four months.)
Apathetic, amnesia for recent events, nightly restlessness, did not recognise persons, weak-minded
Forgetful.
Head
Confusion, with nausea
Feeling as if he had been intoxicated the previous day
Headache all night; vertigo on sitting up in bed
Sudden giddiness
Stitching pain in head
Headache on waking
Heaviness of head: on attempting to rise, with aching in vertex
Head heavy at night as if he could not raise it from the pillow, heaviness next morning after waking, with intermittent pain in skull, < l. side
Frontal pain;
< descending stairs, with shooting in r. ear; neuralgic, < stooping
Stitching in temples
Neuralgic pains in nerves of temples, < r. extending to behind ears
Pain in temples as from a weight
Sticking in r. side of head
Pain in occiput and l. lumbar region
Itching of occiput.
Eyes
Eyes bloodshot and painful
Smarting and burning in eyes; smarting and stinging
Bruised feeling in r. eye in morning
Sensitive to light
Objects appear tessellated and red, > rising
Sees all persons and objects as through a veil
Vision double
Exquisite diplopia.—("In purulent ulcers of the cornea, and esp. ulcus corneae serpens, Idf. has no equal."—Sattler in old-school practice.)
Ears
Sticking in r. ear; sticking, then fulness
Ears feeling dry and feverish; and full
Neuralgic pains in l. ear
Dull hearing.
Nose
Dryness in nose, and he complains that he cannot get any discharge from it; with fulness of membrane and constant snuffing
Constant sensation as if smelling fumes of iodine
Smell as of decaying leaves in a swamp.
Face
Pains in malar-bones; in zygomatic muscles, < motion and bending forward
Drawing in malar-bones, with pressing
Stiffness of zygomatic muscles
Twitching of facial muscles
Aching in r. lower jaw, increasing to pain as from a weight
Lips and throat dry; lips dry and stinging.
Teeth
Sharp pain in upper teeth
Aching in sound teeth; in decayed teeth, < upper and r., coming and going quickly, toothache in afternoon quickly changing to temples
Teeth feel sore and too long.
Mouth
Metallic taste.
Throat
Stitching in r. side of throat.—Dryness of throat, with bitter taste; dryness, with rawness on swallowing.
Stomach
Nausea; at times.
Abdomen
Rumbling in abdomen
Scaphoid abdomen
Flatulent colic
Cutting in abdomen
Warmth in abdomen and rectum, with nausea and desire for stool
R. inguinal region, sharp pain; cutting, with desire for stool; sore pain.
Stool And Anus
Desire for a liquid stool.—Stool delayed; with feeling as if anus were drawn up into rectum.
Urinary Organs
Urine very yellow; and smelling like saffron.—Albumen and casts in urine.
Respiratory Organs
Aphonic disturbance of voice
Cough from dryness of throat
Cough on going to bed, with wheezing from mucus in throat
Smothering sensation
Respiration irregular; deep inspirations alternating with apnoea.
Chest
Sticking in r. chest, extending to lower angle of scapula
Pain in l. chest
Sharp pain in r. chest
Ulcerative pain in l. breast, to r. of nipple at night, then grasping at base of heart, next day aching in l. breast
Soreness on taking a long breath
Soreness in lungs
Sore pain in apex of r. lung, on breathing sensation as if two ulcerated surfaces were in contact
Feeling in lungs as from a heavy cold
Feeling as if a weight rested on chest, preventing free expansion.
Heart And Pulse
Sticking through heart.—Pulse rapid; 150 to 180.
Neck And Back
Contraction of muscles of neck
Bruised sensation in nape
Spine sore, does not wish it touched
Pain along spine; along r. side of dorsal vertebrae; in lumbar region, with weakness and straining
Sharp pain in angle of scapula.
Limbs
Pain in l. arm and l. leg, < lower half of tibia and fibula, then extending into foot.—Bruised feeling in l. arm and leg, as the pain increases the muscles feel ulcerated.
Upper Limbs
Sticking in l. shoulder; and arm
Pain in median nerve of l. arm
Pain in l. humerus, with bruised pain in muscles around the bone
Rheumatic pain in r. arm;
< using it
Bruised pain in l. arm in morning on touch
Pain in l. elbow; in nerves of l. hand
Sharp pain in nerves of l. hand.
Lower Limbs
Pain along l. crural nerve
Pain in inside of knees
Neuralgic pain in l. knee
Weakness of knees on ascending stairs
Weakness < standing, with pain
Rheumatic pain in gastrocnemii; rheumatism of flexor muscles of legs
Cutting in l. ankle on walking in open air
Sticking in r. instep
Pain in l. foot, < walking.
Generalities
Sudden dizziness; weak in the legs.—Body in constant spasmodic motion, twitching of facial muscles, deep inspirations alternating with apnoea; every movement made slowly and without energy; on closing eyes cannot stand or walk straight.—Constantly wearied and tired.—Rapid collapse ending in coma and death.—Sphincters paralysed.—Stiffness of certain limbs, convulsive movements.—Screams as if suffering from meningitis; draws up legs a good deal; twitching and rolling.
Skin
Red rash over loins, back of arms and elbows (from application to inflamed bursa patellae.
The rash was cured by Sang.)
Fine eruption of macules, papules, and vesicles on face, neck, hands, and wrists; diffuse redness with oedema followed; worst on hands and between fingers, vesicles running together and epithelium separating; back of hands desquamated (in a nurse who had been applying it to a patient)
Horrible irritation all over body (from application to wound).
Sleep
Sleepiness
Intermittent sleepiness ending in coma
Wakefulness
Jerks and shocks in nerves when trying to sleep
Restless sleep, full of dreams
Restless, < after 2 a.m
Sound sleep till l.30 a.m., then sudden waking, restlessness and sleeplessness till 4.30, then partially conscious sleep for an hour and a half, then heavy sleep and difficult arousing
Confused dreams; of accidents.
Fever
Susceptible to hot weather
Heat at night, keeps laying off covers
Temperature may be elevated to 104° or more
Sweats easily from motion
Sweat on head.