Picricum Acidum
Clarke - Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica · John Henry Clarke · 24,120 chars · source ↗
General
Picricum Acidum.
Picric Acid. Carbazotic Acid. Tri-nitro-carbolic Acid. (C6H2(NO2)3OH). Trituration. Solution in rectified spirit.
Clinical
Acne. Anaemia. Boils. Brain, base of, pain in.
Brain-fag. Burns. Cancerous cachexia. Condylomata.
Debility. Diabetes. Ears, boils in. Emissions.
Enuresis. Epistaxis. Erotomania. Erythema.
Haemoglobinuria. Hands, perspiration of. Headache, of students. Hemiplegia.
Jaundice. Leucocythaemia. Liver, congestion of; fatty. Locomotor ataxia.
Lumbago. Myelitis. Neurasthenia. Otitis.
Paralysis. Paraplegia. Pernicious anaemia. Priapism.
Pruritus vulvae. Self-abuse. Spinal exhaustion. Spinal irritation.
Spinal sclerosis. Styes. Sycosis. Urine, bloody.
Writer's cramp.
Characteristics
Pic. ac. was discovered by Hausman in 1788. It is formed by the action of Nitric acid on Carbolic acid, Salicin, Silk, and many other substances. It crystallises in bright yellow needles or scales, of very bitter taste, sparingly soluble in water. The yellow colour is imparted to the eyes and skins of patients who take it in the crude, and it not only produces a semblance of jaundice, but actually disorganises the liver if pushed.
In some experiments by Parisel (C. D. P.) these symptoms were observed: Buzzing and whistling in ears; sparks, whirling round of objects; heaviness of head alternately with sense of emptiness. Moderately copious, oily-looking, yellowish stool, with > of cerebral symptoms.
Pulse slow, small, very feeble. Great weakness, compelling to lie down; limbs hardly able to stir themselves; no anxiety, profound calm. Vivid colouration of sclerotics and integuments; urine coloured blood-red. These were effects of 0.5 grm. doses.
Slow poisoning set up an intermittent fever of quotidian type, and "anorexia, thirst, often sweat, cancerous tint about skin, tendency to cachexia." These observations give the chief features of the drug's action: Fatigue, mental and bodily; symptoms < by least exertion fatigue going into actual paralysis; brain fatigue, nerve fatigue at the same time absence of anxiety—indifference. Like so many other yellow substances, Pic. ac. acts powerfully on the liver, and produces jaundice, cachexia, and cancerous tints.
"Tired-out, washed-out feeling—must give in," is the chief keynote of Pic. ac. and its salts. Nash cured promptly with Pic. ac. 6 trit. an old man who had been failing for a year, and complained of heaviness in the occiput, inability to exert the mind, talk, or think, and general "played-out" feeling. Nash had feared brain softening. Halbert (Clinique, September, 1898) reports a case illustrating the power of Pic. ac. over the effects of fatigue in professional neuroses.
A stenographer and typewriter after using her right index finger continuously for six years, noticed weakness of her thumb and index, and inability to hold pen or pencil. Next there was difficulty in striking correctly the keys of the typewriter and some wrist-drop. The finger when Halbert first saw her was quite rigid and straight, showing extreme spasticity. Massage, electricity, &c., had failed to give any relief.
Pic. ac. 3x six times daily cured the case and made great improvement in the patient's general health. Evans has found it Curative in girls and young women who, under the strain of many studies, show signs of breaking down—lose appetite—sleep lightly and lie awake (Pic. ac. 30 caused a patient of mine, previously a good sleeper, to lie awake a long time at nights J. H.
C.), exhaustion after the day's studies, fatigue even from a short walk, twitchings of muscles when asleep or awake; hysterical state, loss of will power; constant headache, irregular menses. Such patients are usually given iron, which does little or no good. Pic. ac. and its compounds are among the most powerful explosives known, lyddite being an example. Pic. ac., like Glon., has occipital headaches and bursting headaches.
The headache, frontal or occipital, is < on any attempt to use the mind, and it may extend down the spine. There is also a headache extending from the top of the spine up over the head to the eyes. In a case of spinal irritation I relieved with Pic. ac. 30 a pain which shot up from the spine into the head. The pains referable to the spinal cord are strongly marked.
Any attempt to study = burning along spine; with great weakness of back and legs; soreness of muscles and joints. To the spinal congestion must be attributed the remarkable disturbance in the sexual sphere: Priapism; penis distended almost to bursting. Terrible erections, disturbing sleep. When over-excitement of sexual system is associated with spinal or cerebellar affections in either sex.
Great sexual desire with emissions. Amorous fancies. On the skin Pic. ac. produces jaundice with itching; small painful furuncles, particularly in the auditory meatus; and erythema and pruritus of abdomen and feet. Théry of Paris accidentally discovered in Pic. ac. solution a remedy for burns.
He twice dropped burning matter on his hands whilst working with a Pic. ac. disinfectant, and was astonished at the absence of pain or injury. From that date Pic. ac. became his principal remedy for burns, and though others have complained that it caused violent pains, Théry has only once in some thousands of cases had to abandon its use on that account. A. C.
Blackwood (Clinique, October, 1898, H. W., xxxiv. 133) gives the details of its use. Burns of the first and second degree only are suitable. A saturated solution (Pic. ac. gr. xc to alcohol three ounces) diluted with one quart of water is used.
The clothing is removed and the burnt surface cleansed with the solution and absorbent cotton. Blisters are opened but the epithelial covering is carefully preserved. If extensive, the whole surface may be bathed with the solution, and strips of sterilised gauze soaked and applied to entirely cover it, a layer of absorbent cotton held with a light bandage over all. After three or four days the dressing is removed carefully after thorough moistening, as it adheres closely.
The second dressing is applied as at first, and allowed to remain a week. Blackwood finds it painless, anodyne, antiseptic, preventing inflammation and suppuration and septic poisoning. It coagulates the albuminous exudation, and healing takes place under the coagulum. The staining of the hands and linen caused by the dressing can be removed by Boracic acid.
Gaucher (Sem. Méd., May 26, 1897) has removed acute vesicular eczema by the same treatment. The skin and kidneys are intimately related, and Pic. ac. has a powerful action on the latter. Among other affections it has cured diabetes.
Halbert (Clinique, quoted H. W., xxxiv. 542) reports this case-Mrs, C., 49, had "nervous prostration" since the shock of the loss of a child three years before. Wasting with great appetite. Intense thirst and copious urination, especially at night.
Great perspiration and some jaundice. Heart flabby, mitral bruit, dyspnoea; emaciation, anaemia, exhaustion. Urine 1040, 7 1/2 per cent. of sugar and some albumen. Pic. ac. 6x six times daily.
Rapid and continuous improvement followed. Kent (H. P., viii. 168) says Pic. ac. cures fig-warts and gonorrhoea; he was led to infer its relation thereto by its power over pernicious anaemia, which he has often traced to a gonorrhoeal base. Pic. ac. is suited to dark complexioned persons, with dirty appearance about knuckles (from bile pigments); anaemic and cachectic persons; worn-out persons, overtaxed mentally and bodily.
Peculiar sensations are: As if sand, or sticks, in eyes. As if throat would split. As if legs enclosed in elastic stockings; as if chest encircled in a tight band. Pricking as from needles in legs.
As of a lump back of thyroid cartilage. As if stairs or ground coming up to meet him. As of ants crawling over surface. Nose-bleed accompanies heat and congestion of head.
Heaviness of head alternates with emptiness. The right upper part of the body is more affected than the left, the left leg more than the right. Touch < pimples. The headache is > by binding head tightly;
> by rest; lying down. < By motion; walking; raising head; sitting up; stooping; ascending stairs. < By study or slightest mental exertion. The throat is > by eating;
< empty swallowing. Turning over, and turning the head < headache. < Morning; 5 a.m. nausea. Open air and cold room > headache.
Work in open air = prostration. Wet weather < pains. > From cold air and water. Chilliness predominates.
Lamplight, strong light, moving eye < pain in eyes. During and after micturition, burning.
Relations
Compare: Am. pic., Calc. pic., Fer. pic., Zn. pic. Spinal exhaustion, Ox. ac. (Ox. ac. more numbness, blueness, pains in small spots; symptoms < thinking of them. Pic. ac. more heaviness; extreme spinal softening).
Tired feeling, exhaustion from sexual excess, Phos. ac. Fatty degeneration, sexual excess and priapism, brain-fag, congestive vertigo, burning in spine, Phos. (Phos. has more irritability and excessive sensitiveness, sexual excitement very strong; Pic. ac. has more intense erections but less marked lasciviousness).
Brain-fag, inability to study, gastric symptoms, sour eructations, < morning, Nux. Brain-fag, occipital headache, sexual neurasthenia, Gels. Lascivious thoughts in presence of women, Con. Headache and backache, Arg. n.
Spinal pains, Alm. (Alm. pain as if hot iron had been thrust into the part). Nervous exhaustion, sensitive spine, Sil. (Pic. ac. washed out, must give in;
Sil. won't give in). Nervous exhaustion, Zn. Violent erections, Canth., Graph., Hyo., Phos., Myg., Sil. Acne, K. bro., Bels., Arct. l.
Hands sweat, Sil. Burning in back, Lyc., Phos. Writer's cramp, Gels., Plat.
Causation
Fatigue. Study. Mental exertion.
Mind
Nervous feeling, which I never have except when fever is leaving me, feeling as if about to be crushed by the bed-clothes, arms, face, tongue, and forepart of brain seemed to reach the clouds when I was going to sleep
Although enjoying the society of men, idea of marriage unendurable
Desire to be alone
Irritable
Low spirits
Indifference, lack of will power to undertake anything
Disinclination for mental or physical work, aversion to talking or movement, with headache
Mental prostration after reading a little; after writing a little
The least study = burning along spine and other symptoms.
Head
Vertigo: at noon, < rising from a seat; at 6 p.m. on least motion, with nausea, both repeated at 9 p.m., with pain in forehead and vertex and inability to sit up; on stooping or bending head or lying down;
< evening
Headache: < rising, > open air;
> pressure;
> bandaging head; morning, probably from over-sleeping; in forenoon, < afternoon; in afternoon and evening, with trembling; in evening
Headache in evening, with thirst and heat, chiefly in temples, and burning in external ears, < stooping, = vertigo, head feels too small, scalp sore to touch, sore aching in infra-orbital region
Heat and congestion of head with nose-bleed
Pressure outward as if head would fly apart, at 8 p.m., < motion and study
Heaviness; and dulness; alternating with emptiness
Head feels as if failing forward
Shooting from outside to centre of forehead in evening
Intermittent, sharp, and vibrating pain in r. supra-orbital region
Aching in r, supra-orbital region; and in nape
Throbbing over r. eye
Shooting from r. to l. temple with headache
Neuralgic pain alternately in l. and r. temples
Pressure outward at sides of head at 9 p.m., < turning head, moving eyes or least motion, with sensation as if frontal bones would split open
Contracted, squeezed sensation in l. hemisphere of brain at 6.30 p.m. on going into open air
Pain in r. lower occiput, with sensation as of a hand passing along r. parietal eminence
Pain in occiput and in nape; pain in r. lower occiput, as if r. side of cerebellum were loose, 6 till 7 p.m., < walking, > quiet, with throbbing
Heavy pain extending down neck and spine
Heavy throbbing and burning pains, extending from nape to supra-orbital foramen and thence into eyes, which throb and feel sore to touch.—(Pain shooting up from spine into head.)
Confusion in base of brain.
Eyes
Eyes yellow
Shooting in centre of eye, extending along optic nerve to occiput, with soreness of balls on touch, and photophobia
Sensation of sand in eyes, with smarting pain and acrid tears
Feeling as if sticks were in eyes on waking, with inflammation, afterwards feeling as if sticks were in them in evening
Styes; with sore feeling
Eyes < on moving them
Lachrymation
Pupils dilated
Conjunctivitis;
< r. eye, > washing with cold water and by cold air, < warm room, with difficulty in keeping eyes open, and sticky feeling on reading
Shooting from r. eyeball to l. side of occiput; pain < moving eyes, > closing them and quiet, with soreness; heavy, smarting, and burning pains, > pressure; sore pains, < strong light and by turning eyes
Throbbing pain in l. eyeball much < going upstairs
Inability to keep eyes open when studying
Air looks smoky
Vision: dim and confused; dim, can read clearly at only one point, about five inches from eyes; blurred; whirling of objects
Vision of sparks.
Ears
Puffy and burning sensation in ears as if worms were crawling in them
Pain behind r. ear running down side of neck
Painful boils in meatus
Buzzing and hissing in ears.—(Noises in ears, with vertigo and headache at the base of brain.).—(Chronic deafness, apparently caused by excessive headache, with noises in the ears when tired, membrane pale.)
Nose
Boil in l. nostril
Stinging on r. side of nose
Acne along edges and sides of nose, indurated, elevated papules, rather dark red, painless but sore to touch, very small pustules on tips
Weight or pressure on bridge
Nose full of mucus, call breathe only through mouth, > open air
Bleeding from r. nostril; with heat and congestion of head.
Face
Pustular acne on face, burning and stinging when touched; on chin
Irregular pain in lower jaw, with beating in molars
Tingling in lips.
Mouth
White, frothy saliva hangs in strings to the floor.—Taste: bitter; with thirst; sour, bitter; sour; bad; bad, of gas.
Throat
Redness of throat, with raw, scraped, stiff, and hot feeling, as if burnt, and with thick white mucus on tonsils, difficulty in swallowing, with sensation as if throat would split open
Rawness in l. side, extending forward to submaxillary gland, < swallowing; rawness with roughness and scraping
Soreness back of and above soft palate, with debility
Dry and husky
Feeling of a plug on swallowing saliva and afterwards
Sensation of something in lower part of oesophagus.
Appetite
Appetite great in evening; increased, then lost; lost; lost for breakfast
Aversion to food; at noon
Thirst: great, with bitter taste; unquenchable, for cold water.
Stomach
Eructations: empty; sour, of gas and ingesta; bitter after breakfast
Waterbrash
Nausea: on retiring; after retiring, with headache; deathlike, in stomach and abdomen on waking at 5 a.m., < rising and moving about, returned on waking a second time, repeated next morning on waking
Vomiting
Sharp pain in epigastric region; when eating breakfast
Oppression of epigastric region
Weight in pit of stomach, with ineffectual desire to eructate
Faint feeling in epigastrium most of the time.
Abdomen
Sticking through hepatic region, < in muscles
Liver full of fat granules (in animals poisoned with Pic. ac.)
Tendency to jaundice
Fulness of abdomen
Rumbling: in small intestines; at 7 a.m. on waking, with colic; with crampy pain and flatus
Emission of flatus; during the day; in evening
Crawling stinging
Pain in abdomen all forenoon, with slight headache
Pain in abdomen on waking, with strong erections, and on moving emission of much flatus
Pain in neck of bladder
Sticking backward through l. umbilical region
Sharp pain l. side of umbilicus
Shooting, wandering pain in region of coccyx, bladder, rectum, and umbilicus, caused by wind
Sharp pain in r. iliac region, above ovary at 11 p.m., with soreness on pressure
Pain: in lower part of large intestines; in l. groin on walking, < ascending stairs
Occasional sensation of giving way in hypogastrium all day
Vacant and sore feeling in hypogastric region.
Stool And Anus
Stinging in anus during and after stool, with itching
Shooting around anus at 9 p.m
Stool like gruel, yellow or yellowish-grey, twice before 9 a.m
Diarrhoea: with burnings and smarting at anus; frequent with prostration, light-coloured, with cutting and smarting at anus during and after stool
Stool: soft; light-coloured, with tenesmus, then drawing up of anus; scanty, with burning and smarting at anus; in plugs, easy, shooting away, then much flatus; yellowish, copious, oily, frequent
Stool quick, as if greased, of sweetish smell, as of boiling sap, at night and morning, then with much wind
Difficult stool, next day ineffectual desire for stool.
Urinary Organs
Sharp pain in region of bladder; in evening < r. side
Frequent micturition in morning
Dribbling micturition
Urethra: jerking drawing in; pain in after micturition burning pain during micturition
Urine: yellow; of a milky, olive hue dark; indications of sugar; dark yellow, with strong odour; dark yellow, scanty, afterwards profuse and yellow; red; dark, in evening
Urine copious and pale; and light coloured, sp. gr. increased; and hot when passed, with burning pain in urethra; afterwards scanty
Urates abundant
Urine contained much indican, numerous granular cylinders and fatty degenerated epithelium.
Male Sexual Organs
Erections: in morning on waking; at 11 a.m., with bruised pain in l. testicle, extending up cord to external abdominal ring; firm in morning, with pain in abdomen, next morning woke with emission and firm erection, which lasted about ten minutes after the emission; terrible at night, with restless sleep; violent, all night; violent, all night, then profuse emissions.—Lascivious thoughts in presence of any woman.—Desire: at night, with emissions; at night, with hard erections, lewd dreams and emission, priapism night and day.
Female Sexual Organs
Occasional aching and twinges in l. ovarian region
Menses delayed; during the period yellowish-brown leucorrhoea
During menses, bruised pain in abdomen with sickening sensation
Excessive and voluptuous pruritus at night, after retiring, making her feel irritable and exasperated (night before menses; usually had slight pruritus after menses, never before).—(Used locally in diseases of nipples, inflammation diminishes, skin becomes tougher.)
Respiratory Organs
Dry cough, as from dust in throat, then nausea.—Can get the breath only half-way down.
Chest
Twitching: in l. side over eighth and ninth ribs; in l. side over tenth and eleventh ribs from 6 till 11 p.m., with throbbing in muscles
Pain in r. side, extending across l
Pain in l. lung in evening
Sharp pain under r. clavicle
A heavy throbbing in l. chest under tenth and eleventh ribs at 11 a.m., changing at noon to region of kidneys, extending at 2 p.m. into legs, < l
Stunning pain at 9.30 a.m., with twitching in throat
Tightness of chest, as if encircled by a band
Numbness in lower part of sternum.
Heart And Pulse
Pain in apex of heart in evening
Intermittent fluttering at base of heart all day, it seemed to move
Palpitation
Pulse: frequent; slow, feeble, afterwards rapid; slow, small, and feeble; irregular.
Neck And Back
Terrible pains in neck and occiput, extending to supra-orbital notch and thence into eyes
Muscles on r. side of neck felt as if they would give way in afternoon when lying; at night when lying on r. side, with feeling as if neck would be dislocated
Pain in back and lower limbs, with heaviness, tired aching, and weakness
Burning along spine and very great weakness, < by study
Heat in lower spine; aching and digging in loins, < from motion
Pain extending from r. scapula to r. loin when bending forward
Sticking: under r. scapula; in lumbar region or bending forward when sitting
Pain in lumbar region; and anteriorly in thighs, in muscles, < motion, with weakness in the same, < legs; extending down legs, < motion, legs and lumbar region sensitive to pressure; heavy at 6 p.m
Dragging pains in region of kidneys and at nape, extending upward and downward till they meet between scapulae, at 2 p.m
Weakness in sacral and lumbar regions.—(Myelitis with tonic and clonic spasms, keeps legs wide apart when standing; looks steadily at objects as if could not make them out
Spinal exhaustion following acute disease.)
Sharp pain in region of coccyx.
Limbs
Rheumatic pains in joints
Weakness from a short walk, with excessive heaviness
Heaviness, < l.; of arms and legs on exertion, < legs, legs weak and heavy all the time
Extremities cold.
Upper Limbs
Lame sensation in shoulders
Shoulders tired and sore; r
Twitching of lower part of l. biceps; in forenoon
Shooting in l. elbow, extending down arm
Pain in r. elbow between ulna and radius
Shooting in hands
L. hand goes to sleep.
Lower Limbs
Weakness of limbs (< l.); on ascending stairs; and heaviness
Numbness and crawling in legs with trembling and pricking as from needles
Twitching on back of l. hip at 9 p.m
Pain anteriorly in l. thigh, can hardly flex and extend legs
Hips and legs heavy all day
Knees weak
Twitching of flesh of r. leg
Sticking in legs and feet
Pain in legs anteriorly, on touch; in calves all night
Deep-seated, sore pain in upper part of l.
Scarpa's triangle, < night, > sleep, returning on waking
Numb, sleepy sensation, extending to soles, > cold water and in the open air
Calves lame and sore
Weakness of legs;
< l., which trembles; with soreness; with heaviness
Heaviness of legs, < l
Numbness of anterior muscles
Crawling pain in l. sole and under patella
Feet feel as if frostbitten
Numbness of l. foot
Soreness in ball of l. big toe in afternoon and evening, > continued walking.
Generalities
Veins sunken and small, < l. side Bright yellow colour of sclerotic, skin, and urine Cancerous cachexia Trembling of all muscles
Rheumatic stitches in different parts, with muscular debility Darting pains in various parts, extending into bones, every hour of the day All pains lasted till 8 p.m Soreness and lameness, < l. side, in morning when rising, with heavy, throbbing pains and dilated pupils, conjunctivitis, and lachrymation
Tired feeling: in morning on waking, with heaviness; on least exertion; > open air; with lame sensation over whole body; with no desire to talk or do anything, indifferent to anything around, sleepiness and desire to lie down Numbness, with pains, as when taking cold.
Skin
Yellow skin
Pimples on face and neck that he had for years were now increased in number and size
Reddish, painful boils about mouth and face, when opened they exude a thin, clear serum, which dries into a transparent scab, then become painful and contain pus like condensed milk
Reddish boils on face, becoming pustular, with burning stinging on touch
Erythema of abdomen and feet
Tight feeling in skin over epigastrium
Itching; at night.—(Burns.)
Sleep
Frequent gaping in church
Sleepiness, slept an hour in afternoon, then felt better
Sleepiness in evening, > walking in open air; at 9 p.m
Sleep sound but unrefreshing
Sleepless all night
Late falling asleep from a crowd of ideas
Woke earlier than usual and dozed till time to rise
Woke at 3 a.m., then difficulty in going to sleep
Constant dreams; dreamt that she was pregnant.
Fever
Chilliness, with cold, clammy sweat
Cold limbs; feet; hands and feet
Fever; and chilliness, then cold, clammy sweat
Chilliness predominates
Heat in head; r. side; in forehead
Burning: along coronal suture; along spine, < trying to study, > motion
Heat in lower dorsal and lumbar regions
Sweat
Cold, clammy sweat: in evening; on hands; on hands and feet in daytime; on hands in forenoon; on feet in evening, next day feet cold and sweaty all day.