ABSINTHIUM

General Action.
Acts chiefly on the cerebro-spinal axis and muscular system; produces congestive headache and spinal cord erythema; relieves or provokes epileptiform convulsions; allays or excites restlessness and insomnia; promotes otorrhoea; useful in chlorosis, dyspepsia and typhoid conditions.

Mind.
Great anxiety and moroseness; forgetfulness for recent events; brutal insensibility during convulsions; alternation of stupor with dangerous violence; visions of terror and fearful hallucinations; delirium with loss of consciousness preceded by tremors; excitable and irritable, refuses all companionship.

Head.
Vertigo on rising, with tendency to fall backwards; confusion of the brain; bruised sensation in occiput and vertex; severe congestive headache compelling the patient to lie with head low; aching pressure in head and spinal cord congestion.

Eyes.
Conjunctiva intensely injected; smarting and burning as if from smoke; heaviness of lids.

Ears.
Purulent discharge, especially after hemicrania; pulsations and ringing during convulsions.

Nose.
Epistaxis with relief of headache; ozzæna with scabs and fissures; constant purulent secretion.

Face.
Flushed or pale; transient flushes in epileptics; distorted features during attacks; frothing with blood-tinged saliva at convulsion’s end.

Mouth.
Maxillary joints firmly clenched; tongue protuded, tremulous and paralysed; bites tongue during convulsions; scanty speech.

Throat.
Scalding sensation in œsophagus; rawness and burning on swallowing.

Stomach.
Anorexia with repugnance to food; food feels heavy and cold; eructations and nausea, especially from gall-region; vomiting of sour or bilious matter.

Abdomen.
Sensation of hepatic and splenic swelling; colic from excessive flatulence; distension around waist as after malaria.

Stool.
Alternating constipation and atonic diarrhoea; haemorrhoidal protrusion with burning and aching in sacral region, > by pressure.

Urinary Organs.
Constant urging to micturate; dark orange urine of strong odour as of horse’s urine.

Sexual Organs.
In females: uterine pains with stabbing in right ovary; promotes menses. In males: none characteristic.

Respiratory Organs.
Dry cough with hepatic discomfort; oppression of chest during convulsions.

Back.
Aching in sacrum and sacro-iliac joints; spinal congestion and bruised soreness.

Extremities.
Marked trembling of limbs and tongue before convulsions; cold feet; general debility.

Skin.
Cold, clammy perspiration; pitting œdema in typhoid states; no primary eruptions.

Sleep.
Sleeplessness with tossing and restlessness; vivid terrifying dreams; inability to remain in bed.

Fever.
Typhoid-type fever with cerebral and medullary congestion; alternate heat and cold; chills rushing up spinal column.

Modalities.
All symptoms < on rising; < in evening and at night; < exposure to cold; > by pressure on haemorrhoids; convulsions preceded by tremor.

Relations.
Compare: Artemisia vulgaris, Abrotanum, Cicuta, Hyoscyamus, Belladonna, Stramonium. Orina odour: Benzoic acid, Nitric acid. Use as intercurrent in minor epilepsy where consciousness is partly preserved.