Alcoholus

(ethyl alcohol)

Pharmacy
Alcohol. Ethyl Alcohol. Spirits of Wine. Form commercial spirits of wine, by re distillation. Historical dose: Tincture and all potencies.

History
Amid the pleasures of the cup the soldier no longer complains of the campaign, the sailor forgets the dangers of the storm. The weak one grows strong and the despondent bold. The despairing lover leaves his solitude and forgets the indifference of his mistress. From acute alcohol intoxication all weaknesses are exposes and all secrets divulged without reserve, all hypocrisy ceases. Intoxicated persons beget alcoholics.

Homeopathic
General excitement of all the senses. Moral and physical exaltation. Transition from delirium tremens into permanent mania with hectic fever or dropsy. A feeling of vague and unaccountable dread.

Sadness often constant through the whole disease, (delirium tremens). Staggering, uncertain gait. Coma, that changes to paralysis of the brain in persons of an apoplectic habit. Want of sexual desire. Sexual powers at first increased, then diminished. Impotence, want of sexual power.

The children of alcoholics grow up dull indolent, stupid and become intemperate. Irregular menstruation. Abortion in the first months. Inclination to obesity. The perspiration was sensibly diminished.

Clinical
Coma. Delirium. Dementia. Double vision. Hallucinations. Imbecility. Insanity. Mania. Stupidity.

Constitutions
A sanguine, choleric temperament, sentimental and passionate. Weak-nerved person shows blunted senses and childish. The phlegmatic temperament remains passive and rather falls from his chair before giving loud evidences of his intoxication. Planets: Moon, Jupiter.

Modalities
Symptoms worse when lying down and in the quietude or the night. Sensitiveness to the fresh air, shudder and frost.

Symptoms

Mind
Mind disturbed, the power of fixing the attention, were lessened. Absence of the senses and of reason. Reasoning powers are altogether disabled. Impatience of contradiction. Feeling insulted and abused by one's friends. General intellectual enfeeblement. Weak understanding. Loss of judgment. Memory impaired.

Mania with excessive irritability, excited by slightest causes. Mania with disposition to commit murder or start a fire. Various hallucinations of sight, hearing, smell and sensation. Delirium. Rapid and incoherent talk. Incoherent speeches. Thinks himself pursued by robbers, murderers, police, etc.

Screaming, singing and immoderate merriment. Boisterous singing. Bawdy songs. Animation displayed in the features and gestures. Exhilaration of spirits. Increased self-esteem and importance. Feeling unusually strong and rich.

He weeps and sobs with distorted face. Unreasonable inclination to quarrel. Grievous sadness and melancholy, that end in tears, complaints and sighs.

Melancholy with inclination to commit suicide. Depression of spirits. Restlessness and anxiousness that he vainly seeks to disguise by words, making it more conspicuous by that means. Solitude and repose in bed increase the anxiety, he refuses to remain in bed often even in the house, on this account and escapes.

Abdomen
Sense of pressure in both hypochondria. Swelling of spleen. Recti muscles of abdomen become rigid and prominent. Ascites. Rumbling and growling in intestines. Inflammation of the intestines and stomach. Flatulence. Colic pains. Intestinal hemorrhage.

Back
Veins of neck swollen. Temporal and throat arteries throb, jugular veins turgescent or protruding. Weakness, finally in muscles of back, cannot even sit erect.

Chest
Hydrothorax. Emphysema. Congestion of lungs. Sensation of warmth in chest. Tension of chest. Burning sensation back of the sternum.

Ears
Dryness in external meatus. Acute sense on hearing. Hearing blunted. Perception of sound lessened. Confusion on sounds. Roaring in ears, especially after spasms or with vertigo. Ringing in ears. Buzzing or rushing sound in the ears, frequently accompanied with dull, diffused headache. Illusions of hearing. Imaginary voices and sounds.

Eyes
Eyes injected. Red and excited. Red, watery eyes. Eyes fiery, brilliant, fixed and wild. Rigid, gleaming look. Bright and animated or suffused and soft. Spots in the eye and dimness of vision. Catarrhal inflammation of the eyes. Roughness of the margins of the lids. Contraction of the pupils, drooping lids and coma. Effusion and swelling below the eyes. Conjunctiva more or less jaundiced. Yellow tinge of the sclerotica. Dilated and almost insensible pupils.

Eyes
Vision weak, cannot use eyes, objects flicker and become dim. Cannot read or write. Aversion to light. Black before eyes. Flashes of light before eyes. Muscae volitantes in clouds, before the eyes. Double vision. Visual hallucinations.

Face
Distorted face. Face bloated without expression, stupid, silly. Redness of the cheeks and nose. Face red and swollen. Tetter in the face. Eruption in the face, bluish-red or white vesicles and pimples.

Food
Mania for alcoholic drinks, pepper and other heating things. Desire for pepper, mustard and other heating articles. Longing for spirituous liquors and, if not speedily gratified, becomes raving or has convulsions. At first no desire to eat afterwards, ravenous hunger. Loss of appetite. Aversion to food and alcoholic drinks. Thirst before breakfast and through and through the day. Thirst often excessive.

Head
Head dull, clouded and hazy. Effusion of water into the membranes and ventricles of the brain. Softening of the brain. Pressing headache, causing stupidity. Drawing in the head. Dull, diffused headache with a buzzing or rushing sound in the ears. Sensation of fullness at the crown and back of the head or at the temples.

Heart
Valvular insufficiency. Organic difficulties of the heart and the large vessels. Hypertrophy of the left side of the heart. Increased activity of the heart and arteries. Pulsation of the heart and arteries violently increased, hard and full. Increased heat and rapidity of action in the heart. Very excited action, violent throbbing of the heart. Palpitations of the heart. Pulse nearly always accelerated, sometimes small and empty, sometimes full and even rather hard.

Kidneys
Sensitiveness, aching and pain in the region of the kidneys.

Limbs
Sudden startings of the limbs, as from electrical shocks. Trembling of limbs. Increased warmth, then coldness. Creeping sensation (formication) under the skin of the hands and feet. Weakness and relaxation of the muscles of locomotion, first in fingers and hands, especially in thumb and index-finger, extending all over both limbs. Limbs numb, as if paralyzed and extremely sensitive to touch and motion.

Liver
Heat, weight and soreness in the region of the liver. Inflammation of the liver. Cirrosis.

Lungs
Sensation of heat in the larynx. Catarrhal bronchitis. Accumulation of mucus in the air-passages. Disposition to clear the throat. Hoarseness. Sobbing. Hacking, dry cough. Coughing blood. Accelerated breathing. There was a sense of impediment to respiration. Heavy, labored breathing. Snoring respiration. Asthma. Asphyxia.

Mouth
Grinding the teeth. Tongue fissured from middle to the edges, furred or sometimes denuded of epithelium. Papillae at tip of tongue enlarged and red. Sore and dry condition of the tip of the tongue. Dry, red, glazed tongue. Tongue covered with yellow slime in the middle, the margins clean. Tongue smooth and red with tendency to stick to the teeth or roof of the mouth. Tongue moved with difficulty. Convulsive motions of the tongue with stammering and inarticulate speech. Dry state of the mouth. Offensive smell from the mouth. Froth in mouth. Sour, salty or bitter taste in the mouth in the morning. Bitter taste in the mouth. Illusions of the sense of taste. Stammering speech.

Nose
Redness of the nose and cheeks. Redness of the nose, especially at the tip. Vessels of the skin congested. Swelling and inflammation. Red pimples or tubercles. Lining membrane of the sinuses inflamed and ulcerated. Bleeding of the nose. Illusions of the sense of smell.

Rectum
Hemorrhoids and Varicose veins. Bleeding hemorrhoids. Paralysis of anus. Feces compact, knotty, black or light-gray.

Rectum
Stool black, bilious, slimy and bloody or thin and clay colored. Diarrhea bilious or mucous or mealy. Diarrhea often alternating with constipation. Involuntary excretion of stool and urine.

Skin
Skin smutty or yellowish-gray. Jaundice. Skin soft and flabby. Skin becomes dry and hard. Sense of dryness, heat and evident fullness of swelling of the exposed parts of the skin, as the hands and face with general sensation of heat. Tormenting eruption, exceedingly itching, rough, scaly patches. Eczema and prurigo. Acne rosacea. Skin does not heal readily. Large indolent, blue-looking boils or carbuncles. Varicose ulcers.

Sleep
Deep sleep. Irresistible sleep. Deep sleep, frequently accompanied by rattling breath. Comatose sleep. Sleep seemed at first with snoring, as if apoplectic, later, not to be roused. Lethargic with snoring respiration, intermittent pulsation of the heart. Restless sleep. Starts from his sleep with anxiety and restlessness. Insomnia, the patient tosses from side to side during nearly the whole night, getting only broken snatches of sleep and often with frightful dreams. Terrible dreams.

Stomach
Belchings, sour or foul. Belchings of water. Eructation like rotten eggs. Nausea and vomiting mucus and water. Morning, nausea or vomiting. Vomiting of sour and offensive smelling matters. Vomiting of sour matter. Hematemesis. Fullness and distention after eating. Burning heat in stomach. Pressure in the stomach. Sense of oppression and weight. Weakness of the stomach. Constriction, uncomfortable tension and pressure in epigastrium.

Temperature
Increased perspiration moderates intoxication very much. Sensation of cold with paleness of the body. Fevers. Evening exacerbations. An agreeable warmth spreads over the body. General sensation of heat with increased action of the heart and dryness of the skin.

Great inclination to sweat. Sweat easy at first. Sweat profuse, cool, sticky, sour-smelling, sometimes warm.

Throat
Throat red and feels stiff. Granulations on the posterior wall of the throat, also on the base of the tongue. Engorged appearance of the veins of the fauces. Redness, dryness and heat. Aphthous ulcers in the throat. Gangrenous ulcers. Throat full of tough mucus, difficult to hawk up. Paralysis of pharyngeal muscles. Paralysis of the muscles of swallowing. Sensation as if something lodged in the esophagus. Strong efforts to clear the throat or belch or vomit, bring up blood or bloody mucus. Swallowing painful.

Urine
Frequent need to urinate, finally incontinence. Involuntary excretion of urine and stool. Increased quantity of urine. Lessened secretion of urine. Retention of urine. Urine scanty at first, yellowish or deep red, then more copious with sediment. High-colored urine. Albuminous urine. Urine acid, contains serum and bile. Bloody urine. Discharge of blood.

Vertigo
Attacks of vertigo with sudden faintness and reeling or falling down, but no twitchings. Violent vertigo, nearly changing to a stroke. He staggers while walking and standing. Momentary attacks of vertigo.

Comments
He weeps and sobs with distorted face or he froths with rage and fills the house with curses and execrations. Frenzy, accompanied by the most violent convulsions. Drunkenness with various manias. Mania.

Much inconsiderate, confused talking. He chats, scolds, brags and curses. Talkativeness, by which confessions are drawn from him. He is ashamed of his intoxication and the more he tries to conceal it, the more he betrays it.

All, even the coarsest desires and inclinations become uncontrollable. Indescribable serenity of mind with cheerfulness, which the face expresses.

The imagination grows lively, the mind mostly free and overflows with wit and humor. Immoderate bursts of laughter. The dance is accompanied by convulsive gestures. Sweet outpourings of friendship and tender confessions.

He grows loving, kind and obliging or hard, violent and repellent. He is courteous to an enemy and forgets insults or he sneers at his friend and broods revenge. He sings, chats and is cheerful or he is dull, gloomy and reserved. Cheerfulness and witty. Degenerates into shamelessness and licentious jests. The modest blush of shame vanishes and improper, undignified acts are committed.

Efforts to escape from the bed or room or from some frightful object. He grows unmanageable, demands to go peremptorily to attend to his business. Sighting, anxiety and apprehension of nearby evil. Mental inquietude, making it impossible for him to settle to any ordinary occupation or to complete the tasks which he begins. Dread arising from actual delusions, such as the belief that an enemy is constantly lying in wait to inflict an injury, etc.

Vivid apprehension that he is in danger of falling down a precipice, even when walking on firm ground in broad daylight. Moral degradation. Stubbornness in all he does or leaves undone. Quarrelsomeness. He begins a quarrel or imagines an insult which was not given and challenges to combat or demands reparation. He demands revenge or satisfaction, which frequently ends in bloodshed or even murder. Grudges long since adjusted or forgotten are renewed.

Rapid flow of thought, but he cannot keep his attention fixed continuously on one subject. Rapidity and variety of thought. Religious ravings, they address confidential and irreverent discourses to the Deity. Absurd fancies. Greater confusion of ideas.

Insanity breaks out more easily in those who have received injuries to the skull. Forgetfulness.

He perfectly recognizes familiar persons in the height of the disease (delirium tremens). He mistakes one person for another. He strikes a post, which he mistakes for a man who will not get out of his way. He confounds one person with another and thinks he recognizes an absent friend in a stranger who is present.

Blunted sensibilities. Convulsions, sometimes like chorea. Convulsions with a peculiar sensation in head, as of wind or a painful drawing, as if something twisted and turned in the head. Convulsions often begin in one extremity, are often confined to one side, sometimes the head is drawn backward, the back bent, the teeth clenched and eyes distorted.

Convulsions and hysterical paroxysms break out in intemperate women. Epileptic attacks, generally coming on while standing, sometimes while sitting or lying. Epilepsy returns after every excess in drinking. Convulsive-like epileptic attacks. The whole body trembles, commonly after exertion. Tottering and shaking. Trembling of the whole body.

Twitchings or jerkings in muscles on sitting or lying, not in standing, especially on changing position. Persistent muscular tremor, first developed in the limbs. Muscular inquietude inability to keep the limbs or the body still without a special effort of attention. Drawings in muscles like electric shocks. Trembling and paralysis as usual consequences of a stroke. General paralysis after delirium tremens. Marked sensory paralysis.

Power of directing and coordinating the muscles lessened. Muscular tone and power greatly lessened. The body loses its mobility and becomes more and more destitute of muscular power. Emaciation, want of strength with continued want of appetite. Prostration of the whole body. Premature old age, face becomes pale and wrinkled, features relaxed, eyes dim, lips pale, the hands and the rest of the limbs tremble, gait unsteady. Indolence of body and mind. Frequent swoons.

Hyperesthesia. This numbness is usually superficial, sensitive to deep pressure, sometimes sensitiveness of whole body blunted. Pain and neuralgic tearings. Painful tearing and cuttings. Tearing, cutting sensations. Very marked, peculiar, continuous buzzing or thrilling and not unpleasant sensation, passing from above downwards and through the whole system.

Compare
1) Hyos., Lach., Agar.

Sources
Allen.