These
symptoms progressively increased, were followed by intense
sickness and almost continual vomiting. In the evening he passed
great quantities of blood from the urethra with excessive pain in
the urinary tract. On the third day all the symptoms were less
violent and the vomiting had ceased. Recovery was complete on the
fifteenth day.
Digitalis has been frequently observed to produce dizziness,
fainting, disturbances of vision, vomiting, diarrhea, weakness of
the pulse, and depression of temperature. These phenomena,
however, are generally noticed after continued administration in
repeated doses, the result being doubtless due to cumulative
action caused by abnormally slow elimination by the kidneys.
Traube observed the presence of skin-affection after the use of
digitalis in a case of pericarditis. Tardieu has seen a
fluid-dram of the tincture of digitalis cause alarming symptoms
in a young woman who was pregnant. He also quotes cases of death
on the tenth day from ingestion of 20 grains of the extract, and
on the fifth day from 21 grams of the infusion. Kohuhorn mentions
a death from what might be called chronic digitalis poisoning.
There is a deleterious practice of some of the Irish peasantry
connected with their belief in fairies, which consists of giving
a cachetic or rachitic child large doses of a preparation of
fox-glove (Irish--luss-more, or great herb), to drive out or kill
the fairy in the child.
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