Benzinum dinitricum
Dinitrobenzene · Human-made/chemical
Benzinum Dinitricum is characterised by profound alteration of the blood with venous engorgement, cyanosis, and anaemia. The patient presents with severe visual disturbances including colour blindness, peripheral neuritis with numbness and stiffness of extremities, and impotence. The remedy corresponds to a toxic blood dyscrasia resulting from industrial chemical exposure.
Key symptoms
- Visual impairment with contracted visual field and central scotoma for red and green
- Retinal venous engorgement and cyanosis
- Anaemia with murmur in the pulmonary artery
- Urine dark like ink due to blood alteration
- Giddiness compelling to sit down; staggering as if drunk
- Impotence with loss of sexual desire
- Occipital or frontal headache preventing work
- Short breath with dyspnoea making smoking very difficult
Di-Nitrobenzol. C6 H4 (NO2)2. A crystalline substance obtained from the further action of Nitric Acid on Nitrobenzol at higher temperatures. Solution in alcohol.
Clinical
Amblyopia. Anæmia. Colour-blindness. Impotence. Peripheral neuritis. Retinitis. Spastic paralysis. Urine, black.
Characteristics
Benz. dinit. is used in the manufacture of the higher explosives. The effects on workpeople have been recorded by Simeon Snell in the British Medical Journal of March 3, 1894. The symptoms observed strongly resemble those of Benz. nit., viz.: Headache, giddiness, staggering; numbness and paralytic sensations. But the following:─Anæmia, with a murmur in the pulmonary artery. Impotence observed in men (in women there was no-alteration in menstrual functions); distaste for tobacco─are not mentioned under Benz. nit., but were marked in those under the influence of Benz. dinit.: The knee-jerks were, if anything, somewhat exaggerated. Dyspnœa was marked in all, accounting partly for the inability to smoke. In the …
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