laurel-water; and unless this is strongly imbued with the oil, or given in a large dose, it proves innocent. Dr. Cullen observes, that the sedative power of the lauro-cerasus acts upon the nervous system in a different manner from opium and other narcotic substances, whose primary action is upon the animal functions for the lauro-cerasus does not occasion sleep, nor does it produce local inflammation, but seems to act directly upon the vital powers. Abbé Fontana supposes that this poison destroys animal life, by exerting its effects upon the blood; but the experiments and observations from which he draws this opinion are evidently inconclusive. It may also be remarked, that many of the Abbé's experiments contradict each other. Thus it appears from the citation given above, that the poison of this vegetable, when applied to wounds, does not produce a fatal effect; but future experiments led the Abbé to assert, that the oil of the lauro-cerasus, whether given internally, or applied to the wounds of animals, is one of the most terrible and deadly poisons known." Though this vegetable seems to have escaped the notice of Stoerck, yet it is not without advocates for its medicinal use. Linnæus informs us, that in Switzerland it is commonly and successfully used in pulmonary complaints. Langrish mentions its efficacy in agues; and as Bergius found bitter almonds to have this effect, we may from analogy conclude, that this power of the lauro-cerasus is well established. Baylies found that it possessed a remarkable power of diluting the blood, and from experience recommended it in all cases of disease supposed to proceed from too dense a state of that fluid; adducing particular instances of its efficacy in rheumatism, asthma, and in schirrous affections. Nor does this author seem to have been much afraid of the deleterious quality of the lauro-cerasus, as he directs a pound of its leaves to be macerated in a pint of water, of which he gives from thirty to sixty drops three or four times a day. [Phil. Trans. Linn. Woodville. SECTION III. Nightshade. Solanum nigrum.-LINN. Atropa Belladonna-LINN. THE vernacular term nightshade is applied to the above two species of solanum (the first being distinguished by the term garden nightshade, and the second by that of woody nightshade;) and the one species of atropa, which is peculiarly characterised by the term deadly nightshade. They are all medicinal under proper management, and poisonous when taken in excess. 1. Atropa Belladonna.-Deadly nightshade. This has a thick, whitish root, which is perennial, and sends forth strong, branched, annual, purple-coloured stems, from three to five feet high. The leaves are of unequal size, entire, oval, pointed, and stand in pairs upon short footstalks. The flowers are of a dark or brownish purple, colour, large, pendent, bell-shaped, furrowed, and the limb cut into five segments. The whole plant is covered with fine hairs or down the flowers appear in June or July, but the berries are not ripe till September, when they acquire a shining black colour. It grows in shady and stony waste grounds, but is not very common near London. : Whether this plant is the Erguxos panxos of Dioscorides or not, botanists have not yet ascertained, but it has certainly been long known as a strong poison of the narcotic kind; and the berries, though less powerful than the leaves, furnish us with many instances of* their fatal effects, particularly upon children, who are readily * Sennert. lib. vi. par. 7, cap. 9. Lobel Stirpium Adversa. p. 103. Matthidus Oper. Omn. p. 754. Oetinger de Belladonna. Aug. Vindel. Strychnomania, &c. Bodacus á Stapel. Comment. in Theophrast. 586. Simon Pauli Quad. Botan. p. 488. Gerard's Herbal, 341. Wepfer's Cicut. Aquat. Histor. et Noxæ, p. 288. Boulduc. histoire de l'Acad. a. 1703. Rossi Plant. Venen. p. 11. Boerhaave's hist. Plant. Ludg. Bat. hort. p. 510. Journ. de Med. ann. 1759. Gent. Magaz. 1747 and 1748. Hill's British Herbal, p. 329. Spielman's Diss. Veget. Venen. p. 16. Mapp. Pl. Alsat. p. 36. Murray's Apparat. Medicam. p. 431. Many other recent facts of the same kind might be adduced from various periodical publications. Ray found by applying the leaves of the Belladonna near the eye, a remarkable relaxation of the uvea was produced, and the oculists of the present day have in various cases availed themselves of this curious fact.-EDITOR. tempted to eat this fruit, by its alluring appearance and sweet taste. The number of these berries necessary to produce deleterious effects, may probably depend upon the state of maturity in which they are eaten if not more than three or four be swallowed, according to Haller's account, no bad consequence ensues; "Baccæ "sapore fatuo dulci possunt adsque noxa edi* si numerus tres "quatuorve non excesserit; plures etiam a studioso medicinæ "Coloniensi nomine Simonis vidi deglutiri †." But when a greater number of the berries are taken into the stomach, scarcely half an hour elapses before violent symptoms supervene; viz. vertigo, delirium, great thirst, painful deglutition, and retching, followed by furor, stridor dentium, and convulsions; the eye-lids are drawn down, the uvea dilated and immoveable; the face becomes red and tumid, and spasms affect the mouth and jaw: the general sensibility and irritability of the body suffer such great di Sauvages (Nosol) supposes that the Belladonna was the plant which produced such strange and dreadful effects upon the Roman soldiers, during their retreat (under the command of Anthony) from the Parthians; they are said to have "suffered great distress for want of provisions, and were urged to eat unknown plants: among others they met with an herb that was mortal; be that had eaten of it, lost his memory and his senses, and employed himself wholly in turning about all the stones he could find, and after vomiting up bile, fell down dead." Plutarch's life of Anthony.-The Scotch historian, Buchanan, relates that the Scots mixed a quantity of the juice of the Balladonna (Solanum Somniferum) with the bread and drink, which by their truce they were to supply the Danes with, which so intoxicated them, that the Scots killed the greatest part of Sweno's army while asleep. Lib. vii. Ray relates a curious instance of the effects of this plant in the following words. Hist. Plant. p. 680. Accidit, ni fallor, tempore Pontificis Maximi Urbani ultimi, ut quidam de famulitio Cardinalis magni nominis (ut mihi hic Augustæ retulit ejus hortulanus) infunderet in vino Malvatico herbam illam quam Bellam Donnam vocant, daturam alias per noctem ut ejus herbæ effectus discerent; infusum hoc propinarunt cuidam fratri mendicanti ex conventu S. Hieronymi, qui Patavii Fratrum ignorantiæ dicitur, a primo breve delirium, cachinni, gesticulationes variæ; dein insania vera, post stupor mentis qualis est ebriorum vigilantium. Cardinalis pro ebrio in carcere includit; deinde à medico qui rem subolfecerat innocens pronuntiatur, qui aceti cyatho propinato, a dementia quam Bella Donna causarit eum liberat. Hachstellerus Decad. 7 Ob. And Shakespeare in his Macbeth makes Banquo say, Or have we eaten of the insane root That takes the reason prisoner. Hal. Stirp. Helv. No. 579. + Hort. Florent. p. 62. minution, that the stomach often bears large and repeated doses of tart. emet. (gr. 14.) without being brought into action; the pulse is small, hard, quick, and subsultus tendinem, risus sardonius et coma, generally precede death. The body being opened, inflamma. tion has been discovered in the intestines, mesentery, and liver *. And Boulduc+ found the stomach of a child eroded in three places. It may be necessary to remark, that vinegar, liberally drank, has been found very efficacious in obviating the effects of this poison; evacuations should however be always first promoted. The leaves of the belladonna were first used externally to discuss scirrhous and cancerous tumours, and also as an application to ill conditioned ulcers; their good effects in this way at length induced physicians to emply them internally for the same disorders, and we have a considerable number of well authenticated facts which prove them a very serviceable and important remedy ‡. But it must likewise be confessed, that many cases of this sort have occurred in which the belladonna has been employed without success §: this however, may be said of every medicine; and though Dr. Cullen repeatedly experienced its inefficacy, yet the facts he adduces in confirmation of the utility of this plant, are clear and decisive: "I have had a cancer of the lip entirely cured by it; a scirrhosity in a woman's breast, of such a kind as frequently proceeds to cancer, I have found entirely discussed by the use of it; a sore a little below * Comm. Nor. 1743, p. 61. + Hist. de l'Acad. des Sc. de Paris, 1703, p. 56. ✦ Junker's Conspect. Ther. Gen. Ed. 1725. p. 491. Journ. de Med. ann. 1766. Timmermanns Progr. Mich. Albertus de Belladonna. Tib. Lambergen, stated in the Phil. Trans. vol. 50, by Mr. Pultney. Comment. de Rebus, tom. 8, p. 654. Durlac Journ. de Med. t. 11, p. 449. Amoureux, 1. c. tom. 13. p. 47. Marteau 1. c. tom. 14, p. 11. van. den. Block. 1. c. tom. 14, p. 108. Ludw. Advers. Pract vol. 1, P. 4, p. 637, and vol 2. p. 314. To which we may add the later authorities of Bergius, (Mat Med. p. 128, vol. 1.) and Murray, App. Med. vol. 1. p. 440. who used them successfully in convulsions and epilepsy. The good effects of the berries may be learned from Gessner, Epist. p. 34. Eph. N. C. ann. 3. Obs. 64. lib. 4. p. 238. Mayerne Prax. Med. Syntagm. Alt. p. 136. Smetius, § Heister Chirurgie, p. 328. Van. Der. Harr. over de Knierknoest-en Kanker Gezwellen, p. 85. Van. Dovern. in litt. ad Timmermann Prog. Timmerman Junr. ibid. Acrel. Chir Handelser. p. 40. De Haen Rat. Med. tom. 2. p. 45. Schmuckero Chirug. Wahrnehmungen, tam. 2 p. 150. And some accounts given of this plant by our own countrymen Gataker and Bromfield. the eye, which had put on a cancerous appearance, was much mended by the internal use of the Belladonna: but the patient having learned somewhat of the poisonous nature of the medicine, refused to continue the use of it, upon which the sore again spread, and was painful; but upon a return to the use of the Belladonna, was again mended to a considerable degree: when the same fears again returning, the use of it was again laid aside, and with the same consequence of the sore becoming worse. Of these alternate states, connected with the alternate use of, and abstinence from, the Belladonna, there were several of these alternations which fell under my own observation." The sensible effects produced by the leaves of this plant taken in medicinal doses, are usually by the skin, kidneys, and sometimes by the intestinal canal: in larger doses troublesome dryness of the mouth and throat, giddiness, and dimness of sight are experienced. That the advantages derived from the internal use of the Belladonna are only in proportion to the evacuations effected by it, is a conclusion we cannot admit as sufficiently warranted by the facts adduced upon this point. As this plant is very uncertain in its operation, the proper dose is with difficulty ascertained: the most prudent manner of administering it is by beginning with one grain or less, which may be gradually increased according to its effects. Six grains are considered as a very large dose. With respect to the berries, so successfully employed as an anodyne, by Gesner, and others, in dysenteries, a small spoonful (coch. parvum) of a syrup of the juice was the dose given. The root seems to partake of the same qualities as the leaves, but is less virulent. 2. Solanum Dulcamara.-Woody Nightshade. The stalk is slender, climbing, alternately branched, somewhat angular, brittle, hollow, and frequently rises above six feet in height: it is covered with bark of an ash-colour, and that of the young branches is of a purple hue: the leaves are long, oval, pointed, veined, and many of those near the top are halbert-shaped, but the lower leaves are entire, and of a deep green colour: the flowers hang in loose clusters or cymæ: the corolla is monopetalous, wheelshaped, divided into five pointed segments, which are bent backwards, of a purple colour, and the base of each marked with two |