round green spots; the tube is short, and the faux or mouth is of a shining black colour; the calyx is small, and divides into five blunt persistent segments, of a purple colour; the five filaments are short, black, and inserted in the tube of the corolla: the antheræ are yellow, erect, and unite at their points; the style is somewhat longer than the stamina, and terminated by a simple obtuse stigma; the germen is oval, and becomes a roundish bilocular berry, which finally acquires a red colour, and contains many flat yellowish seeds. It grows plentifully in hedges well supplied with water, and the flowers appear about the latter end of June.

The roots and stalks of this Nightshade, upon being chewed, first cause a sensation of bitterness, which is soon followed by a considerable degree of sweetness; and hence the plant obtained the name of Bittersweet. The berries have not yet been applied to medical use; they seem to act powerfully upon the primæ viæ, exciting violent vomiting and purging: thirty of them were given to a dog, which soon became mad, and died in the space of three hours, and upon opening his stomach, the berries were discovered to have undergone no change by the power of digestion; there can therefore be little doubt of the deleterious effects of these berries; and as they are very common in the hedges, and may be easily mistaken by children for red currants, which they somewhat resemble, this circumstance is the more worthy of notice. The stirpites, or younger branches, are directed for use, in the Edinburgh Pharm. and they may be employed either fresh or dried, making a proportionate allowance in the dose of the latter for some diminution of its powers by drying. In autumn, when the leaves are fallen, the sensible qualities of the plant are said to be the strongest, and on this account it should be gathered in autumn rather than in spring.

Dulcamara does not manifest those narcotic qualities, which are common to many of the nightshades; it is however very generally admitted to be a medicine of considerable efficacy. Murray says that it promotes all the secretions; Haller observes that it partakes of the milder powers of the Nightshade, joined to a resolvent and saponaceous quality; and the opinion of Bergius seems to coincide with that of Murray.

3. Solanum Nigram.-Garden Nightshade.

Root annual, branched, whitish, hung with numerous small fibres. Stalk above a foot in height, alternately branched, formed into angles by a foliaceous membrane, swelled at the base of each branch, rough, and of a dingy purple colour. Leaves on footstalks, alternate, irregularly ovate, sinuated, or indentated, and clothed with soft hairs. Flowers in a species of umbel, upon a common lateral flower-stalk. Calyx divided into five small short permanent segments. Corolla separated into five segments, which are oval, pointed, spreading, and of a whitish colour. Filaments five, short, downy, terminated by yellow oblong contiguous antheræ. Germen roundish, supporting a tapering downy style, furnished with a round stigma. Fruit a round two-celled berry, changing from a green to a black colour, and containing several kidney-shaped yellowish seeds.

It is common about rubbish, dunghills, and in neglected gardens, producing its flowers during all the summer months.

The smell of this plant is faint and disagreeable; to the taste it manifests no peculiar flavour, being simply herbaceous. It appears to possess the deleterious qualities of the other nightshades in a very considerable degree; even the odour of the plant is said to be so powerfully narcotic as to cause sleep*.

The berries are equally poisonous with the leaves. Three children, upon eating them, were suddenly seized with cardialgia and delirium, accompanied with spasms, and remarkable distortions of the limbst: and to poultry they proved fatal in a short time.

The plant, or rather the leaves, which were boiled and eaten by a mother and four children, produced swellings of the face and limbs, followed by inflammation and gangrene; but the husband, who likewise ate of this vegetable at the same time, found no consequent disorder §.

Its deleterious effects appear still more certain from the experiments of Messrs. Gataker and Bromfield; the latter asserts that in doses of one grain it had a mortal effect upon one of his patients [.

Boccone. Museo di fis. p. 284.

Haller, l. c.

+ Vide Wepfer De cicut. p. 226. § Rucker. Commer. Noric. 1731, p. 372.

It ought to be remarked, however, that Dioscorides and Theophrastus mention it as an esculent plant; and Guerin (De vegetat. venen. Alsatiæ, 1766,

As this species of nightshade is thought to be the Στρυχνος κηπαίος of Dioscorides*, its external use was resorted to in ancient times as a discutient and anodyne in various affections of the skin, tumefactions of the glands, ulcers, and disorders of the eyes; nor does the utility of this practice want the confirmation of later experiencet.

Of its internal use we find very little evidence in the writings of the ancients; though according to Casalpinus, it appears not to have been wholly neglected.

Its medicinal powers in modern times appear to be equally doubtful. Gataker strongly recommended it, externally and in solution, as an excellent restorative lotion for old sores and cancerous ulcers, &c. and internally as an aperient and good diuretic: but Bromfield was never able to obtain these effects in any sufficient degree.

[Dioscorid. Linn. Wepfar. Lewis. Woodville.

SECTION IV.

Black Henbane.

Hyoscyamus Niger.-LINN.

THERE are eight species of henbane, chiefly natives of the Levant and Palestine; but the one before us is also common to our own country. The root is biennial, long, compact, white, and beset with many fibres: the stalk is erect, round, woody, branched, and rises about two feet in height: the leaves are large, cut into irregular lobes or pointed segments, of a sea-green colour, undulated, woolly, and at their bases embrace the stem: the flowers are produced in irregular clusters at the tops of the branches; they are

p. 66,) relates that he drank an infusion of fifteen grains of the solanum nigrum without suffering any consequent complaint; and that an epileptic patient took from half a drachm to two drachms of the expressed juice of the plant, without perceiving any narcotic symptom to follow; nor with some soldiers, to whom a still larger dose was given, together with two drachms of the juice of the berries, was any other effect produced than that of an increased quantity of urine. See Murray, I. c.

Mat. Med. lib. 4. c. 71.

+ With the Arabians it is a common application to burns and ulcers. See Forskol. Descript. Plant. c. 2, p. 46. Ray also speaks highly of its effects in indurations of the breast. See Hist. 1. c.

De Plant. 213.

funnel-shaped, consisting of a short tube, with an expanded limb, which is divided into five obtuse segments, of an obscure yellow colour, and beautifully painted with many purple veins: the calyx is divided into five short pointed downy segments: the five filaments are tapering, downy at the base, inserted in the tube of the corolla, and furnished with large oblong antheræ : the germen is roundish : the style slender, longer than the stamina, and terminated by a blunt stigma: the capsule is oval, marked with a line on each side, and divided into two cells, which contain many small irregular brown seeds. It is a native of England, and grows commonly amongst rubbish, about villages, road-sides, &c. and flowers in June.

The smell of hyoscyamus is strong and peculiar, and the leaves, when bruised, emit somewhat of the odour of tobacco. This smell is still stronger when the leaves are burnt; and on burning they sparkle with a deflagration, somewhat resembling that of nitre, but to the taste they are mild, and mucilaginous." Henbane is a powerful narcotic poison, and many instances of its deleterious effects are recorded by different authors.

Out of the many instances of this kind, we shall only advert to some of them, in order to shew that the roots, seeds, and leaves of this plant, have separately produced poisonous effects. Dr. Patouil. lat, physician at Toucy in France, relates that nine persons, in consequence of having eaten the roots of the hyoscyamus, were seized with most alarming symptoms; some were speechless, and shewed no other signs of life than by convulsions, contortions of their limbs, and the risus sardonicus; all having their eyes starting out of their heads, and their mouths drawn backwards on both sides; others had all the symptoms alike; however, five of them did now and then open their mouths, but it was to utter howlings. The madness of all these patients was so complete, and their agitations so violent, that in order to give one of them the antidote, I was obliged to employ six strong men to hold him while I was getting his teeth asunder to pour down the remedy." And what is remarkable, Dr. P. says, that on their recovery, all objects appeared to them as red as scarlet, for two or three dayst.

Phil. Trans. vol. 40, p. 446.

+ Further accounts of the effects of these roots are given by Wepfer de Cicut, &c. p. 230. Simon Pauli Quadr. p. 384. Blom, in Vet. Ac. Handl. 1774. p. 52.

Respecting the seeds of henbane, we have an account given by Sir Hans Sloane *, of four children who ate them by mistaking the capsules, in which they were contained, for filberts. "The symptoms that appeared in all the four were great thirst, swimmings of the head, dimness of sight, ravings, profound sleep, which last in one of the children continued two days and nights†."

The leaves of hyoscyamus, we are told, were boiled in broth, and eaten by seven persons, (five men and two women) who soon became affected with symptoms of intoxication. Dr. Stedman says, "I saw them about three hours after having eaten it; and then three of the men were become quite insensible, did not know their comrades, talked incoherently, and were in as high a delirium as people in the rage of a fever. All of them had low irregular pulses, slavered, and frequently changed colour: their eyes looked fiery, and they catched at whatever lay next them, calling out that it was going to fall t."

Henbane is poisonous to birds and dogs; but horses, cows, goats, and swine, it does not affect.

There cannot be a doubt, however, that this plant, like others of the same natural order, under proper management, may be safely employed, and be found in many cases to be an active and useful remedy. Hyoscyamus was well known to the ancients, and its effects as an anodyne were experienced by Dioscorides; and with this intention it has been used both internally and externally by several subsequent writers, particularly by Celsus; and in hæmorrhagic diseases the sem. hyoscyami were successfully given by Plater, Forestus, and Boyle.

It appears, however, that for a long time past the employment of henbane, in the practice of medicine, was wholly laid aside, till Baron Stoerck published several cases of different diseases, in which an extract, prepared from the juice of this plant, had been discovered to be an efficacious remedy. These diseases are stated by the Baron to be internal spasms and convulsions, palpitations of the heart, madness, melancholy, epilepsy, inveterate head-aches, hæ

Phil. Trans. vol. 38, p. 99.

+ See also Essays and Observations, phys. et lit. vol. 2, p. 243. Helmont. Ort. Med. p. 306. Ephemer. Germ. annis 7 et 8, &c.

‡ Phil. Trans. vol. 47, an. 1750. For additional facts see Haller, 1. c. Spielmanni Diss. de veget ven. Alsat.