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Show DEADLY NIGHTSHADE. DEADLY NIGHTSHADE. The number of these berrics 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 en. tantum est remedium, quod est mel cum aqua, in magna copia, et clysma ex melle et oleo; externé conducit in tumoribus re. solvendis.”” Conrad Gesner, the greatest genius of the age he lived in, who almost merits the proud appellation of the father of botany, had the superior courage to try the expressed juice of this plant: boiled with sugar, and taken to the amount of a tea-spoonfal, it imitated the operation of opium, and cured in him a most vio- 178 sues: ‘¢ Bacce sapore fatuo dulci possunt absque noxa edi si nymerus tres quatuorve non excesserit: plures etiam a studioso medicine Coloniensi nomine Simonis vidi deglutiri.”"— Hal. Stirp. Helv. No. 579. But when a greater number of the berries are taken into the stomach, scarcelyhalf an hour elapses before violeut symptoms supervene ; viz. vertigo, delirium, great thirst, painful degluti. tion, andretching, followed byfuror, stridor dentium, andcon. vulsions ; the eye-lids are drawn down, the uvea dilated and immovable*; the face becomes red and tumid, and spasms affect the mouth and jaw; the general sensibility and irritability of the body suffer such great diminution, that the stomach often bears large and repeated doses of tart. emet. (gr. 14.) without being brought into action; the pulseis small, hard, quick, and subsultus tendinum, risus sardonicus et coma, generally precede death. The body being opened, inflammation has been discoveredin the intestines, mesentery, and liver, (Comm. Nor. 1743, p- 61.) And Boulduc, (Hist. de Acad. des Sc. de Paris, 1703, p- 56,) found the stomach of a child eroded in three places. It maybe necessary to remark, that vinegar, liberally drunk, has been found veryefficacious in obviating the effects of this poison; evacuations should, however, be always first premised. The great Boerhaave relates, ‘¢ that one berry alone is fatal, that a gardener was hangedfor neglecting removing these plants, and that there is only one antidote known,-—honey mixed with water, and a clyster of honey andoil.” His words are: ‘* Hac planta est venenatissima, nam si homo unicam baccam comedat, ilico convellitur, si plus, moritur, neque remedium contra hoc venenum notum est, ut tristissimo casu hic in Batavia contigit, ut pueri allecti pulchritudine harum baccarum comederit, et brevi suffocati mortui sint, sic et in Aula Hetrusea accidit, ubi tres pueri inde mortui sunt, qua de re hortulanus, cui jussum erat has venenatas plantas cavere, suspendio fuit plexus; unicum 179 lent dysentery. Lambergen cured with the belladonna infused in water, by the dose of two grains, increased to four daily, a true cancer. Junker succeeded in the same manner. Vandenblock re. movedalso a cancerous tumourof the breast by the internal use of the belladonna. Degnerdissipated a cancer of the breast, and cured an ulcer of the leg arising from the bite of a leopard. Nor must we omit here the experience of our own practitiuners, Bromfield and Gataker, the latter of whom found it beneficial in the hooping cough. In the Phil. Trans. vol. i. p. 77, mention is made of a woman being cured of a cancer in her breast, by taking a tea-cupful of an infusion of the dried leaves every morning. The complaint at first grew worse, but after persevering some time in the use of the medicine, the symptoms abated, andin about halfa year she was perfectly well. ‘The infusion was made by pouring ten tea-cupfuls of boiling water on twentygrains of thedried leaves, andletting it stand to infuse all night in a warmplace. The celebrated Cullen says: ‘*Y have had a cancer of the lip entirely cured by it ;—a scirrhosity ina woman’s breast, of such a kind as frequently proceeds to cancer, I have found entirely discussed by the use of it;—a sore alittle below the eye, which had put on a cancerous appearance, was much mended bythe 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 upona 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 laidaside, and with the * From this effect of dilating the pupil, professor Reimar was induced to employthe belladonna before performing the operationfor the catarae! by dropping some of the infusion into the eye, same consequence of the sore becoming worse. Of these alterhate states, connected with the alternate use of, and abstiN2 |