OCR Text |
Show 188 THORN-APPLE. vertigo, dryness of the fauces, anxiety, followed with loss of voice and sense; the pulse became small and quick, the extre. mities cold, the limbs paralytic, the features distorted, accom. panied with violent delirium, continual watchfulness, anda total suppression of all the evacuations; but in a few hours he was restored to his former state of health.” MEDICAL VIRTUES. This plant has been long known as a powerful narcotic poi son; its congener, the D. metel, is thought to be Ergvyvos pas vinde of Theophrastus and Dioscorides, and is therefore the spe- cies received by Linneus into the materia medica. The stramonium, in its recent state, has a bitterish taste, and a smell somewhat resembling that of poppies, or, as called by Bergius, narcotic, especially if the leaves be rubbed betwixt the fingers. Byholding the plant to the nose for some time, or sleeping in a bed where the leaves are strewed, giddiness of the head and stu por are said to have been produced. eOdhelius tells us, that of fourteen patients suffering under epileptic and convulsive affections, to whom he gave the stra- monium, in an hospital at Stockholm, eight were completely cured, five were relieved, and only one received no benefit. Bergius relates three cases of its success, viz. one of mania, and two of convulsions. Reef, a Swedish physician, mentions its utility in two cases of mania. Wedenberg cured four girls, af. fected with convulsive complaints, by the use of this medicine. Other instances of the kind might be added. Greding, however, who made manyexperiments with a view to ascertain the efficacy of this plant, was not so successful; for out of the great number of cases in which he employed the stramonium, it was only in one instance that it effected a cure ; and he objects to the cases stated by Dr. Odhelius, on the ground that the patients were dismissed before sufficient time was allowed to know whether the disease would return again or not. In this country we are unacquainted with any practitioners whose experience tends to throw anylight on the medical character of this plant. It appears to us, that its effects as a medicineare to be referred to no other power than that of a narcotic ; and Dr. Cullen, speak- ing on this subject, says, * I have no doubt that narcotics may be a remedyin certain cases of mania and epilepsy ; but I have not, and I doubt if any other person has, learned to distinguish THORN-APPLE. the cases to which such remedies are properly adapte d. 189 It is therefore that we find the other narcotics, as well as the stramonium, to fail in the same hands in which they had in other cases seemed to succeed. It is this consideration that has occa. sioned my neglecting the use of stramonium, and therefore prevented me from speaking more precisely from my own expe~ rience on this subject.” Dr. Stork, I believe, was the first who tried the thornapple as a remedy in mania and melancholy with considerable success. Several-cases of the same diseases were also cured or relieved by it, under the direction of different Swedish physicians. Dr. Barton, professor of botany in America, considers it to be a medicine of great efficacy ; and although, with others, it has frequently failed, it deserves the attention of practitioners, and well merits a trial in affections often incurable by other means. It has also been employed, and sometimes with advantage, in con. vulsive and epileptic affections. An ointment prepared from the leaves has been said to give ease in external inflammations and hemorrhoids. The inspissated juice of the leaves has been most commonly used, but its exhibition requires the greatest caution. At first, a quarter of a grain is a sufficient dose. Dr. Barton gives itin powder, beginning with doses of a few grains, and increasing them in a few days to 15 or 20. In a case in which it was exhibited to the extent of 30 grains, it dilated the pupil of one eye, and produced paralysis of the eyelids, which was removed bya blister ; and the bruised leaves, according to Plenk, soften hard and inflamed tumours, and discuss tumours in the breasts of nurses from indurated milk. Hufeland gave it in the form of a tincture, prepared of two ounces of the seeds in four ounces of wine and one ofdiluted alcohol, in diseases of the mind. |