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Show WOLF’S-BANE, OR MONK’S-HOOD. r WOLF’S“BANE, OR MONK’S-HOOD. 550 HISTORY. e forests of CarinIt is a perennial plant, found in the alpin ries in Germany, count ous tain thia, Carniola, and other moun and cultivated in our gardens. nt poisons, producing The fresh plant and root are very viole , convulsive motions remarkable debility, paralysis of the limbs vertigo, delirium, rsis, of the face, bilious vomiting, and catha little smell, but very have s asphyxia, death. .The fresh leave nating pains, lanci e excit and taste, when chewed have an acrid is almost ony acrim its g, dryin By e. tongu and swelling of the gathered be must entirely destroyed. For medical use, the plant before the stem shoots. MEDICAL USE. rating stimulus, When properly administered, it acts as a penet sed discharge increa an imes somet and and generally excites sweat, of urine. ual remedy On many occasions it has been found a very effect ventosa, amaurosis, in glaudular swellings, venereal nodes, spina , and convulsive fevers gouty and rheumatic pains,. intermittent disorders. of the dried leaves We maybegin by giving one or two grains of an inspissated form the in used nly commo is it in powder, but is expressed juice juice. As soon as the plant is gathered, the n, to the conand evaporated without any previous clarificatio the powers of that ted regret sistence of an extract. It is to be ding to its age, and the heat this medicine vary very much, accor employedinits preparation. When recently prepared, its action than a year, it beis often too violent; and when kept more laid down as an unicomes totally inert. It may therefore be many other similar of and this versal rule in the employment of doses, and to increase active medicines, to begin with very small ver we hare them gradually to the necessary degree ; and whene should agait we ne, medici the of rcel newpa a occasionto begin the same with ed commence with the smallest dose, and proce caution as atfirst. this extract, either We maybegin by giving half a grain of sugar, oF made white of grains ten with r formed into a powde twice or thrice pill, a into on additi nient conve any up with a tincture of aconite a day, and graduallyincrease the dose: or of the dried leaves in six may be prepared by digesting one part Io 551 parts of spirit of wine; the dose of which will be atfirst five or ten drops, and may be gradually increased to forty. PREPARATION. InspissATED Jurce or AconiTE. (Succus Spissatus Aconiti Napelli. E.) Bruise the fresh leaves of wolfsbane, and, enclosing them in a hempen bag, compress them strongly till they yield their juice, which is to be evaporatedin flat vessels heated with boiling water, saturated with muriate of soda, and immediately reduced to the consistence of thick honey. After the mass has become cold, let it be put up in glazed earthen vessels, and moistened with alcohol. |