\ 
484 
The recent root of this plant has been received into the Materia 
Medica of both Pharmacopoeias, on the recommendation of Baron 
Stoerck, who firft thought of converting this acrid poifon to the 
purpofes of medicine. Refpe&ing its effe&s and fenfible qualities 
authors have given very different reports. Haller informs us, that he 
found this root perfectly void of tafte and acrimony. d Krapf like- 
wife fays, that he ate the whole bulbs without feeling any inconve- 
nience, except that of an ungrateful bitterifh tafte; 6 and Kratochvill 
gave this root with impunity to feveral in dofes of two, three, and even 
four drams ; f while Stoerck tells us, that by gently rubbing the root 
againft the tip of his tongue, it rendered the part rigid, and almoft void 
of fenfation, for feveral hours. 5 Ehrmann, h Marges, 1 Murray , k and 
feveral other writers, alio bear teftimony to the great acrimony of 
Colchicum ; fo that we can only reconcile thefe contradictory accounts 
by fuppofmg thefe roots to vary much according to their age, the foil 
in which they grow, and probably ilill more according to the feafon 
of the year in which they are dug up. Baron Stoerck afferts, that on 
cutting the freih root into ilices, the acrid particles emitted from it irri- 
tated the noftrils, fauces, and breaft ; and that the ends of the fingers 
with which it had been held, became for a time benumbed ; l that even 
' a fingle grain in a crumb of bread, taken internally, produced a burning 
heat and pain in the ftomach and bowels, urgent ftrangury, tenefmus, 
colic pains, cephalalgia, hiccup, &c. m From this relation, it will not 
appear furprifing that we find feveral inftances recorded in which the 
Colchicum proved a fatal poifon both to man n and brute animals. 
The external ufe of this root, and the wearing it inclofed in a bag, fufpended abou 
the neck, which was formerly pra&ifed for the purpofe of preventing and curing pefti 
■lential fevers, will hardly be thought an exception to this aflertion. d L. c. n. 1256/ 
\ 
Cont. Experim. in Stoerck. p. 233 
f 
Colch. p. 8. Q 
h 
%*-h 
k 
Dif. 
f e 
Colch 
Kratochvill de Colch* p. 35 
Lib. di 
App* Med. vol. 5. p. 196. l L. c. p. 25 
BaJiL 1772. §. 5. * Vide Journal de Med. torfi. 23. p 
m 
L. c. p 
Two boys, after eating this plant, which they found growing in a meadow, died in 
great agony. 
Opera , p. 63 
Jo. Agricola Ammonius^ Medic, herbar 
p.QO 
Ludovi 
Violent fymptoms have been produced by taking three 
Garidely Plantes d'Aix* p, 123. The feeds likewife have been known to produce fimilar 
cffeas. Brefsl 
fon ; and according 
1723. p. 679 
Deer and oxen have fallen a facrifice 
drams of the root killed 
and upon opening its abdomen, the ftomach and bowels were found to be greatly inflamed, 
<*{ in a gangrenous ftate. L. e . p, 17 
From 
