THE POISONOUS PLANTS OF BOMBAY. 65 



stomach, with a determination of blood to the head. 

 Dr. Bennett, the well-known naturalist of Sydney, has himself adminis- 

 tered these seeds to Europeans, but has found their effects very 

 irregular, and occasioning, in all cases, a burning sensation in the 

 bowels followed with nausea and vomiting " \_A. A. B. in Maunder's 

 Treasury of Botany], 



Beck says that the effects of seeds are at times so great that in 

 addition to vomiting and purging there is insensibility, and great weak- 

 ness followed by death. Violent inflammation of the mucous membrane 

 of the stomach and intestines has also been noted (p. 832, Medical 

 Jurisprudence, 5th Edition, London, 1836). 



The following is an extract from Dr. Hilton-Fagge's Report on 



Toxicology and Materia Medica (p. 347, New Sydenham Society's 



Year-Book, 1865, London) : — " In the Medical Times and Gazette — 



(London, 1864, I. 703) — are recorded several cases of poisoning 1 ' by 



the seeds of Jatropha curcas, " which occurred at Birmingham, where 



three or four sacks of the nuts were sold by auction. These nuts were 



left on the floor, and some boys, getting access to them, put some into 



their pockets, and finding their taste pleasant not only ate some of 



them themselves, but gave others to their friends. In consequence 



thirty-three persons were taken so ill as to be obliged to be carried 



to the General Hospital. Some of them had only eaten three or 



four of the nuts, but others ate as many as fifty. Symptoms came on 



in some cases in ten minutes ; in others not until two to two hours 



and a half had elapsed. The chief effects were pain and burning in 



the throat, pain and distension of the abdomen, giddiness, vomiting 



and drowsiness; and after an interval, purging— the evacuations 



being copious, mucous, and not unlike the rice-watery stools of cholera. 



In some cases the depression was very great ; in many there was 



dysuria ; fever was always present as an after-effect. Dilatation of the 



pupils was believed to exist in those who took a large quantity of the 



poison. It is doubtful whether the drowsiness—from which the patients 



were easily roused — was a narcotic effect of the nuts or whether it was 



caused by the great prostration." [N.B. — lam inclined to think the 



latter caused drowsiness— K. II. A".] Strangely enough, all the cases 



recovered 1 The treatment consisted of the administration of emetics 



and purgatives. Will not the Homoeopaths say " Similia similibus 



curantur ? " 



