ATR—ATR | i 73 
_ the Danes with, which so intoxicated them, that the Scots” 
killed the greatest part of Sweno’s army.”” What rascals!!! 
I do not think it is the root of this plant, which is alluded 
to by Shakspeare, when he says, in Macbeth— 
_ Or have we eaten of the insane root, — 
That takes the reason prisoner ?” 
First, because the maddening property ascribed, and just- 
ly, to the berries and leaves of Belladonna, have not fon 
proved to pertain to the root ; and secondly, because there 
is nothing esculent or savoury in the taste of Belladonna 
root—while several roots of umbelliferous plants are at 
once sweet and deliciously aromatic, and affect the brain 
with intoxication. 2 
Post mortem examinations, after death induced by Bella- 
donna, have shown the stomach and intestines to have 
been inflamed. The body swells after death, and h “te 
rhage ensues from the mouth, nose, and ears; 
decompesition takes place. teeter 1 
For relieving the system from this poison, T refer 3 
to the lectures on Toxicology. The name Belladonna 
ginated in the circumstance of the Italian women using 
juice of the berries as a cosmetic. 4 
MepicaL Prorertres axp Uses. Narcotic, sedative, dia- 
phoretic, diuretic; externally applied, discutient and as- 
- suaging ; dilates the pupil of the eye, preparatory to the 
‘operation for cataract, when applied by dropping the in- 
fusion into the eye. Theden, surgeon-general of the Prus- 
sian armies, recommends it internally, from experience, in _ 
dropsies: he used the leaves, and found them to allay the: 
nervous irritability preceding dropsy. Drs. Buckhave, — 
_ Borden, Hufeland, Scheffer, Marc, Weltzer, and Alibert, 
used Belladonna in whaeping cough, with the effect of 
i ebay 
tressing paroxysms. Has been: 1 epilepsy, by Miini 
and Greedng: Cullen cured cancer o “the tipowith 
and some cases of scirrhous and cancerous affection. Ali- 
bert and Mucker speak well of it, in scirrhous disease < 
the intestines and stomach. Others have found it preju- 
dicial. Mr. Q. Bailey found it efficacious in tie doloreur, 
Has been used in, and recommended for, hydrophobia, by 
the German physicians. I should doubt its efficacy here ; 
for it produces one of the most distressing symptoms of 
that malady—thirst; together with constriction of the pha- 
rynx. It has been commended by Bailey and Burdach, 
in melancholy, mania, and hysteria. Hufeland says, it 
allays convulsions from scrofulous irritation. It has been 
used in gout, chronic rheumatism, paralysis, and amauro- 
sis. Dr. Reimatus, of Hamburg, discovered that if the di- 
luted extract be dropped im the eye, the pupil becomes __ 
G2 
| shortening the course of the 
