PUBLISHED BY THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION 

 OF THE COLLEGE OF PHARMACY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK 



Vol. II. 



New York, December, 1895. 



No. 12. 



THE POISONOUS PLANTS OF THE VICINITY OF NEW YORK CITY. 



By Prof. HENRY H. RUSBY, M. IX 



A lecture delivered to the Alumni Association of the College of Pharmacy of the City of New York, 



November 13, 1895. 



LIBR/ 

 NEW \ 



CiARD 



After paying a tribute to the wisdom 

 and public spirit of the New York Aca- 

 demy ot Medicine in maintaining its great 

 file of medical journals for the use of 

 special students, and acknowledging his 

 indebtedness to Mr. Cornelius Van Brunt, 

 who had loaned many of the slides to be 

 exhibited, the lecturer said : 

 Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : 



Little need be said in establishing the 

 importance of the subject which I am 

 presenting for your attention this even- 

 ing. The frequent occurrence in large 

 cities as well as in country and suburban 

 districts, of serious and often fatal poison- 

 ing accidents, and' the great importance 

 of a ready knowledge concerning the 

 poisoning agents on the part of every 

 one likely to be brought into contact 

 with such cases, particularly the phar- 

 macist, who is most frequently appealed 

 to for assistance, furnishes a sufficient 

 warrant for the devotion of an evening 

 lecture to this subject by the Alumni 

 Association. 



My remarks will be directed toward in- 

 dicating the evidence which we possess 

 proving that certain plants are poisonous, 

 the conditions and circumstances under 

 which poisoning accidents by them are 

 liable to occur, their distribution in our 

 vicinity, and their identification with 

 that of such of their detached parts as 

 are likely to effect poison 'ng. While re- 

 ference will occasionally be made to the 

 poisonous constituents and to the dif- 

 ferential symptoms and treatment, our 

 especial attention will be given to the 

 considerations above mentioned. The 

 cultivated plants of our gardens, except 

 such as also grow wild, are mostly 

 omitted, not because they are not in many 

 cases of importance in this connection, 

 but because the shortness of the hour 

 compels us to exclude some portions of 

 the subject. For the same reason I shall 

 give less attention to those poisonous 

 plants which furnish standard drugs and 

 which are therefore supposed to be quite 

 generally known. 



