8 RANUNCULACE^ 



essential ingredients is the fatty oil of stavesacre seeds extracted by 



ether. It is plain that such a preparation would contain delphinine. 



Delphinine itself has been used externally in neuralgic affections. 



Stavesacre seeds are largely consumed for destroying the pediculi that 

 infest cattle. 



RADIX ACONITI- 



4 



■ 



Tuher Aconiti ; Aconite Root^; F.JRadned'Aconit; G. EisenJmthioUen, 



Sturm hu thnollen. 



Botanical Origin— ^comfum NapeUus L. — This widely-diifused 

 and most variable species grows chiefly in the mountainous districts 

 of the temperate parts of the northern hemisphere. 



It is of frequent occurrence throuo-hout the chain of the Alps up 



more 



Austria, and is also found in Denmark and Sweden. It has become 

 naturalized in a few spots in the west of England and in South Wales. 

 Eastward it grows throughout the whole of Siberia, extending to tlie 



o 



above the sea-level. 



H 



North America, It occurs m 



Tiie plant is cultivated for medicinal use, and also for ornament. 

 The Abbe Armand David' saw in northern Sz-chuen (Setchuan) fields 



planted with Aconite (A. Napellus ?), 



History — The 'Akovitop of the Greeks and the Aconitum of the 

 Romans are held to refer to the genus under notice, if not precisely to 

 A. Napellus. The ancients were well aware of the poisonous properties 

 of the aconites, though the plants were not more exactly distinguished 

 until the close of the middle ages. The Greek name is supposed to refer 

 to the same source as that of Conium. (See article on Fructus Conii.) 



Aconite has been widely employed as an arrow-poison. It was used 

 by the ancient Chinese,' and is still in requisition among the less 

 civilized of the hill tribes of India. Something of the same kind was 

 in vogue among the aborigines of ancient Gaul." Aconite was pointed 

 out in the thirteenth century, in " The Phyf^wians ofMy<ldva% ' as one 

 of the plants which every physician is to grow. 



Storck^of Vienna introduced aconite into regular practice about the 



^^^yj-^^^ ' ^^® ^"^^ ^'^^ *^® ^erb occur in the German pharmaceutical 

 tariff of the seventeenth century. 



Description— The herbaceous annual stem of aconite starts from 

 an elongated conical tuberous root 2 to 4 inches long and sometimes 

 as much as an inch in thickness. This root tapers off in a long tail, 

 while numerous branching rootlets spring from its sides. If dug up in 

 the summer it will be found that a second and youno-er root (occasion- 



rnr-W." w;S%T''''l ''""t ^ T't"^ ^*^- ' P"i"y' li^- ^^vii. c. 76, also xxv. 25. 



boHn St. teaching of English « The Phy.nc\au.. of Mjiddvai ; Mcdchj- 



a i"!S;.,7 ;. , ■: f^«"' Myddfai. Publishe.l for the Welsh 



'u-»fT k£lTn'«^7" "' ''''^''^' ''" ^^^^- Society. Llaiulovory, ISGl. 282, 



Chinf, i. (Paris 1875) 3(i7. " ' TS\ 



Uit,t of China, Shanghai, 1871. 2, 3. Vindob. 1762, 



