ACONITUM NAPELLUS. 3 
has been employed in the attempt to destroy whole armies, as 
the Indian poison Bihk or Bisch, with which the natives 
poisoned the tanks in the Burmese war, is supposed to have 
been a preparation of one of its species, the Aconitum ferox. 
As a medicine, it was used by the ancients chiefly as an 
anodyne, and as an external application, to relieve pain in the 
eyes. It fell into disuse, until the time of Storck, who 
vaunted its powers as an antispasmodic, stimulant to the ab- 
sorbents, diuretic and diaphoretic. From its very remarkable 
effects, as related by Stérck, it was first introduced into the 
Pharmacopeias, but has been chiefly used since then as a 
topical remedy in neuralgic and rheumatic pains, and inter- 
nally, in gout, rheumatism, some skin <liseases, scrofula, phthisis, 
scirrhus and cancer, intermittents, dropsies, paralysis, epilepsy, 
amaurosis, uterine affections, and hypertrophy of the heart. 
The name of this plant is derived, according to ‘Theophrastus, 
from Aconis, a city of Bithynia, in the neighbourhood of 
which it grew in abundance. Pliny ascribes its etymology 
to Axow, a whetstone. Others, according to Burnett, derive its 
name from axoviyos, pulveris expers, without dust, because the 
plant grows on rocks destitute of soil; but this applies more 
tothe Aconitum neomontanum. Others, again, derive the word 
from acon, acne, a dart, because savage nations dipped their 
arrows into a poison made from this plant. The word Na- 
pellus is from napus, a turnip, from the similarity of its root 
to that vegetable. 
Description. — Perennial, flowers May, J une, and July. 
Flowers purple, glabrous. Upper petal helmet - shaped. 
Leaves palmated, in five wedge-shaped segments, deeply cut 
and toothed, standing alternately on channelled footstalks; 
the upper leaves not so deeply cut as the lower. Stem erect, 
from two to three feet high. Decandolle allows no less than 
twenty-nine varieties. That which is called by Miller Pyrami- 
dale, is most common in our gardens, being preferred on account 
of its long spike of blue flowers. 
Ba 
