ACONITUM NAPELLUS. q 
A dose (five grains) of the fresh extract was given to three 
patients, at the hospital of Bordeaux, by mistake. In a quarter 
of an hour, tremors of the muscles and a pricking sensation 
over the whole body came on, followed by vomiting, uncon- 
sciousness for a time, and afterwards confusion of sight, with 
intense headache, cold and clammy skin, pulse slow and irre- 
gular, respiration short and hurried; one died, the other two 
slowly recovered. 
Dr. Geoghan (Dub. Med. Jour., 1842) states a case of poison- 
ing by the leaves of Aconite. Zwo minutes after eating, burning 
heat in the mouth, throat, gullet, and stomach ensued, with sensa- 
tion of swelling of the face, general feeling of numbness and 
creeping of the skin; restlessness; dimness of sight; stupor, 
and partial insensibility ; frothing at the nose and mouth; jaws 
and hands clenched; vomiting, purging; a sense of tenderness 
at the epigastrium ; swooning and death. 
A man boiled the fresh root and leaves, and half an hour 
after eating them, was found in bed rolling his arms about and 
foaming at the mouth; pupils widely dilated ; lower extremities 
paralysed; surface cold and clammy; great nausea; pulse 
scarcely perceptible ; followed by insensibility, and death. 
The following are related by Dr. Pereira:— 
A man, his wife, and child ate some roots at dinner, at two 
o’clock, by mistake for horse-radish. The greater part was 
eaten by the man. Three quarters of an hour after dinner the 
man complained of burning and numbness of the lips, mouth, 
and throat, which soon extended to the stomach, and was accom- 
panied by vomiting of his dinner, and afterwards of a frothy 
mucus. His extremities were cold, but his chest warm ; his 
head was bathed in a cold sweat; his eyes glaring; excessive 
trembling and violent pain in the head ; lips blue; no cramp, 
spasm, or convulsion ; his breathing was unaffected. He died 
apparently in a fainting state, about four hours after dinner. 
The woman was affected in a similar way. She had the 
same burning and numbness of the lips, mouth, throat, and 
