ACONITUM NAPELLUS. B 
cold and clammy; countenance blanched; bloodless lips; fol- 
lowed generally by sudden death. The common appearance 
on inspection is, general congestion of the venous system.” 
(Fleming on Ac. Nap., p. 184.) 
Orfila remarks that, from the various experiments on animals, 
and effects on the human frame, it results that the different pre- 
parations of Aconite are absorbed, and transported in the current 
of the circulation ; that they act specially on the nervous system, 
and particularly on the brain, where they produce a sort of 
mental alienation; that they exercise, besides, a local irritation, 
capable of developing an inflammation more or less intense ; 
that they appear to act upon man as they do upon animals. 
It will be seen, therefore, that every part of the fresh plant 
is strongly poisonous; but the root is particularly virulent, and 
many instances of its fatal effects are recorded both by ancient 
and modern writers ; nevertheless, as frequently happens, “ when 
rightly understood, qualities the most baneful may be converted 
into blessings.” 
Mepicat Uses (Homaoparuic).—The provings of Aconite, 
by Hahnemann, have given to the homeopathic practitioner 
a remedy which must ever hold a prominent, if not 
the first, place in our Pharmacopeia. The following are 
his observations upon this medicine, in his Materia Medica 
Pura. “ Although the symptoms detailed do not fully ex- 
press all the medicinal power of this precious plant, they 
afford the discerning homeopathist the means of judging how 
far it is useful in certain states of disease, in which the anti- 
phlogistic treatment of the old practice has hitherto been applied. 
I refer to purely inflammatory fevers, in which a small dose of 
Aconite, taking the place of all antipathic remedies, produces 
a ready cure, without any subsequent affections. 
‘In measles, the purple miliary fever, inflammatory fever with 
pleurisy, etc., the efficacy of this plant is most powerful, pro- 
vided the patient observes a cool diet, abstaining from every- 
thing medicinal, even from vegetable acids. : 
