ZZTHUSA CYNAPIUM. 17 
PARTS USED IN MEDICINE, AND MODE OF PREPARATION.— 
The whole plant, prepared in the same manner as Aconite. 
(Vide Quin, Pharm. Homeopath., p. 37.) 
Poisonous Errects.—The following are the most interesting 
cases of poisoning by Aithusa, taken from Orfila and others. 
A boy, six years of age, having eaten some of this herb by 
mistake for parsley, at four o’clock in the afternoon, commenced 
immediately after to cry out in great pain, and complained of 
great cramps in the stomach; whilst taking him home the whole 
body became excessively swollen, and of a livid hue ; the respi- 
ration became difficult and short, and he died towards midnight. 
Another child was poisoned in the same manner, but he was 
fortunate enough to vomit up the herb; this, however, did 
not prevent many symptoms manifesting themselves ; he talked 
wildly, and in his delirium he thought he saw numbers of dogs 
and cats. (Orfila, vol. ii. p. 324.) 
Riviere reports a case of an individual who perished by this 
poison, and ona post-mortem examination, the tongue was found 
black. There was a brown serous fluid in the stomach ; the liver 
was of a yellow colour; the spleen was livid; the body was 
not emphysematous. 
Gmelin has related the case of a child who died in eight hours 
in consequence of having eaten the Aithusa. The symptoms 
were spasmodic pain in the stomach, swelling of the belly, 
- lividity of the skin, and difficult breathing. (Chrvs., p. 365.) 
A woman gave two of her children some soup in which this 
herb had been boiled. They were both seized with severe pain in 
the abdomen, and next morning there was perfect unconscious- 
ness ; the lower jaw was spasmodically fixed ; abdomen tumid ; 
yomiting of a bloody mucus, and constant diarrhcea ; cold ex- 
tremities ; convulsions ; and death in twenty-four hours. Post- 
mortem appearance: redness of the lining membrane of ceso- 
phagus, and slight vascular congestion of stomach and duo- 
denum. (Medic. Jahrbuch.) 
Another child, who had eaten the bulbs by mistake for young 
c 
