ATROPA BELLADONNA. 61 
liarly efficacious in erysipelas, herpes, parotitis, and disperses 
swellings of the glands,” etc. ete. 
Pliny (Nat. Hist., lib. xxi., Holland’s Trans.) also describes a 
Solanum, “‘ which hath leaves like to basil ; for certes this hearbe 
is so dangerous, that a very little of the juice thereof is enough 
to trouble a man’s brain, and put him besides his right 
Wits.” 
The Greeks knew of three varieties of Nightshadé. The 
Garden, which they deemed innocent ; the Somniferous, which 
caused sleep; and the Furious, which caused madness and 
death ; but none of them precisely agree with our Atropa. 
Matthiolus, however, seems to have considered that Atropa 
Belladonna was unknown to the Greek physicians. Pereira 
mentions that the earliest undoubted notice of Belladonna 
occurs in the work of Tragus, a. p. 1532, who calls it Solanum 
Hortense nigrum. Joannes Bodeus says it is the same as the 
Solanum maniacum of Dioscorides. Among the Arabians, the 
juice of the recent leaves was applied in burns, im that 
disease common to them, called Buhe. Paulus Aigineta men- 
tions, that an over-dose will produce madness and death. 
Klinger tried many experiments with it, and gave it at the 
time of Alberti in cancer. 
Bergius, Evers, and Greding used the remedy, particularly 
in obstinate jaundice, from infarction of the liver; in epilepsy, 
chorea, and other convulsive disorders, as well as in palsy ; in 
mania, and in hydrophobia. Buckhave instituted a variety of 
experiments in diseases of the class neuroses, particularly in tussis 
convulsiva. He employed the root only, and notes as follows: 
“That adults had dryness of the fauces and nose for three or 
four hours, impeded deglutition, indistinct articulation, and 
that acids held only in the mouth were sufficient to remove 
these unpleasant sensations; that all kinds of drinks were use- 
less; the pulse full and quick, vertigo, congestion of the 
vessels of the head, flushings, dulness of the eyes, drun- 
kenness, dilated pupils, etc., were the consequences. But 
G > 
