COLCHICUM. 205 
climate and season have much to do with its deleterious pro- 
perty. It is said to be harmless to horses; but Mr. Woodward, 
in “ Withering’s British Plants” (1. c.), says, that in a pasture in 
which were several horses, and eaten down pretty bare, the grass 
was closely cropped even under the leaves, but not a leaf bitten. 
On Man.—Stirck (Libellus de Rad. Colch. Aut.) found that on 
cutting the fresh juice into slices, the acrid particles emitted from 
it irritated the nostrils, fauces, and breath, and that the ends of 
the fingers with which it had been held became quite benumbed ; 
that, applied for two minutes to the tip of the tongue, it rendered 
the part rigid and almost void of sensation for six hours; that less 
than a grain wrapped up in a crumb of bread, and taken inter- 
nally, produced alarming symptoms, a burning heat and pain in 
the stomach and bowels, strangury, tenesmus, thirst, total loss 
of appetite, etc., which were greatly relieved by an acidulous . 
mixture of syrup of poppies; that an infusion of three grains of 
the root in four ounces of wine, slowly swallowed, occasioned a 
tickling in the larynx and a short, dry cough; soon after, a 
heat of the urinary passages and a copious discharge of pale 
urine, without sensibly affecting the other organs of the body; 
that an ounce of the sliced root being digested in a pound of 
vinegar for forty-eight hours, and the bottle frequently shaken, 
the root became insipid, but the vinegar became acrid, irritated 
the fauces, and produced cough. 
According to Dr. Lewins (Edin. Med. and Surg. Jour., 
vol. xlvii. p. 345), small doses, frequently repeated, produce 
- debility, sensation of malaise, and headache. Dr. Barlow 
(Cyclop. of Pract. Med., vol. ii. p. 371) has seen twenty evacua- 
tions by stool from one dose of Colchicum, without producing 
corresponding debility. Wood and Bache (United States Dis- 
pensatory, 3rd_ edit.) record violent salivation as the result of 
small doses of Colchicum. Its chief effects, in small and re- 
peated doses, seem to bea tendency to promote the action of 
the secreting organs, especially of the intestinal mucous mem- 
brane, and to produce perspiration. (Per., 1. c.) 
R 
