206 FLORA HOMCOPATHICA. 
In large doses, Colchicum acts as a violent poison, and many 
fatal cases have been recorded. Mr. Fereday (Lond. Med. 
Gazette, vol. x. p. 160) relates a case of poisoning with two 
ounces of the wine of the seeds of Colchicum taken by mistake 
for rum. About an hour and a half after swallowing it, acute 
pain in the bowels came on, followed by copious vomiting of a 
yellow fluid, tenesmus, small, slow, and feeble pulse. The pain 
was described as of a knife piercing him; the tongue was 
natural; the countenance anxious; features sharp; cheeks, lips, 
and palpebre purple; sensation of losing his limbs on walking; 
the vomiting increased; the fluid brought up was like coffee- 
grounds; and the patient died forty-seven hours after taking the 
poison. On a post-mortem examination, the face, neck, and 
front of the thorax were found covered with a purple efflores- 
cence. The stomach and bowels were coated with a thick, 
tenacious, colourless mucus. Blood was effused between the 
muscular and peritoneal coats; the pleure costales were much 
reddened; the heart was flabby, and its structure easily broken 
down; two red patches were found, one in the stomach, and 
the other in the jejunum. Ecchymosed spots were observed 
on the surface of the lungs, of the heart, and of the diaphragm. 
Dr. Ollivier (Annales @ Hyg., 1836, vol. ii. p. 394) records two 
cases. In the first, continual vomiting, but no purging; pulse 
thready and slow; intense thirst; severe cramps in the soles of 
the feet; intellect unaffected; no convulsions or tetanic spasms. 
The patient died in twenty-two hours. In the second case the 
symptoms soon set in after taking the poison. There were violent 
pains in the abdomen; frequent vomiting, but no purging; dif- 
ficult respiration; pupils not dilated; coldness of the surface; 
no tetanic spasms, but cramps in the soles of the feet; pulse 
small; the intellect was not impaired. Death took place in 
twenty-seven hours. The vessels of the pia mater were much 
injected; no vascularity of the stomach. 
A man swallowed a large quantity of Colchicum seeds; he 
soon experienced a burning sensation in the throat, with nausea, 
