288 FLORA HOMCZOPATHICA. 
GrocrApPuicaL Disrrisution.—Most parts of Europe, espe- 
cially in Austria, Carniola, Italy, and Greece; Burgundy, 
Vosges, Pyrenees, Alps, etc. 
Locaitizs.—On rocky and woody mountains. 
Parts usED in Mepicins, AND Mopr or PREPARATION.— 
The Fresh Root, which is dug up about Christmas, and prepared 
as all other fresh plants. The root has been adulterated with 
the roots of other plants, as the Aconitum neomontanum, 
Adonis vernalis, Helleborus viridis; Troillus Europeus, Actea 
spicata; these may be distinguished by their paler colour. 
Both the virtues and properties of the root are impaired by 
keeping. 
Puystotocica Errrcrs.—On Animals. Experiments on 
animals have shown, that when administered in doses of two or 
three drachms to dogs, death ensues in the course of sixteen or 
eighteen hours. Smaller animals are killed by its exhibition in 
much less time: for example, ten grains of the extract intro- 
duced into the windpipe of a rabbit destroyed life in six 
minutes; but with this, as with many other poisons, the effects 
are greater when applied to serous surfaces, and inserted into 
wounds, than when taken into the stomach. 
Six grains of powdered Hellebore were sprinkled over a 
wound made in the interior of the thigh of a small, young dog; 
there were no visible symptoms at the expiration of eight hours ; 
the next day, twenty hours after the operation, the animal was 
lying down on its side in a state of great dejection. He was 
quite sensible to external impressions; he could be moved like 
an inert mass of matter, but could not by any means keep him- 
self on his legs. He died three hours after; no sensible lesion 
was perceived in the digestive canal or in the lungs (Orfila, 
op. cit.) 
In all cases the leading symptoms are, efforts to vomit, giddi- 
ness, palsy of the hind legs, and insensibility. 
On Man.—Black Hellebore is a local irritant; given in small 
doses, it increases the secretion and peristaltic motion of the 
