140-3 
one-sixth part of it, and the rest of the alcohol added. The whole is then poured 
into a well-stoppered bottle, and allowed to stand eight days in a dark, cool place. 
The tincture, separated from this mass by filtration, has a reddish-brown color 
by transmitted light; a characteristic repugnant odor; a bitter, astringent taste ; 
and an acid reaction. 
CHEMICAL CONSTITUENTS.— Volatile Oil of Wormseed. This light yellow 
oil has a peculiar, strong, and quite offensive odor, and a pungent, bitterish, dis- 
agreeable but aromatic taste. Its sp. gr. when fresh is 0.908. It is freely soluble 
in alcohol, and boils at 190° (374° F.).* 
No analysis has yet been made to determine other principles in this species. 
PHYSIOLOGICAL ACTION.—The symptoms in a man who took about half 
an ounce of the drug were those of a narcotico-acrid poison, affecting the brain, 
spinal cord and stomach. He was insensible, convulsed, and foamed at the 
mouth.+ A man aged thirty took an ounce and a half of the oil and thirty drops 
of turpentine; the following symptoms came on: Nausea; vertigo; deafness to 
human voice, hearing acute for louder and more distant noises ; aphasia; inability 
to control the muscles as desired for any continued effort, and fatigue from 
attempting so to do; hilarity at his futile attempts at talking; repeats his actions 
like a drunken man; convulsions and finally paralysis of right side; involuntary 
urination ; apoplectic breathing ; frothing at the mouth; drenching sweat; opisthot- 
onos; icterus; and death during a comatose state followed; this on the fifth day 
from the ingestion of the drug. 
DESCRIPTION OF PLATE 140. 
1. Top of plant, Rawlinsville, Pa., Aug. 18th, 1885. 
2. Leaf. 
. Portion of leaf, showing glands. 
. Male flower. 
. Sepal. 
. Stamen. 
. Pistil. 
. Fruit and calyx. 
Seed. 
. Longitudinal section of seed. 
. Female flower. 
(3-11 enlarged. ) 
0D OI DMN WwW 
i 
al 
* Garrigues, in 4m. Four. Phar., xxvi, 405. 
+ Phar. Four., 1862, 330. 
t T. R. Brown, M.D., in Maryland Med. Four., Nov. 1878, 20; Alien, Encyc. Mat. Med., x, 457- 
