* 
DATURA STRAMONiUM. ORD. XIV. Sofanacew, seu Luride. 198 
pose of stating the symptoms which they produce. A man, aged 
sixty-nine, labouring under a calculous complaint, by mistake 
boiled the capsules of the Stramonium in milk, and in consequence 
of drinking this decoction was affected with vertigo, dryness of the 
fauces, anxiety, followed with loss of voice and sense; the pulse 
became small and quick, the extremities cold, the limbs paralytic, 
the features distorted, accompanied with violent delirium, continual 
watchfulness, and a total suppression of all the evacuationsg but in 
a few hours he was restored to his former state of health.* 
Every part of the plant appears to possess a narcotic power,* but 
the seeds are the only part, of whose fatal effeets we find instances 
recorded. Their soporiferous and intoxicating qualities are well 
The circumstances recited in the following advertisement, published’by my friend 
‘Dr. Haygarth, shew the necessity of adopting the precautions, which he judiciously 
recommends, and which ought to be made public, 
Gardeners are particularly desired to take care never to throw poisonous plants 
** out of gardens into the streets, lanes, or even the fields to which people can have 
“< access. Poor children, for diversion, curiosity, or hunger, are prompted to eat all 
‘< kinds of vegetables which come in their way, especially seeds, fruits, or roots. 
‘¢ This caution does not proceed from fanciful speculation, but from actual mischief, 
‘¢ produced by the cause here specified. A physician has lately seen several children 
‘¢ poisoned with the roots of the Aconite or Monkshood, thrown isito an open field 
‘¢ in the City of Chester, and with the Seeds of the Stramonium or Thorn Apple, 
‘¢ thrown into the street. The former were seized with very violent complaints of 
‘© vomiting, an alarming pain of the head, stomach, and bowels; the latter with blind- 
** ness, and a kind of madness, biting, scratching, shrieking, laughing, and crying, 
“in a frightful manner. Many of them were very dangerously affected, and escaped 
*¢ very narrowly with life. These, and all other, poisonous plants, taken out of 
‘¢ gardens, should be carefully buried or burned.” 
© Ess. & Obs. Phys. & Lit. ». ii. p. 247. 
According to Haller, ‘ Deliria facit utique & sopores, inde amentiam, maniam, 
~ convulsiones, paralyses artuum, stiles: frigidas, sitim vehementem, tremores.” J. c. 
4 For that of the root, see Ray, fc. “For that of the leaves, Déderlin, Comm. 
= Nor. t: c. fp: 15. 
