232 ORD. XII. Solanacee seu Luride. . aTROPA BELLADONNA, 
tempted to eat this fruit by its alluring appearance and sweet taste. 
The number of these berries necessary to produce deleterious 
effects, may probably depend upon the state of maturity in which 
they are eaten: if not more than three or four be swallowed, 
according to Haller’s account, no bad consequence ensues ;— 
* Bacce sapore fatuo dulci possunt absque noxa edi > si numerus 
* tres quatuorve non excesserit: plures etiam a studioso medicine 
“ Coloniensi nomine Simonis vidi deglutiri.” Hal. Stirp. Helv. 
No. 579. 
But when a greater number of the berries are taken into the 
stomach, scarcely half an hour elapses before violent symptoms 
supervene ; viz. vertigo, delirium, great thirst, painful deglution, 
and retching, followed by furor, stridor dentium, and convulsions ;. 
the eye-lids are drawn down, the uvea dilated and immovable; 
the face becomes red and tumid, and spasms affect the mouth and. 
jaw; the general sensibility and irritability of the body suffer such 
great diminution, that the stomach often bears large and repeated 
does of tart. emet. (gr. 14.) without being brought into action; 
the pulse is small, hard, quick, and subsultus tendinum, risus sar= 
donius & coma, generally precede death. The body being opened, 
inflammation has been discovered in the intestines, mesentery, 
and liver, Comm. Nor. 1743. p. 61. And Boulduc, Hist. de l’Acad.. 
des Sc. de Paris, 1703, p. 56. found the stomach of a child 
eroded in three places. It may be necessary to remark, that 
vinegar, liberally drunk, has been found very efficacious in ob- 
viating the effects of this poison; evacuations should however be 
always first promoted. 
The leaves of the Belladonna were first used externally to discuss 
scirrhous and cancerous tumours, and also as an application to ill 
conditioned ulcers: their good effects in this way at length induced 
physicians to employ them internally for the same disorders, and 
we have a considerable number of well authenticated facts which 
* Hort, Florent. p. 6%, 
