338 ORD. XII. Solanacece, seu Luride. SOLANUM NIGRUM. 
The smell of this plant is faint and disagreeable; to the taste it 
manifests no peculiar flavour, being simply herbaceeus. It appears 
to possess the deleterious qualities of the other Nightshades, in a 
very considerable degree; even the odour of the plant is said to be 
so power!ully narcotic as to cause sleep.* 
The berries are equally poisonous with the leaves. Three chil- 
dren, upon eating them, were suddenly seized with cardialgia and 
delirium, accompanied with spasms, and remarkable distortions of 
the limbs :° and to poultry they proved fatal in a short time.* 
The plant, or rather the leaves which were boiled and eaten by a 
mother and four children, produced swellings of the face and limbs, 
followed by inflammation and gangrene; but the husband, who 
likewise ate of this vegetable at the same time, found no consequent 
disorder. @ 
Its deleterious effects appear still more certain from the experi- 
ments of Messrs. Gataker and Bromfield; the latter asserts that in 
doses of one grain it had a mortal effect upon one of his patients.° 
_ As this species of Nightshade is thought to be the Erguys xmas of 
Dioscorides,’ its external use was resorted to in ancient times as a 
discutient and anodyne in various affections of the skin, tumefac- 
tions of the glands, ulcers, and disorders of the eyes; nor does the 
utility of this practice want the confirmation of later experience.® 
* Boccone. Museo di fis. p. 284. > Vide Wepfer De cicut. p. 226. 
© Haller. t. c. 4 Rucker. Commerc. Noric. 1731. p. 372. 
© It ought to be remarked, however, that Dioscorides and Theophrastus mention 
it as anesculent plant; and Gueriu (de vegetat. venen. Alsatie. 1766. p. 66.) relates 
that he drank an infusion of fifteen grains of the Solanum nigrum without suffering 
any consequent complaint; and that an epileptic patient took from half a dram to 
two drams of the expressed juice of the plant without perceiviag any narcotic symp- 
tom to follow; nor with some soldiers, to whom a still larger dose was given, to- 
gether with two drams of the juice of the berries, was any other effect produced 
n that of an increased geneity of urine. See Murray, d. ¢. 
* Mat. Med. Lib. 4. c. 71. 
® With the Arabians it is a common application to burns and ulcers. See Forskal. 
Descript. plant. c. 2. p. 46, Ray also speaks sn of its effects in indurations of 
the breast. See Hyst.d.c.- ~ 
ids ic iatedegas SRR n RNS Ae te ee 
