pty 
SOLANUM NIGRUM. ORD. XII. Solanacee, seu Luride. 259 
Of its internal use we find very little evidence in the writings of 
the ancients; though, according to Czsalpinus,* it appears not to 
have been wholly neglected. 
In the year 1757, Mr. Gataker, surgeon to the Wikccinaier: Hos- 
pital, called the attention of the faculty to this plant, by a publica- 
tion’ recommending its internal use in old sores, scrophulous, and 
cancerous ulcers, cutaneous eruptions, and even in dropsies; all of 
which were much relieved, or completely cured, by the Solanum. 
It appears from his experiments, that one gratin of the dried leaves 
of the plant, infused in an ounce of water, sometimes produced a 
considerable effect ; that in the dose of two or three grains it seldom 
failed to evacuate the first passages, or to increase very sensibly 
either the discharge _by-the-skin. or_that-by-the kidneys, and it not 
unfrequently occasioned head-ach, giddiness, dimness, * and drowsi- 
ness. Mr, Gataker’s pamphlet was soon followed by another, pub- 
lished on the same subject by Mr. Bromfield,* who declares that the 
cases in which he tried the Solanum were much aggravated by it, 
and therefore he contends that its use is prejudicial and dangerous. 
Which of these contradictory accounts may be most worthy of 
credit itis not for us to determine; but if we judge from the disuse 
of the Solanum, the opinion of Mr. Bromfield seems to have been 
tracitly confirmed. However, in the year 1764, Mr. Gataker again 
renewed his assertion of the efficacy of Nightshade,’ which he does 
not attribute to any specific power, but to the evacuation it produces, 
* De plant. 213. 
i Observations on the internal use of Solanum. 
* See his Account of the English Nightshades. 
* Essays on Medical Subjects. See Introduction, and p. 38. 
