DICOTYLEDONS II7 



innocuous in some cases, as has been asserted, 

 children and others would very probably suffer if 

 they ate them at all green. The principle acts 

 as an acro-narcotic poison. It is retained in the 

 British Pharmacopoeia, but apparently not often 

 employed. 



Black Solanum {Solamim nigrum), — This is 

 a small annual plant, about one foot to eighteen 

 inches high, and is often a troublesome weed in 

 ill-kept gardens, if allowed to scatter its purple- 

 black, globular berries. It exhales a disagreeable 

 odour. Solanine exists in the fruits. Children 

 have suffered by eating them on the Continent, 

 though they are sometimes harmless to adults, 

 at least in this country, as Solanine is not very 

 abundant in the stem and leaves, which had no 

 effect upon a horse. 



Three children are recorded as having eaten the 

 berries of the Black Solanum, and suffered from 

 vertigo, dilated pupils, nausea, colic, stertorous 

 breathing, and convulsions.^ 



Potato {Solanum tuberosum). — The potato plant 

 contains the same principle, Solanine ; which, since 

 it is mostly in connection with green parts or 

 chlorophyll, potatoes which have been insufficiently 

 covered and become green, should never be eaten. 



1 Dr. Tanner says : — To prevent a fatal result from Hen- 

 bane or Nightshade, we must trust to emetics and full doses 

 of castor-oil. 



