NAT. ORDER. LURIDTl. JOb 



child will sometimes fall a victim. The symptoms are less urgent 

 when taken in small quantities, and sometimes the only one present is 

 temporary intoxication. 



In cases of this kind the first object is to excite vomiting, and as 

 the stomach is very torpid it requires powerful emetics ; free use of 

 the lobelia ivflata most usually gives relief; when the stomach is 

 cleared, give saline purgatives, and after this, vegetable acids. Where 

 death has been produced by these berries, the stomachy intestines and 

 liver have been found inflamed; and although this plant is so pernicious 

 to man, it is eaten with impunity by some other animals. The sen- 

 sible effects produced by the leaves of this plant taken in medicinal 

 doses, are usually by the skin, the urinary passages, and sometimes by 

 stool ; in larger doses troublesome dryness of the mouth and throat, 

 giddiness, and dimness of sight are experienced. That the advantages 

 derived from the internal use of Belladonna are only in proportion to 

 the evacuations effected by it, is a conclusion we cannot admit as suf- 

 ficiently warranted by the facts adduced upon this point. 



As this plant is very uncertain in its operation, the proper dose is 

 with difficulty ascertained. The most prudent manner of administer- 

 ing it is by beginning with one grain or less, which may be gradually 

 increased according to its effects. Although a powerful narcotic, it 

 likewise possesses some diaphoretic and diuretic properties. CuUen 

 speaks of its being very useful in cancer, and even asserts that this 

 destructive disease has been cured by it ; subsequent trials of it, how- 

 ever, have not been attended with equal success, and we therefore 

 think that no reliance can be placed on it as a remedy, capable of pro- 

 ducing a radical cure. Applied to the eyelids in the form of extract, 

 it produces great dilatation of the pupil, and on this account it has 

 been used to render the operation for cataract less difficult 



