162 NAT. ORDER. SOLANACEJ!. 



This plant has been long known as a powerful narcotic 

 poison. Its congener, Datura metel, is thought by Theophrastus 

 and Dioscorides to be superior, and was therefore the species re- 

 ceived by Linnaeus into the IMateria Medica. The Stramonium, 

 in its recent state, has a bitterish taste, and a smell somewhat re- 

 sembling that of poppies, or, as called by an ancient author, nar- 

 cotic, especially if the leaves be rubbed between the fingers. By 

 holding the plant to the nose for some time, or sleeping in a bed 

 where the leaves are strewed, giddiness of the head, and stupor, 

 are said to be produced. 



Instances of the deleterious effects of this plant are numerous, 

 especially of the seeds, some of which we shall relate, for the 

 purpose of conveying to the reader some idea of the symptoms 

 which they produce. A man, aged sixty-nine, laboring under a 

 calculous complaint, by mistake boiled the capsules of the Stra- 

 monium in milk, and, in consequence of drinking of this decoc- 

 tion, was affected with vertigo, dryness of the fauces, anxiety, fol- 

 lowed by loss of voice and sense : the pulse became small and 

 quick, the extremities cold, the limbs paralytic, the features distor- 

 ted, accompanied by violent delirium, continual watchfulness, and 

 a total suppression of all the evacuations; but in a few hours he 

 was restored to perfect health. Many circumstances of a similai' 

 character have come under our observation, showing in' every in- 

 stance that this plant is a most deadly narcotic, and should be used 

 with great caution. We lately saw several children poisoned with 

 the roots of the Aconite, or monk's-hood, thrown into the street, in 

 the suburbs of the city; also with the seed of the Stramoniuyn, or 

 Thorn-apple ; both at the same time. Those that partook of the 

 former were seized with very violent complaints of vomiting, an 

 alarmint^ pain in the head, stomach and bowels ; the latter with 

 blindness, and a kind of madness — biting, scratching, shrieking, 

 lautjhing and crying, in a frightful manner. Many of them were 

 very dangerously affected, and escaped very narrowly with liCe. 



