WOODY NIGHTSHADE 35 



globular in form, but are considerably greater in their 

 length than width, the form technically termed ovate. 

 Each contains numerous seeds. 



The plant by common repute is very poisonous, and 

 we certainly should not advise any one to lunch off the 

 berries. One Dr. Woodville, writing in 1790, declares 

 that thirty of these berries killed a dog in less than three 

 hours ; but, on the contrary, a Dr. Duval asserted that he 

 gave sixty to a dog without any appreciable results. This 

 clearly is one's opportunity to introduce, with variation, 

 that slightly threadbare remark : " Who shall decide when 

 doctors (and their canine patients) disagree ? " There are 

 undoubted cases recorded of their — the berries, not the 

 doctors — noxious and even fatal effects on children. One 

 old writer, we see, says that " the Berries of Bittersweet 

 stamped with rusty Bacon, applyd to that Joynt of the 

 Finger that is trubled with a Felon hath been found by 

 divers Country people, who are most subject thereunto, to 

 be very successful for the curing of the same " ; while 

 another says that the " iuyce is good for those that haue 

 fallen from high places and haue beene thereby bruised, 

 or dry beaten." The condition of one thus dry beaten 

 is not quite clear to us, but we imagine that though it 

 seems here an alternative to being merely bruised, the two 

 conditions are practically the same, that, in fact, if the 

 skin be not broken one may apply this " iuyce," but that 

 it would be less advisable to do so in the case of an open 

 wound. As none of our readers will apply it, probably, 

 in either case, the discussion of the point is merely academic, 

 and will not, in its result, affect the bills of mortality. 



Until quite recently the decoction of the stems has 



