HENBANE 



193 



To those who fear that their patience and enthusiasm 

 may not be equal to this six weeks' strain another method 

 may be suggested. Dissolve three ounces of washing-soda 

 in two pints of boiling water, adding to it an ounce and 

 a half of quick-lime. Let this be boiled for some ten 

 minutes and then decant the solution. When we are 

 ready with our leaves, boil this solution again, and as soon 

 as it is in a state of ebullition drop them in, boiling 

 them for an hour or so and being careful to add hot water 

 to repair loss from evaporation. The leaves should now be 

 easily skeletonised by gently manipulating them, one by one, 

 in a basin of warm water. When we are satisfied with our 

 work thus far it remains only to bleach, and this can readily 

 be effected by dropping each of the leaves or seed-vessels 

 for about ten minutes into a bath having the proportion 

 of one drachm of chloride of lime to one pint of water. 

 Yet a third way is to boil our material for about a 

 couple of minutes and then drop it all into a strong solution, 

 slightly warm, of permanganate of potash, and in an hour 

 or so the leaves may be carefully stripped of their epidermis 

 by means of a small brush and of much patience Diluted 

 sulphuric acid should be used to bleach them. 



Botanically the henbane is the Hyoscyamus niger. The 

 generic name is from the Greek words meaning hog and 

 bean, from a belief that swine will eat the plant, while the 

 popular name henbane is equally the statement of a belief 

 that fowls, if they value their lives, had better not. 

 Matthiolus ^ says that "fowls that have eaten the seeds 



' Matthiolus, his name stripped of its Latin dress, was Pietro Andrea 

 Mattioli, an Italian botanical writer of great repute in his day. He was 

 born in the year 1500. His chief work was his Commentaries on the 

 Materia Medica of Dioscorides. 



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