iv] Solanaceas 51 
following symptoms : " Headache, vertigo, nausea, extreme thirst, dry, 
burning skin, and general nervous confusion, with dilated pupils, loss of 
sight and of voluntary motion, and sometimes mania, convulsions, and 
death." Walsh gives the toxic symptoms in ostriches as staggering gait, 
spasmodic jerking of the neck, stupor, and death in a comatose state. 
REFERENCES. 
4, 10, 16, 39, 52, 53, 73, 81, 92, 128, 141, 170, 203, 213, 260. 
Henbane (Hyoscyamus niger L.). The poisonous character of Henbane 
is well known, but the plant is by no means common (except in Ireland), 
though found in parts of England, Scotland, and Wales. Poisoning 
of live stock may occasionally occur, but the disagreeable odour is 
likely to prevent all but abnormal or very hungry animals from touching 
it. The seeds are eaten by birds, apparently without injury, but 
poisoned chickens which ate the ripe seeds in Montana. Cornevin records 
that cows have been poisoned by eating the plant when given mixed with 
other herbage. There are numbers of cases of children having been 
poisoned by eating the seeds. The root has also caused accidents by 
being taken for other herbs, and the young shoots and leaves have been 
used in error as a vegetable. A case was reported in the press in 1910 in 
which 25 men and women visitors at a Davos pension suffered from the 
effects of eating the root of Henbane given in error for horse-radish, or 
mixed with it. All suffered from strange hallucinations, but with 
prompt and careful treatment all had recovered in twelve hours. Kann- 
giesser says that poisoning by this plant very seldom terminates fatally. 
Welsby records a case in which animals were poisoned in a field in 
which Henbane was grown for medicinal use some years before ( Veterinary 
Record, 1903). According to Rodet and Baillet (vide Cornevin) small 
quantities of the seeds are in some countries mixed with the food of 
fattening stock ; if true that fattening is promoted, it is probably due 
to the inducement to quiet and repose caused by the narcotic properties 
of the seeds. 
Toxic Principle. Poisoning by Henbane is due to the alkaloids 
Hyoscyamine (C^H^NC^) and the closely related Hyoscine, or Scopola- 
mine (C 17 H 21 4 N). The glucoside Hyoscypicrin is also found in 
Henbane. The poisonous property is not eradicated by drying or 
boiling. The leaves of Henbane grown in Europe contain from 0-04 to 
0-08 per cent, of total alkaloid, and the seeds 0-06 to 0-10 per cent. 
(Bui Imp. Inst., 1911). 
42 
