THE WEEDS OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 81 



Drageiidorff writes of Datura Stramonium : " Leaves and seeds are used 

 like Atropa (Deadly Nightshade) and Hyoscyamus (Henbane). . . . 

 The seed contains Hyoscyamin, Atropin, Hyoscin, and Oxyatropin." The 

 leaves contain the poisonous alkaloid Daturin of some chemists, but in 

 much smaller proportion than the seeds. Even the Matter possess only 

 1.10 per cent. 



In cases in which stock have eaten the herb, I desire to know whether the 

 toxic effect which has been recorded is in any way owing to the very danger- 

 ous seeds (in some cases the empty seed-pods have been eaten), or can be 

 attributed to foliage alone. It is a disgrace to us, an important -stock- 

 owning country, that we have not yet settled this point. Personally I have 

 raised it frequently enough. 



A farmer, of Kingsthorpe, Queensland, wrote to me as follows, after he 

 had read my article on Thorn Apple in the Agricultural Gazette of New 

 South Whales for January, 1918 : 



An old farmer here had blight in his eyes, and was pulling out the weed by 

 hand, and then went and bathed his eyes without thoroughly washing his 

 hands. The lids turned out, and the doctor said this was caused by the poison 

 in the Thorn Apple. His eyes have been bad now for over fifteen years, so 

 anyone pulling it out cannot be too careful. 



I had some growing in a prairie-grass paddock, and the horses were running 

 in it, and their legs swelled up very much; they could hardly walk. A 

 neighbour told me they would die, as he had had one die from the swelling like 

 mine. I kept them out of the paddock, and in a few days the swelling went 

 down and they got well. 



I have noticed that when cutting it, it has a tendency to bring on headaches. 

 (This is a common experience. J.H.M.) 



Until recently it was chiefly confined to the scrub soils on the Darling Downs, 

 hut now it is spreading everywhere. 



Our best-known Asthma Remedy. The leaves of Thorn Apple have been 

 used in Europe for a century or more, for mixing with tobacco for smoking 

 in cases of asthma, just as EupJiorbia pilulifera is sometimes employed by 

 people in Australia, who use it for a similar complaint. There is no doubt 

 it often gives relief in this distressing complaint, and Stramonium cigars 

 could be made locally just as they have been in Europe for close on fifty 

 years. A rough article could be made for domestic use, or the leaves may be 

 merely smouldered (with or without the aid of saltpetre) and the smoke 

 inhaled. As regards the sale of these medicinal cigars, the revenue authori- 

 ties offer no objection to them, provided they are made wholly of 

 Stramonium, and are not so made up and advertised as to lead the public to 

 Relieve that they are tobacco. 



Poisonous nature of the Seeds Following are extracts from an illustrated 

 article I wrote for the Sydney Mail of 5th April, 1890 : 



In the early part of the last month two men were camping near Jerilderie, 

 when one of them gathered a quantity of a plant which he believed to be marsh- 

 mallow, made a decoction of it, which was drunk cold by himself and his com- 

 panion, with the result that they became so seriously ill that they had to be 

 conveyed to the Jerilderie Hospital. Under the skilful treatment of Dr. A. C. 

 Hobinson the men fortunately recovered, and to that gentleman I am indebted 



