28 PHARMACOPEIAL DRUGS 



nardes states that the drug was much esteemed by the 

 Indians, and later by the Spaniards, who transported 

 it to Spain. Clusius (153) received, 1581, a specimen 

 from Morgan, an apothecary to Queen Elizabeth. The 

 price list of the city of Frankfort, Germany, 1669, 

 gives it a place, while in 1646 it was noticed in the 

 records of the city of Basle. But notwithstanding 

 that Monardes (447) figured a broken pod and leaflet, 

 and Humboldt and Bonpland (331) saw the tree in 

 New Granada, 1799, it was reserved for Weir, 1863, a 

 plant collector to the Royal Horticultural Society, 

 London, to obtain the first good specimens of the pods 

 and leaves, Guerin, 1868, first obtaining the flowers. 

 Thus a complete description of a drug known in do- 

 mestic medicine for centuries was finally authori- 

 tatively established. The introduction of balsam of 

 tolu into medicine and pharmacy followed the track 

 of its empirical record, as is true of all other natural 

 drugs of the Pharmacopeia. 



BELLADONNA RADIX ET FOLIA 



(Belladonna, Deadly Nightshade) 



Belladonna Leaves have been official in all editions of the 

 Pharmacopeia. The edition of 1860 first mentions Belladonna 

 Root, but restricts it to "plants more than two years old," a re- 

 striction followed by the edition of 1870, but removed in 1880 

 and all editions following. 



The plant Atropa Belladonna is native to southern 

 Europe, extending thence to the Crimea, Caucasia and 

 the northern parts of Asia Minor. About 1504 a book 

 appeared in Paris titled the Grand Herbier, which 

 carried the first authentic notice of belladonna, although 

 the term "solatrum furiale," used by Saladinus of 

 Ascoli (570), about 1450, is presumed to refer to it. 

 The effects of belladonna, internally, were subjects of 



