BELLADONNA RADIX ET FOLIA 29 



treatises by Amoreaux (20a), Paris, 1760; Daries (184), 

 Leipsic, 1776; Munch (453), Gottingen, 1783 and 1785, 

 and subsequently by all who wrote comprehensively on 

 medicine. In toxicology, the German botanist, Leonard 

 Fuchs, (251) figured the plant as Solatium somniferum, 

 1542, fully identifying its poisonous properties, and 

 J. M. Faber, Augsburg, 1677 (231a), wrote also on its 

 poisonous action. But the people in the plant's habitat 

 have ever been aware that all parts, even to the berries, 

 were poisonous. So far as we can locate its record, the 

 first study concerning its local use in the eye is that of 

 Himly (317a) of Paris, 1802, although country people 

 in its habitat have known from all time that it possesses 

 the power of dilating the pupil. In physicians' prac- 

 tice belladonna has a more recent introduction, due to 

 the commendation of the renowned pharmacist, Mr. 

 Peter Squire (611), of London, who about 1860 com- 

 mended belladonna tincture as the basis of a useful 

 liniment, for the relief of neuralgic pains. The drug is 

 now used chiefly in the making of the alkaloid atropine 

 (now, 1921, largely obtained from Stramonium, which 

 see), and in the preparation of belladonna plaster. 

 Johnson and Johnson, New Brunswick, N. J., and 

 Seabury and Johnson, New York City, now use an 

 enormous amount of belladonna, yearly, in the mak- 

 ing of plasters. Dymock is authority (Pharmaco- 

 graphia Indica, Vol. 2, p. 572) for the statement that 

 the plant "is not mentioned by Sanskrit writers and 

 does not appear to have been ever used medicinally 

 in India." In America, the common name "Deadly 

 Nightshade" is also applied to other species of So- 

 lanum. Concerning these, Professor Lewis Kund- 

 son, of the Laboratory of Plant Physiology, Cornell 



