'260 VEGETABLE POISONS: 



SECTION V. 



Thorn Apple, 

 Datura Stramonium. Linn. 



Thts is found in the wastes of our own country, with spinous, 

 erect, ovate, labrous leaves. It rises about a yard high, with d 

 strong, perpendicular round hollow stalk, branching luxuriantly and 

 to a great extent. At night the upper leaves become erect, and 

 inclose the flowers, which have sometimes a tinge of purple or violet : 

 the flowers consist of a single funnel-shaped petal. 



This plant has been long known as a powerful narcotic poison j 

 its congener, the D. Metel, is thought to be Lt^uyyos u,otvixo$ of 

 Theophrastus and Dioscorides, and is therefore the species received 

 Dy Linnaeus into the Materia Medica. The stramonium, in its 

 recent state, has a bitterish taste, and a smell somewhat resembling 

 that of poppies, or as called by Bergius, narcotic, especially if the 

 leaves be rubbed betwixt the fingers. By holding the plant to the 

 nose for some time, or sleeping in a bed where the leaves are 

 strewed, giddiness of the head and stupor are said to have been 

 produced. 



Instances of the deleterious effects of this plant are numerous, 

 especially of the seeds, some of which we shall relate, for the pur- 

 pose of stating the symptoms which they produce. A man, aged 

 sixty-nine, labouring under a calculous complaint, by mistake boiled 

 the capsules of the stramonium in milk, and in consequence of 

 drinking this decoction was affected with vertigo, dryness of the 

 fauces, anxiety, followed with loss of voice and sense ; the pulse 

 became small and quick, the extremities cold, the limbs paralytic, 

 the features distorted, accompanied with violent delirium, continual 

 watchfulness, and a total suppression of all the evacuations; but in 

 a few hours he was restored to his former state of health. 



Every part of the plant appears to possess a narcotic power, but 

 the seeds are the only part, of whose fatal effects we find instances 

 recorded. Their soporiferous and intoxicating qualities are well 

 known in eastern countries; and, if we can credit the accounts of 

 some authors, have been converted to purposes the most licentious 

 and dishonourable. The internal use of stramonium, as well as that 



