LILY FAMILY. 53 



FALSE HELLEBORE Veratrum twide Ait. 



Other Common Names: American White Hellebore, 

 Swamp Hellebore, Indian Poke, Devil's-bite, Meadow 

 Poke. 



A European species of Veratrum is used as a drug, and 



the American forms contain the same alkaloids. Most 



cases of Veratrum poisoning are due to 



Examples and overdoses in medicine, but both men and 



Conditions of ... . . . 



Poisoning animals have been poisoned accidentally 



by the plants. One historic case has been 

 quoted many times in which a whole family was poisoned 

 by leaves that had been prepared as greens. Chesnut 

 states that on account of its acrid, burning taste, animals 

 do not like the plant, but that young ones sometimes eat 

 it with fatal results, and that chickens have been killed 

 by the seeds. 



Veratrin, the chief poison, produces an intense burning 



of the throat, and acts chiefly on the heart and spinal 



cord, but produces also vomiting, purging 



Symptoms , , . 



and abdominal pain. The symptoms as 

 stated by Dr. Winslow are : "Salivation, vomiting or at- 

 tempts at vomiting, purging, abdominal pain, muscular 

 weakness, difficulty in progression, loss of power and 

 general paralysis, muscular tremors and spasms, and, 

 occasionally, convulsions. The pulse is unaltered at first, 

 but later becomes infrequent and compressible, and fin- 

 ally thread-like and running. The respiration is shallow, 

 the temperature is reduced, the skin is cold and clammy; 

 there is semi-consciousness, loss of sight and death from 

 asphyxia-" 



