10 Ranunculaceae [ch. 



and itself gives rise in the plant to Anemonic acid and Anemonin 

 (CioHg04), a very poisonous, narcotic substance, stated to be neither 

 a glucoside, nor an alkaloid, but a ring ketone with the properties of 

 an acid anhydride. 



Symptoms. — The symptoms recorded by Cornevin in the poisoning 

 of animals by the fresh plants are nausea, coughing, vomiting (if pos- 

 sible), stupefaction, muscular tremors, and violent colic, accompanied 

 at times by hematuria and always by diarrhoea and dysentery. There 

 are pronounced respiratory and heart troubles. 



Pott confirms the symptoms of hsematuria, diarrhoea, and inflam- 

 mation of the stomach and intestines in the case of A. Pulsatilla when 

 fed in the green condition. According to Esser, the plant poison affects 

 the spinal cord and the brain, the symptoms being similar to those 

 produced by Aconitum Napellus. 



REFERENCES. 

 16, 63, 81, 191, 197, 198, 213, 233, 240. 



Buttercups {Ranunculus sp.). A number of species of Ranunculus 

 are acrid, irritant or severely poisonous, as the case may be. There 

 are variations in the poisonous character according to the season, and 

 some parts of the plant are more toxic than others. At the time the 

 young shoots develop in the spring but little of the poisonous principle 

 is present, and some {e.g. R. Ficaria) are not then poisonous, but a 

 larger quantity of the poisonous principle forms later, and some species 

 are especially dangerous at the time of flowering, after which the toxicity 

 decreases with the maturity and state of dryness of the plant. The 

 flowers are the most poisonous, and then the leaves and stem. It does 

 not seem to have been demonstrated that the seeds of any species are 

 dangerous, though Henslow states that the fruits of some species, when 

 green, appear to be most intensely acrid. 



Some species of Ranunculus are especially harmful {R. sceleratus, 

 R. Flammula, and R. bulbosus), while others are less so {R. lingua, R, 

 Ficaria, R. acris). The toxic principle is volatile, and buttercups are 

 easily rendered innocuous by drying or boiling — so much so that when 

 dried in hay they may be regarded as a nourishing food for stock, and 

 are readily eaten. Indeed, R. repens is scarcely, if at all, injurious even 

 when green, though a case of fatal poisoning to sheep said to be due to 

 this species was reported in the Veterinarian in 1844. Fresh R. aquatilis 

 is held to be quite harmless, and has been used as a fodder. "Along 

 the banks of the Hampshire Avon, and other places in the same neigh- 



