IV] Solanacese 51 



following symptoms : "Headache, vertigo, nausea, extreme thirst, dry, 

 burning skin, and general nervous confusion, with dilated pupils, loss of 

 sight and of voluntary motion, and sometimes mania, convulsions, and 

 death." Walsh gives the toxic symptoms in ostriches as staggering gait, 

 spasmodic jerking of the neck, stupor, and death in a comatose state. 



REFERENCES. 

 4, 10, 16, 39, 52, 53, 73, 81, 92, 128, 141, 170, 203, 213, 260. 



Henbane {Hyosqjamus niger L.). The poisonous character of Henbane 

 is well known, but the plant is by no means common (except in Ireland), 

 though found in parts of England, Scotland, and Wales. Poisoning 

 of live stock may occasionally occur, but the disagreeable odour is 

 likely to prevent all but abnormal or very hungry animals from touching 

 it. The seeds are eaten by birds, apparently without injury, but 

 poisoned chickens which ate the ripe seeds in Montana. Cornevin records 

 that cows have been poisoned by eating the plant when given mixed with 

 other herbage. There are numbers of cases of children having been 

 poisoned by eating the seeds. The root has also caused accidents by 

 being taken for other herbs, and the young shoots and leaves have been 

 used in error as a vegetable. A case was reported in the press in 1910 in 

 which 25 men and women visitors at a Davos pension suffered from the 

 effects of eating the root of Henbane given in error for horse-radish, or 

 mixed with it. All suffered from strange hallucinations, but with 

 prompt and careful treatment all had recovered in twelve hours. Kann- 

 giesser says that poisoning by this plant very seldom terminates fatally. 



Welsby records a case in which animals were poisoned in a field in 

 which Henbane was grown for medicinal use some years before ( Veterinary 

 Record, 1903). According to Rodet and Baillet {vide Cornevin) small 

 quantities of the seeds are in some countries mixed with the food of 

 fattening stock ; if true that fattening is promoted, it is probably due 

 to the inducement to quiet and repose caused by the narcotic properties 

 of the seeds. 



Toxic Principle. Poisoning by Henbane is due to the alkaloids 

 Hyoscyamine (C17H23NO3) and the closely related Hyoscine, or Scopola- 

 mine (C17H21O4N). The glucoside Hyoscypicrin is also found in 

 Henbane. The poisonous property is not eradicated by drying or 

 boiling. The leaves of Henbane grown in Europe contain from 0-04 to 

 0-08 per cent, of total alkaloid, and the seeds 0-06 to 0-10 per cent. 

 {Bui. Imp. Inst., 1911). 



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