CHAPTER IX 



CLASSIFICATION OF POISONS. 



The classification of poisonous plants according to their effects is 

 a somewhat difficult process, since more than one prominent symptom 

 may be produced by the same plant. Two classifications, however, 

 may be given as examples, the first that of Blyth, and the second that 

 of A. B. Smith. These must be regarded as essentially applicable to 

 human beings, though serving more or less as a guide in case of poisoning 

 of farm live-stock. 



Blyth's Classification (after Pammel). 



A.— Poisons causing death immediately or in a few minutes : Prussic acid, 



cyanides, oxalic acid, and occasionally strychnine. 

 B. — ^Irritant Poisons, with symptoms chiefly pain, vomiting, and purging : Ergot, 



digitahs, colchicum, yew, laburnum. 

 C. — Irritant and Narcotic Poisons, with symptoms of an irritant nature, with 



more or less cerebral indications : OxaUc acid or oxalates. 

 D.— Poisons more especially affecting the Nervous System : 



1. Narcotics. — Symptoms: insensibihty, which may be preceded by more 

 or less cerebral excitement. Opium. 



2. Deliriants. — Delirium, for the most part, a prominent symptom : Bella- 

 donna, hyoscyamus, stramonium, and other Solanaceae, Lolium temu- 

 lentum, Oenanthe crocata, poisonous fungi. 



3. Con vxJLsrvES. — Almost every poison has been known to produce convulsive 

 effects, but the only true convulsive poisons are the alkaloids of the 

 strychnine class. 



4. Complex Nervous Phenomena. — Aconite, digitahs. 



A. Bernhard Smith's Classification. 



A.— Poisons acting on the Brain. 



1. Narcotics. — Symptoms: Giddiness; dimness of sight; contracted pupils ; 

 headache ; noises in the ears ; confusion of ideas, and drowsiness, passing 

 into insensibihty. 



British Plants indvded : Papaver somniferum. 



