100 PASTORAL AND AGRICULTURAL BOTANY 



Thorn Apple (Datura Stramonium and D. T alula), The Jamestown 

 Weed, or Jimson Weed, is a tall, much-branched annual with broadly, 

 ovate, shallowly lobed leaves and single, plaited, trumpet-shaped flowers, 

 either white (D. Stramonium) or purple in color (D. Tatula). The fruit is 

 a prickly imperfectly, four-celled capsule with sphericidal blackish-brown 

 seeds. 



Cases. The writer's earliest acquaintance with poisonous plants 

 was with this plant and poison ivy. While a lad about twelve years old, 

 three children of the neighborhood were brought into his father's drug 

 store having eaten the seeds of the Jimson weed. They were all suffering 

 from the effects of the poison. Emetics were administered and the writer's 

 father took all three children out into the back yard and compelled 

 them to run about by whipping the calves of their legs with a carriage whip 

 , until they broke into a prof use perspiration. He succeeded in saving their 

 lives by this and other heroic treatment. Many cases have been recorded 

 of poisoning by these plants. The Philadelphia Ledger of October 12, 

 1909 gives this account of poisoning "A verdict of death by accidental 

 poisoning by eating seeds of stramonium, or jimson-weed plant was found 

 by, a coroner's jury yesterday in the case of Martha Robinson, 3 years old 

 daughtei of Reseive Policeman James Robinson. The testimony showed 

 that Maitha and her little friend, Helen Bradley, attracted by the cur- 

 iously shaped seed pods of the weed growing on a lot at 55th and Paschal 

 Avenue, where they were playing, had broken several of them open and 

 had eaten the seeds. Both children became sick and went home where 

 antidotes were administered to them, but failed to overcome the toxic 

 effects in the case of Martha Robinson, who died in agony. Helen 

 Bradley was apparently on the load to recovery yesterday, but her con- 

 dition at tunes was extremely critical." 



Symptoms. The symptoms of poisoning are about the same in all 

 cases. Large doses produce headache, vertigo, nausea, extreme thirst, 

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

 of sight and of voluntary motion, sometimes with many convulsions and 

 death. Smaller doses act like ordinary narcotics. Emetics should be 

 administered and the stomach washed out with tea, tannic acid, or an 

 infusion of oak baik, if in the country. Pilocarpin is recommended by 

 physicians to counteract the drying effect upon the secretions and pro- 

 longed artificial respiration must be used to maintain the aeration of the 

 blood. 



