CROWFOOT. 229 



use it must be to correct by its warmth the insipidity of the 

 grasses. 



Professor Bigelow states, " that the acrimony of the Crowfoot, 

 although volatile, differs from that of the Arum in not being 

 destroyed by a moderate heat, and in being fully preserved in 

 distillation. I have subjected various species of Ranunculus to 

 this experiment, and always found the distilled water to possess 

 a strong acrimony, while the decoction and portions of the plant 

 remaining in the retort were wholly destitute of this property. 

 The distilled water, when first taken into the stomach, excited 

 no particular effect, but after a few seconds a sharp, sting- 

 ing sensation was always produced. When swallowed, a great 

 sense of heat took place in the stomach. I preserved some of 

 the distilled water of the leaves for some months in a close 

 stopped phial, during which time it retained its acrimony un- 

 diminished. In winter it froze, and on thawing had lost this 

 property."* 



Poisonous Properties. — Orfila having introduced five ounces 

 of the juice of this Ranunculus into the stomach of a small 

 robust dog, the oesophagus being first tied, and having applied 

 two drachms of the watery extract of the same plant to the cel- 

 lular tissue of the internal part of the thigh of another strong 

 dog, both animals died at the end of twelve and fourteen hours, 

 without exhibiting any other phenomenon but extreme de- 

 jection. The lungs of both were engorged, reddish, and 

 covered with several livid spots. In the first, the internal 

 membrane of the stomach presented several spots of a bright 

 red colour, and the limb operated on in the second animal was 

 enormously swollen and very much inflamed. From these ex- 

 periments he concludes that the plant acts by producing great 

 local irritation, followed by inflammation of the parts to which 

 it is applied, and that death takes place from the sympathetic 

 action of the nervous system. 



Krapf -|- found, by experiments on himself^ that two drops of 

 the expressed juice of this plant produced burning pain and 

 spasms in the gullet, and griping in the lower belly. A single 

 flower, well pounded, had the same effect. On chewing the 

 thickest and most succulent of the leaves, the salivary glands 



* American Med, Botany, vol. iii. part i. p. 65. 



■|- Experimenta de nonnuUorum Ranunculorum venenata qualitate, ho- 

 rum externo et intemo usu. Vien, 1766. p, 101, sq. 



