258 DARNEL. 



Cordier* found by experiment on himself with pure darnel 

 flour, which he took to tlie amount of six drachms, that it occa- 

 sioned confusion of sight and ideas, great debility and languor, 

 tremors, drowsiness, succeeded by efforts to vomit, by which 

 much of the bread was rejected. Hence it appears that darnel 

 acts on the animal economy as an acrid narcotic, exciting the 

 gastric apparatus at first, and then the nervous and cerebral 

 systems, from which result its narcotic and intoxicating effects. 

 The deleterious effects of this grain on a family who partook of 

 it mixed with wheaten bread, are recorded in the London Medi- 

 cal and Physical Journal, for 1799-j-. In addition to the symptoms 

 already described, these persons experienced great pain and 

 tightness of the calves of the legs, and in one of them who par- 

 took of the bread when new, and again subsequently, and who 

 was not seized with vomiting, the pain and inflammation were 

 succeeded by gangrene, and he was compelled to undergo the 

 amputation of both legs. Some years ago about eighty persons 

 in the poor house of Sheffield, after breakfasting on oatmeal 

 porridge, were seized with the usual symptoms of poisoning by 

 darnel. Violent agitation of the limbs, convulsive twitchings, 

 small tremulous pulse, confusion of sight, and wildness of the 

 eyes were observed in nearly all these persons, and they all 

 pointed to the forehead as being the seat of torturing pain. 

 Copious draughts of vinegar were administered, and before night 

 the majority of them were greatly relieved ; but for the two 

 following days they complained of stupor and weakness of sight, 

 and two of the number were affected with convulsions for some 

 time, but they all eventually recovered X- A similar accident 

 happened at Freyburg, in the House of Correction, and was as- 

 cribed to the same source §. The foregoing cases clearly in- 

 dicate the presence of narcotic, combined with acrid properties, 

 but in the following instance it appeared to act solely as an irri- 

 tant on the bowels. A farmer, his wife, and a servant partook 

 of bread made with darnel and wheat, but the two latter were 

 so violently affected with vomiting and purging, that they re- 

 fused to eat any miore of it. He persevered, himself, however, 



* Sm- les Effets de I'lvraie. — Nouv. Jouru. de Med. vi. p. 379. 



t Vol. i. p. 423. 



J IMed. and Sui'gical Jourual, 1812, vol. xxviii. p. 183. 



<^ Buchner, Toxikologie, p. J74 ; see also Edinburgh Journal, vol. i. p.lOf>. 



