336 FOXGLOVE. 



extract in doses of two drachms produced similar effects, accompanied in 

 one instance with copious alvine dejections. In larger doses it occasioned, 

 prior to death, tremors, convulsions, stupor, and coma. The resinous ex- 

 tract, prepared by treating the powdered leaves with alcohol, proved most 

 energetic, and in all cases the eiFects were more rapid when the substance 

 was applied to a wound, and more particularly so when injected into a vein. 

 M. Orfila states that the movements of the heart were not in all cases 

 slackened ; sometimes they were accelerated, unequal, and intermittent *. 



The action of this plant on the human subject is nearly the 

 same as on animals, and several cases are recorded in which 

 it has prodviced fatal consequences, both from the imprudent 

 exhibition of excessive doses, and from its remarkable property 

 of accumulating in the system, after moderate doses consecu- 

 tively administered, and then suddenly producing constitutional 

 effects. The following cases illustrate its poisonous character. 



Dr. Henry, of Manchester, was called in to assist a female labouring^ 

 under dropsy, who had taken an over-dose of Foxglove, prepared by boiling 

 two handfuls of the leaves in a quart of water ; of this decoction she had 

 taken two large tea-cups full at seven a.m. Before eight she began to be 

 sick, and vomited part of the contents of the stomach. Enough, however, 

 was retained to excite vomiting and retching throughout the whole of that 

 and the following day, during which every thing that she took was rejected. 

 In the intervals of sickness she was excessively faint, and her skin was 

 covered with a cold sweat. The tongue and lips swelled, and there was a 

 constant flow of viscid saliva from the mouth. Very little urine was voided 

 on the day she took the Digitalis, and on the following day the action of the 

 kidneys was entirely suspended. When Dr. Henry saw her, which was forty- 

 eight hours after she had taken the poison, the tongue was white, the ptyalisra 

 continued, and the breath was fetid. The pulse was low, irregular, (not 

 exceeding 40,) and very intermittent. She complained of general pains in 

 the limbs and cramps in the legs. By the use of effervescing draughts and 

 ammonia with ether, her previous state of health was gradually restored -|-. 



Six ounces of a strong decoction of Foxglove leaves were administered to 

 a young lad by an empiric, as a laxative for some trifling complaint. The 

 patient took this dose early in the morning, and soon after was seized with 

 sickness, vomiting, and severe pains in the bowels, followed by purging. 

 Towards the afternoon he became lethargic, and slept profoundly se\-eral 

 hours. At midnight he awoke with vomiting and colic, and in a short 

 time he was attacked with general convulsions. A surgeon who saw him 

 early in the morning found him violently convulsed, with the pupils dilated 



* Traite des Poisons, tom. ii. p. 280, sqq. 



I Edinburgh Med. and Surg. Journal, vol. viii. p. 148, 



