FOXGLOVE. 537 



and insensible, and the pulse slow, feeble, and irregular. Coma quickly 

 succeeded, and death took place twenty-two hours after the poison was 

 swallowed. On examining the body, the external membranes of the brain 

 were found much distended with blood, and the inner coat of the stomach 

 was red in some parts *. 



A man, affected with humid asthma, took a drachm of the powdered 

 leaves in mistake for a grain. He was soon seized with vomiting, vertigo, 

 and dimness and confusion of sight. The efforts to vomit were followed by 

 the expulsion of a mucous and bilious matter, and were very frequent and 

 violent, attended with great pain in the bowels, which was alleviated by 

 lavements. These sjTnptoms continued the whole of the following day, and 

 the patient was much exhausted, with the pulse slow and irregular. The 

 vomiting disappeared on the third day, but the pain in the abdomen con- 

 tinued, and he expectorated a thick and whitish matter. Opiates, aromatic 

 infusions, and wine were administered, and he gradually recovered. The 

 confusion of vision, however, remained for a fortnight, and immediately 

 the effects of the poison disappeared, the cough and dyspnoea returned f . 



Dr. Blackall states that one of his patients, while taking two drachms of 

 the infusion of the leaves daily, was attacked with pain over the eyes and 

 confusion, followed in twenty-four hours by a profuse watery diarrhoea, 

 delirium, convulsions, insensibility, and an almost complete stoppage of the 

 pulse. Although some relief was obtained from an opiate clyster, the con- 

 vulsions continued to recur in frequent paroxysms for three weeks ; in the 

 , intert'al he was forgetful and delirious, and at length he died in one of the 

 convulsive fits J. 



Treatment.— In cases of poisoning by Foxglove, as by other 

 narcotico-acrid poisons, the offending substance must first be 

 expelled by emetics or by the stomach-pump, unless spontaneous 

 vomiting have occurred. An infusion of yellow bark (Cinchona 

 cordifolki) has been recommended, to wash out the stomach ; 

 subseqttently, if the narcotic symptoms be urgent, cordials and 

 stimulants, such as brandy, ammonia, aitd opium, may be adminis- 

 tered, together with cold affiisions, frictions, and blisters. In a 

 case to which Dr. Beddoes § was summoned, he gave three 

 grains of opium at two doses, an hour intervening between each ; 

 after which, he ordered fifteen drops of tincture of opium 

 every hour in port wine, till the patient fell asleep. The next 

 morning, the nausea still continuing, an injection containing 

 sixty drops of laudanum was administered, and subsequently 

 small doses of ipecacuanha and extract of hemlock. 



* Edinburgh Journal, vol. xxvii. p. 223. 



-|- Villiers, in "Journal de Medecine," &c., Novemb. 1817. 



:[: Blackall on Dropsy, p. 173. 



§ medical Facts and Observations, vol. v, p. 27- 



