HENBANE. 399 



Occasional topic *. Celsus -f- recommends the leaves to be 

 made into a collyrimn with yolk of egg, and the seeds as an 

 ingredient in pills for procuring sleep. Plater ;}; considered 

 the seeds useful in haemorrhoids and haemoptysis, and Boyle 

 highly commended an electuary composed of equal quantities of 

 the seeds of Henbane and white poppy, with conserve of red 

 roses, as a remedy in haemorrhages. To Storck §, liowever, 

 almost exclusively belongs the merit of discovering the true 

 character and value of this plant. He administered the extract 

 of the leaves in convulsions, epilepsy, palpitations of the heart, 

 and inveterate headache, likewise in mania, melancholy, and 

 haemoptysis with the best effects. In the hands of later practi- 

 tioners it has not proved equally successful in all these affec- 

 tions, but it forms an excellent substitute for opium in those 

 cases where the latter produces sickness and head-ache, or cos- 

 tiveness, as it tends rather to relax the bowels and promote 

 diaphoresis. Although in general it induces pleasant sleep, in 

 some constitutions it occasions head-ache, nausea, feverishness, 

 colic pains, and a copious flow of urine ||. 



It has been found very serviceable in various spasmodic 

 affections, hysteria, pyrosis or water-brash, gout, rheumatism, 

 and in gall-stones when they occasion spasms of the duct In 

 phthisis it allays the cough and general irritability of the system, 

 and in colica pictonum it proves very useful combined with 

 purgatives, such as colocynth, the griping effect of which it 



* It has been famous, however, for the purposes to which it has been 

 abused by designing persons, such as fortune-tellers, conjurors, cunning- 

 men, &c. From the leaves was prepared the sorcerer''s oinimenl, and from 

 the root the celebrated anodyne necklaces "to be hung about children's 

 necks, to prevent fits and cause an easy breeding of the teeth." A very 

 different quality is attributed to the seeds of Henbane by a German writer 

 in the Ejyhemerides Germ, vii., viii. decur. 3, p. 106 : he states that the 

 fumes of the seeds proceeding from a stove caused a violent quarrel between 

 a man and his wife who had previously lived in the utmost harmony. 



-J- De Medicina, lib. v. c. 25, lib. vi. c. 6. t Prax. I\Ied. p. 035. 



§ Lib. de Stramonio, Hyoscyamo, &c. p. 26, sq. 



II "• In a full dose the delusions it presented to the mind in tlie first in- 

 stance were the most dehghtful that can be conceived. The scenes before 

 the eyes were of a most enchanting description, and every sense was ra- 

 vished with the utmost excess of pleasure. These scenes, however, were as 

 transient as they were delightful : in a few hours the senses were as much 

 annoyed as they had before been gratified, and the utmost irritability of 

 mind succeeded to the most delightful tranquillity." — .Waller, /. c. 



