38 hound's-tongue. 



narcotic odour, and a saline, sweetish, disagreeable, viscid taste. 

 The foliage has a similar flavour to the root, but more insipid, and 

 a sub-narcotic fetid smell, which some have compared to that of 

 the goat, and others to the odour of mice or dog's urine. The 

 juice reddens litmus paper, and the watery infusion, which is of a 

 reddish-brown colour, is changed to a brownish-black by sulphate 

 of iron, and speedily throws down a dark-coloured precipitate. 

 Schreck* states, that the distilled water of the recent herb is ex- 

 tremely nauseous and has a narcotic odour. 



The somewhat lurid appearance of this plant, and the fact that 

 no animal except the goat will touch it, has caused it to be re- 

 garded with a degree of suspicion, which its fetid and narcotic odour 

 tends to confirm. Some writers deny the narcotic properties of 

 Hound's-tongue, but those who have gathered the plant in their 

 botanical excursions and have had occasion to handle it for any 

 length of time are well acquainted with its powerful narcotic ema- 

 nations ; in some cases producing nausea, giddiness, and fainting, 

 followed by sickness.f This property, however, is nearly lost after 

 the plant has been long kept, and it has then merely the cooling, 

 sweetish, and mucilaginous qualities of Bugloss and Comfrey, to 

 which it is closely allied. Soil, likewise, appears to have a material 

 influence upon it ; as, according to Hermann, those plants which 

 grow in damp places have a rank, heavy, narcotic smell, while 

 those produced in dry localities are nearly inodorous. There is no 

 doubt that the different parts of this vegetable, like Henbane, &c. 

 vary considerably according to age and season, and are most vi- 

 gorous just before the epoch of flowering. 



We have but few instances recorded of the poisonous effects of 

 this plant when accidentally received into the stomach. Mor- 

 rison X relates, that a whole family at Oxford ate the boiled leaves 

 gathered in mistake for those of Comfrey, and soon after dinner 

 were seized with obstinate vomiting, followed by stupor and sleepi- 

 ness ; which symptoms continued alternately for nearly forty hours, 

 and with such severity that one person died. Haller § mentions a 



* Diss, de Cynoglosso, p. 19. 



T M. Chamberet (Flore Medicale, tom.iii. p. 140) says, " after collect- 

 ing several specimens of Hound's-tongue, I was arranging them between 

 sheets of paper for preservation, when I was seized with uneasiness and 

 a sensation of fainting, succeeded by copious vomiting." 



X Hist. Oxon. iii. torn. iii. p. 450. 



§ Hist. Stirp, Helv. 587, 



