128 MEZEKE0N. 



copious yellow precipitate, which, when freed from the lead by 

 means of sulphuretted hydrogen, he found to be a vegetable prin- 

 ciple, sui generis, and he has given it the name of Daphnin." * 

 It has been observed that the nut of the drupe contains an oily 

 principle, which is exceedingly caustic. 



Poisonous Properties — The berries of this plant are a mortal 

 poison to animals in general. Linnaeus t compares them to mix vomica ; he 

 asserts that six of them will kill a wolf ; and that he once saw a girl die of 

 excessive vomiting and haemoptysis, in consequence of taking twelve of them 

 to check an ague. Vicat $ relates the case of a man who took a decoction 

 of the wood for dropsy, and was attacked with profuse diarrhoea and obsti- 

 nate vomiting, which latter recurred occasionally for six weeks, although 

 measures were employed to arrest it. M. Blatin § also mentions an in- 

 stance in which violent pain in the stomach and intestines were accom- 

 panied with a burning sensation of the skin, restlessness, loss of appetite, 

 intense fever, and irregular action of the tendons. These symptoms were 

 relieved by copious draughts of a sweetened decoction of marsh-mallow. 

 Orfila's || experiments have been confined to the Daphne Gnidium or Garou 

 of the French. 



The berries are reputed to constitute the favourite food of various birds, 

 especially of some species of Finch. This may be accounted for on the sup- 

 position that they eat only the pulpy part of the fruit, which is destitute of 

 acridity ^[ and apparently innocuous. 



For the treatment to be adopted in cases of poisoning, con- 

 sult the preceding articles, Arum, Bryony, and Crowfoot. 

 Draughts of warm milk and small doses of camphor have been 

 recommended. 



Medicinal Properties and Uses. — Drs. Munro and Russel 

 were the first to introduce the Mezereon-bark into practice, as 

 a stimulant diaphoretic, useful in venereal nodes from thicken- 

 ing of the periosteum. Cullen states that he had known it 

 successful in obstinate syphilitic ulcers which had resisted mer- 

 cury ; while Home and other eminent men likewise speak 



* Thomson's Dispensatory, 1836, p. 328. 



•f* Flora Suecica, p. 128. The same distinguished author, in his Flora 

 Lapponica, says, " I have seen the peasantry in Scania give one of the ber- 

 ries to their companions by way of joke ; after it has been a time ingested, 

 it produces a burning heat in the throat, which the sufferer endeavours to 

 extinguish by copious draughts of ale, but this is like pouring oil upon the 

 fire ; hence they call the plant Sorby-peppar, and Koellerhals, i. e. cellar-opener. 



$ Histoire des Plantes Venen. de la Suisse, p. 140. 



§ In Roque's Phytographie Medicale. 



|| Toxicol. Gen. vol. i. p. 703. 



^f Lewis Mat. Med. p. 560. 



