194 Botanic Drugs 



spasmodic, hyoscyamus is adapted to the treatment 

 of vesical tenesmus, chordee, and many other genito- 

 urinary affections, and to some pulmonary dis- 

 turbances. 



In its action on the nervous system hyoscyamus 

 is more or less erratic. Hyoscine is exceedingly 

 useful in quieting mania in the wards of a hospital 

 for the insane, yet in the exigencies of private 

 practice it may excite in place of quieting an ex- 

 plosive nervous outbreak. Yet in hysteria and 

 delirium hyoscyamus sometimes hyoscine may 

 serve a very useful purpose. One must always use 

 these drugs with care in the field of neurology. 

 Sometimes even the tremors of paralysis agitans 

 are relieved by hyoscyamus, though rarely. On 

 the other hand, it often fails in a purely functional 

 hysterical attack. Some cases of insomnia are 

 really cured by it, while many more cases are not at 

 all favorably influenced. 



So, then, in nervous diseases, hyoscyamus and 

 its alkaloids are drugs of possible recourse, not ones 

 of primary importance. When they do act, they 

 influence the patient quite definitely for good or 

 bad. The trouble is that it is quite as apt to be the 

 latter as the former. One has to begin very cau- 

 tiously in any given case. 



None of the mydriatic alkaloids should be used 

 as a routine soporific. Nor should any be used as 

 an analgesic except in spasmodic affections. These 

 are powerful and often dangerous alkaloids. Hyos- 

 cine is almost purely hypnotic in action, possessing 

 very little antispasmodic influence; but, hyoscine 

 is not a safe hypnotic for routine employment. 

 Hyoscyamine acts so nearly like atropine, though 



