464< SOLANACEJi:. 



Frequent mention is made of it in the An^lo-Saxon works on 

 medicine of tlie 11th centnry/ in which it is called Henbcll, and some- 

 times Bdene, the latter word perhaps traceable in ^iXimwrla, which 

 Dioscorides^ gives as the Gallic designation of the plant. In the 

 13th century henbane was also used by the Welsh " Physicians of 

 Myddvai." 



The word Hennihone, with the Latin and French synonyms 

 Jusquiamus and Chenille, occurs in a vocabulary of the IStli cen- 

 tury ; and Hennehane in a Latin and English vocabulary of the loth 

 century.^ Li the Arholayre, a ])rinted French herbal of the loth 

 centur}^/ we find the plant described as Han'ibane or Hanehane with 

 the following explanation — " EUe est aultrement appeler cassilago et 

 aultrement simphoniaca. La semence proprement a nom jusquiarae ou 

 hanebane, et herbe a nom cassilago. . . ." Both Hyoscyamus and 

 Jusquiarnus are from the (Jreek 'YocrKvafxog, i.e. Hog-hean. 



Though a remedy undeniably potent, henbane in the first half of the 

 last centur}^ had fallen into disuse. It was omitted from the London 

 pharmacopoeias of 1746 and 1788, and restored only in 1809. Its 

 re-introduction into medicine was chiefly due to the experiments and 

 recommendations of Storck.'' 



During the middle ages the seeds and roots of henbane were also 

 much used. 



Description — The stems of henbane, whether of the annual or 

 biennial form, are clothed with soft, viscid, hairy leaves, of which the 

 upper constitute the large, sessile, coarsely-toothed bracts of the 

 unilateral flower-spike. The middle leaves are more toothed and 

 subamplexicaul. The lower leaves are stalked, ovate-oblong, coarsely 

 dentate, and of large size. The stems, leaves, and calyces of henbane 

 are thickly beset with long, soft, jointed hairs ; the last joint of many 

 of these hairs exudes a viscid substance occasioning the fresh plant to 

 feel clammy to the touch. In the cultivated plant, the hairiness 

 diminishes. 



After drying, the broad light-coloured midrib becomes very con- 

 spicuous, while the rest of the leaf shrinks much and acquires a greyish 

 green hue. The drug derived from the flowering plant as found in 

 commerce is usually much broken. The foetid, narcotic odour of the 

 fresh leaves is greatly diminished by drying. The fresh plant has but 

 little taste. 



Dried henbane is sold under three forms, which are not however 

 generally distinguished by druggists. These are 1. Anmud 'plant, 

 foliage and Green tops. 2. Biennial plant, leaves of the first year. 

 3. Biennial p)lant, foliage and green tops. The third form is always 

 regarded as the best, but no attempt has been made to determine with 

 accuracy the relative merits of the three sorts. 



Chemical Composition — Hyoscyamine, the most important among 

 the constituents of henbane, was obtained in an impure state by Geiger 

 and Hesse in 1833. Hohn in 1871 first isolated it from the seeds, 



^ LeecMoms etc. of Early Eiigland, iii. '*Seep. 148, note 3, also Brunet, Mauucl 



(1866) 313. du Libraire, i. (1860) 377. 



- Lib. iv. c. 69. (ed. Sprengel). ■' .See p. 459, note 5. 



^ Wright, Volume of Vocabularies, 1857. 

 141. 265. 



