7 J NATURAL mSTORY OF PLANTS. 



'I'lio Ancients knew that Aconite was a very energetic poison, 

 and potent remedy.' Tlie name Li/coctonuin {Wolffibanc) is enough 

 to show tl»at it was used to kill wild beasts. Formerly criminals 

 were put to death by administering Napellns. In the East, and 

 chiefly in India, the Bi/c/ij- considered by Wallich to be his A. 

 fcro.i^ is thought to be one of the most terrible poisons known. As 

 drugs, ^ the Aconites — chiefly Napellits ; more rarely Jnthora, 2^anicii- 

 Inlinii, Li/cocfo/iinn, ferox — have been used in the treatment of 

 neuralgia, deafness, rheumatism, gout, heart-disease, dyspnoea, 

 dysentery, fever, purulent diathesis, chronic diseases of the skin, 

 and also against erysipelas, glanders, farcy, syphilis, dropsy, metror- 

 rhagia, intermittent fevers, &c. Their activity, whether as poisons 

 or as remedies, appears to be entirely due to the presence of Aconi- 

 tine, a ])rinciple discovered by Brandes, and often administered in 

 medicine instead of the plant itself.^ 



The Hellebores — especially //. officinalis^ niger, faitidus, liyemalis, 

 orient alis, and viridis,'' were also known to the Ancients as poisons 

 and as medicaments. In comparatively small doses, they act as 

 energetic evacuants and parasiticides. Their use was formerly 

 abused, especially in nervous affections ; and we know that at least 

 one species, conjectured to be H. orientalist was formerly supposed 

 by physicians to cure madness. Now-a-days the Hellebores have 

 nearly fallen into disuse, and are considered too dangerous to be 

 administered. 



The Crowfoots' are generally very acrid. The names M. acris, 

 scelerati/s, are enough to indicate their properties. R. aconitifoUus, 

 Lulbosus, gramineus, repens, tripartitus, Flammula, Lingua, Thora, &c.. 



' " According to Pliny," says FrcHS {Rist. dangerous RanunculacecB employed in medi- 



deg Plantes, 68), it is quite certain that Aco- cine. 



>ij7«m is the snddenest of all poisons and venoms. - Or Bisli, Vish, Visha, Ativisha, &c. (See 



Nevertheless hath it been turned to the usage of Royle, Illustr., 40.) 

 Iiuman lii;iltli, as experiment teachcth that it is 3 PI. As. Sar., i. 33, t. 41.— DC, Frodr., i. 



a sovereign remedy Aconitum hath such 64.— .4. virosum DoN, Prodr. Fl. Nep., 196. 



a nature that it will kill a man if there be not •» See Pekeika, Mat. Med., ed. 4, ii. ii. 684. 



in him somt-thing which it may kill; for then —Dict.Enc. Sc. Med., i. 577. 



doth it wrestle and tight with the said poison, find- = See Diet. Enc. Sc. Med., i. 598. 



ing something of its own kind in the body. And « Lindley, Bot. Reg. (1842), t. 34, 58. 



this wrestling and fighting is only when the said ? GuiBorRT, Brofi. Simj)!., 4th ed., iii. 690. — 



Aconilum hath found other venom or poison Peeeiha, Mat. Med., 4th ed. ii. ii. 680, Payee 



in the inside. And it is a wondrous thing recognised what is sold in pharmacy as Black 



when two deadly jwisons are in a man they kill Hellebore, as being the rhizome of H. viridis. 



and undo one another, and tlie man remaineth ^ Sec BRArx, PL Hort. Berol. (Ann. Sc. 



safe and sound." If we cite this passage, it is JS^at., ser. 4, i.367.) 



because it will equally apply to all the other » Pekeika, I. mV., 678.— GriB., l. cit., 689. 



