No. 133.] * 241 



is used by the Hottentots to envenom tlieir weapons. It is said to 

 be a fatal poison and is used by the same people to impregnate 

 baits for wild beasts, with its juice. The stramonium or thorn 

 apple is a violent narcotic, wlien taken into the stomach — but in 

 the hands of a skillful physician is a valuable medicine in mania, 

 epilepsy, convulsions, tic-douloureux, &c. When smoked it pal- 

 liates the distressing symptoms of pure spasmodic asthma. 



Henbane as a common biennial weed is a powerful narcotic at 

 th3 time when its seeds are forming, but comparatively inert at 

 at other periods. Its capsules and seeds are used in medicine 

 and operate much like opium, but when much used is apt to pro- 

 duce insanity. Every part of atropa belladonna is poisonous. 

 Children and ignorant persons have eaten the beautiful looking 

 and sweet tasted berries of it, for they are very alluring. The 

 effects produced are like intoxication — violent gestures, laughing, 

 great thirst, difficulty in swallowing nausea, dilatation of the 

 pupils of the eye — eyelids drawn down, redness and swelling of 

 the face — stupor or delirium, low feeble pulse, paralysis of the 

 intestines, convulsions, death. Hahnemann and Koref say, it 

 protects persons from the contagion of scarlatina. 



Buchanan says tliat tlie Scots mixed the juice of belladonna 

 witli the bread and drink which by their truce they were to sup- 

 ply the Danes, which so intoxicated them that the Scots killed 

 the greater part of Sweyno's army while asleep. An extract 

 made from the leaves of our common potato is a powerful nar- 

 cotic. It is serviceable in chronic rheumatism and in painful 

 affections of the stomach and the womb. 



Capsicum belongs to the family ; its fruit and seeds are power- 

 ful stimulents. Cayenne pepper is another. Melongena or egg 

 plant belongs to the same house. The mandrake and the kan- 

 garoo apple are harmless, beautiful, and fragrant. They, too, 

 are of the family. 



Any person who will examine the common potato ball, and 

 compare it with a tomato, will see how justly the botanists have 

 made one family of them. 



[Assembly, No. 133.J 16 



