500 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORt SOCIETT, Vol. X. 



Dr. Alfred S. Taylor, the sheet-anchor of modern Forensic talentj 

 says that the powdered root of Bryony, black or white (note that with 

 toe olack-bryony we are not concerned at present— K. R. K.) when 

 swallowed produces severe pain, vomiting and purging, and after death 

 the stomach and intestines are found highly inflamed.* 



It is somewhat disappointing to find that in his excellent " Elements 

 of Pharmacology," Professor Oswald Schmiedeberg, of the University 

 of Strasbarg, has made no allusion to the active principle of Bryony, 



Baillon f makes the following remarks regarding Bryony :— " In our 

 common Bryony {Bryonia dioica) the subterranean portion— white, 

 poisonous, caustic — ^is extremely irritating to the skin and mucous 

 membrane. It is a powerful, dangerous purgative, prescribed chiefly 

 in dropsical and various nervous affections. Freed from its irritant 

 principles, this portion is rich in starch which has been turned to ac- 

 count, and from which alcohol is distilled." 



The testimony •of Colonel Drnry J with regard to the Indian repre- 

 sentative of the genus Bryony — namely, Corallocarpus epigcea^ or 

 Bryonia epigma as he describes it, is absolutely worthless. His remarks 

 show that his information is only second-hand and as such not of 

 much value. 



The English Bryonia dioica^ says Lauder Brunton,§ *4s made into 

 a tincture (bitter principle hryonin) the chief use of which is that of 

 a hydragogue cathartic,'" but he adds " it is now superseded by Jalap," 

 which latter I may say is certainly safer and less irritating to the 

 primce vice. 



Here is Sir Eobert Christison's testimony regarding the poisonous 

 nature of the entire genus Bryony t |I " Before Bryony root was ex- 

 pelled from medical practice, it was often known to produce violent 

 vomiting, tormina, profuse watery evacuations and fainting. Byl 

 mentions a fatal case of poisoning with it which happened at Cambray 

 in France. The subject was a man who took two glasses of an infu- 

 sion of the root to cure ague, and was soon seized with violent tormina 



* Alfred S. Taylor on Poisons, page 510, 1848, 



t History of Plants, p, 421, Vol, VIII, London, 1888. 



X The Useful Plants of India, 2nd Edition, 1873, p. 88. 



§ Pharmacology, &c., Ed. 1885, London, p. 848. 



Ij P. 594, Edinburgh, 1845. A Treatise on Poisons. 



