CLASS V. ORDER 1. 1 ATROPA. 279 



Filaments tbrearl-sliaped, curved within the corolla, hairy at the base 

 around the mouth of the tube. Anthers heart-shaped, yellow. Style 

 longer than the corolla. Stigma large, capitate. Fruit a shining 

 violet black berry, as large as a cherry, inclosed within the calyx, 

 globular, with a furrow on each side, two celled, with numerous small 

 kidney-shaped seeds attached to the placenta, in the middle of the 

 disseppiments. 



Habitat. — Hedges and waste places, especially amongst ruins in a 

 calcarious district; not very common. 



Perennial; flowering in June and July. 



Dwale, or Deadly Night-shade, is one of the most poisonous of our 

 native plants ; it was called by the ancients Solarium lethale, maniacum, 

 or furiosum, all names expressive of the powers which the jilant pos- 

 sesses. It present specific name hella-donna (beautiful lady) refers 

 to the use that the Italian ladies made of the berries, as a cosmetic to 

 beautify the appearance of the skin, but we cannot learn that it is used 

 now by them for that purpose. 



Numerous cases are on record of the poisonous effects of this plant 

 when taken by mistake for some other, or administered designedly, 

 producing pain in the head, restlessness, dimness of vision, dilitation 

 of the pupils, and subsequent loss of sight, dryness of the throat, 

 delirium, coma, and sometimes convulsions. The delirium is not 

 always present, and is mostly of the pleasing kind, with constant and 

 immoderate laughter, talking continually, but generally on lively 

 subjects. The muscles of the eyeballs are sometimes spasmodically 

 contracted, as well as the muscles of deglutition, especially when any 

 thing is attempted to be swallowed. At other times the effect pro- 

 duced resembles somnambulism, as occurred in the instance of a tailor, 

 who was poisoned with an injection of the infusion of bella-donna,and 

 who for fifteen hours, though speechless and insensible to external 

 objects, went through all the usual operations of his trade with much 

 vivacity, and moved his lips as if in conversation. Bloody stools, and 

 aphthous ulcerations of the throat and mouth, are mentioned as being 

 sometimes present, and also violent stranguary, with suppression of 

 urine and bloody micturition. 



The most frequent cases of accidental poisoning of this plant are 

 from children being tempted to eat the black shining cherry-like fruit, 

 which is sweetish, without any unpleasant odour. It is said that in 

 some cases even half a berry has proved fatal ; but an instance is re- 

 lated by M. Gigault, a French physician, of a young man who took 

 a pound of the berries before going to bed, and was not subjected to 

 treatment until the next morning, when he was found in a state of 

 delirium, but soon recovered after the operation of emetics and pur- 

 gatives; indeed, fatal results now seldom occur from the accidental 



