BY J. H. MAIDEN, 371 



" It has an intoxicatiug property. The aboriginals make holes 

 in the trunk and put some fluid in them, which when drunk on 

 the following morning produces stupor. Branches of the shrub 

 are thrown into pools for the purpose of intoxicating the eels, and 

 bringing them to the surface. I have known an instance in which 

 giddiness and nausea have arisen from remaining in a close room 

 where branches of it have been placed." 



The smell is faint and sickly, but with nothing like the intensity 

 of D. Hojjwoodii. 



Baron von Mueller directed the attention of Dr. Bancroft of 

 Brisbane to the probable medicinal properties of this plant, and 

 the latter obtained an extract from it which he found useful in 

 ophthalmic surgery, and he brought it before the medical world. 



The leaves owe their active properties to the presence in them 

 of an alkaloid called duboisitie, which Ladenberg pronounces 

 identical with hyoscy amine, albeit there are minute differences 

 between them. The method adopted by Mueller and Rummel to 

 obtain the alkaloid will be found in the Organic Constituents of 

 Plants (Wittstein, Mueller's translation). 



For an account of the latest researches of Prof. Ladenberg on 

 the subject, see an abstract in Pltarin. Journ., 25th June, 1887. 



For an account of Gerrard's experiments with the alkaloid 

 of this plant, together with some physiological experiments with 

 it, vide Pharm. Journ. [3], viii., 787 et seq. 



In practice, the sulphate of the alkaloid, which forms golden- 

 yellow scales, is usually preferred. The dose is from j^^, to l^ of a 

 grain. 



Dr. Dujardin-Beaumetz substitutes this alkaloid for atropine in 

 exophthalmic goitre. 



The extract is said to have been given with great benefit in 

 cases of the night sweats of phthisis, without producing any bad 

 effects on the appetite. It produced entire relief from pain in a 

 severe case of vesical tenesmus from inflammation of the urethra 

 and neck of the bladder. 



