602 



MANUAL OF POISONOUS PLANTS 



Of our native species, Bigelow says that the juice of several was used in his day to de- 

 stroy warts, and Gray describes them all as containing an acrid, poisonous juice The most 

 active of them are B. corollata, B. Ipecacuanltae, and B. Lathyris. Trie first of these, com- 

 monly called snake-milk, according to Bigelow, has been used for blistering purposes, and the 

 Dispensatory states that the bruised root will vesicate the skin. 



Mr. Cheney informs me that the juice of B. Ipecacuanhae is quite troublesome to many 

 who collect and handle it; and Bazin states that the dust of B. Lathyris, growing both in 

 Europe and in this country, causes redness, painful swelling, and vesicles upon the workmen 

 employed in handling it. 



With reference to the poisonous nature of the juice of the several species,, 

 nothing very definite is known. Bttphorbon C^gH^^O^ has been found in Eu- 

 phorbia Ipecacuanhae. This euphorbon acts as an irritant to the mucous mem- 



Fig. 338. Large Spotted Spurge (Buplwrbia Preslii). Sup- 

 posed to cause "slobbers*' in horses. (Charlotte M. King.) 



branes throughout the alimentary tract. The caper spurge (^Euphorbia Lathy- 

 ris) is poisonous, and the following physiological actions are described by Dr. 

 Millspaugh : 



Brilliant, staring, wide-open eyes, dilated pupils; death-like pallor of the countenance; 

 retching and vomiting; violent purgation, stools frequent, copious, and in some cases bloody; 

 irregular pulse; whole body cold and rigid, followed by heat and perspiration. M. M. & 

 Sudour and A. Caraven-Cachin state that emesis always precedes purgation, and that the seeds 

 have an irritating action upon the mucous membrane of the intestinal canal, principally in the 

 larger intestines. They divide the effects into three stages: o, the cold stage, including vomit- 



