LILY FAMILY. 53 
FALSE HELLEBORE—Veratrum viride—Ait. 
Other Common Names: American White Hellebore, 
Swamp Hellebore, Indian Poke, Devil’s-bite, Meadow 
Poke. 
A European species of Veratrum is used as a drug, and 
the American forms contain the same alkaloids. Most 
cases of Veratrum poisoning are due to 
overdoses in medicine, but both men and 
animals have been poisoned accidentally 
by the plants. One historic case has been 
quoted many times in which a whole family was poisoned’ 
by leaves that had been prepared as greens. Chesnut. 
states that on account of its acrid, burning taste, animals 
do not like the plant, but that young ones sometimes eat 
it with fatal results, and that chickens have been killed 
by the seeds. 
Veratrin, the chief poison, produces an intense burning 
of the throat, and acts chiefly on the heart and spinal 
cord, but produces also vomiting, purging 
and abdominal pain. The symptoms as 
stated by Dr. Winslow are: “Salivation, vomiting or at- 
tempts at vomiting, purging, abdominal pain, muscular 
weakness, difficulty in progression, loss of power and 
general paralysis, muscular tremors and spasms, and, 
occasionally, convulsions. The pulse is unaltered at first, 
but later becomes infrequent and compressible, and fin- 
ally thread-like and running. The respiration is shallow, 
the temperature is reduced, the skin is cold and clammy; 
there is semi-consciousness, loss of sight and death from 
asphyxia.” 
Examples and 
Conditions of 
Poisoning 
Symptoms 
