LILty FAMILY. 5D 
“Treatment,” he says, ‘should be pursued with cardiac 
and respiratory stimulants, such as amyl nitrate (by in- 
halation), alcohol, strychnin, and atropin; 
tannic acid as a chemical antidote*; opium 
to subdue pain, and demulcents to relieve local irritation 
in the digestive tract. Warm water should be given to 
smaller animals to wash out the stomach and assist vomi- 
tion, and quietude should be enforced. In man, fatal pois- 
oning is rare, since the drug is spontaneously vomited.” 
The plant is a coarse perennial from two to eight feet 
tall. The leafy stem grows from a thick erect rootstock. 
The large leaves are entire and oval in shape 
with conspicuous parallel veins. They have 
sheathing bases, are smooth on top, hairy beneath and 
sharply pointed at the tip. The flowers are small and of 
the liliaceous type, yellowish green and with the parts 
moderately spreading. They are arranged in a broad 
panicle of spike-like racemes. The plant is found on 
moist hillsides, in swamps and wet woods, chiefly in the 
eastern half of the continent. 
Treatment 
The Plant 
CALIFORNIA SWAMP HELLEBORE.—Veratrum californicum 
Durand. 
This form is more common in the west, growing in val- 
leys among the mountains, and is stated to have caused ~ 
the death of cattle and horses. It resembles the former 
species except that the flowers are whitish and in a : 
looser panicle with long, narrow flower parts. 
It produces effects similar to those of Veratrum viride 
and the treatment is the same. Chesnut and Wilcox have 
proved that a solution of potassium permanganate and 
*For another antidote look under Veratrum californicum. 
