A T R 



tfffecl ; the piilfe is f.Tiall, hard, quick; and fubfultus ten- 

 dinuin, rifus fardoinus, and coma, clofe the fatal Icene. 

 Vinegar liberally drank, has been found moll efficacious in 

 obviating the efietls of this poifon. On opening the bodies 

 of thofe poifoned by this plant, inflammation and erofions 

 of the llomach and intedines have been difcovered. A fimi- 

 lar effeft was jjroduced in the ftomach ot a horfe, at the 

 Veterinary College, from a large dofe of opium, viz. three 

 ounces. The leaves of the belladonna were iirll ufed exter- 

 nally to difcufs fchirrous and cancerous tumours, and as 

 an application to ill-conditioned ulcers, and their good 

 effefts in this way at length induced phyficians to employ 

 them internally for the fame dilorders, and we find a con- 

 fiderable number of well-authenticated fa£ls, which prove 

 them to have been of important fervice. Dr. CuUen fays, 

 •' I have had a cancer of the lip entirely cured by bella- 

 donna ; a fchirrolity in a woman's bread entirely difcuffed 

 by the ufe of it ; a fore a little below the eye, v. Inch had 

 put on a cancerous appearance, was much mended by the 

 internal ufe of this plant ; but the patient having learned 

 fomewhat of the poifonous nature of the medicine, refilled 

 to continue the ufe of it, upon whieii the fore again fpread, 

 and was painful ; but upon a return to the ufe of bella- 

 donna, it was again mended to a confidL-rable degree ; 

 when the fame fears ap;ain returning, the ufe of it was 

 again laid ahde, and with the lame confequence." The root 

 is much lefs powerful than the leaves. See Woodv. 1. c. 

 and Murray App. Med. 3 A. phyfalo'idiS, Peruvian deadly 

 night-rtiade. " Stem herbaceous ; leaves finuatc-angular ; 

 calyxes clofed, acute-angular." Root annual, fibrous ; 

 flem fpreading, two feet high ; leaves alternate, fmooth, 

 oblong, running down the footftalk ; peduncles fubaxillary, 

 folitary, naked, one-flowered ; calyx ovate, deeply five- 

 parted ; leaflets fagittate-ovate ; corolla bell-diaped, llightly 

 iive-lobed, blue, with a white eye, having five blue fpots ; 

 berry about the fize of a cherry, with five fliarp aii£;ks, 

 ;and inclofed in a ventricole bladder. A native of Peru. 

 Cultivated by Miller. 4. A. folr.nacea. " Stem dirubby; 

 peduncles folitary ; corollas bell-diaped ; leaves fubovate." 

 Six feet high, fomewhat branched and angular ; leaves alter- 

 nate, ufually many from the buds, pctioled, entire, naked; 

 peduncles axillary, one-flowered, fihform,' the length of the 

 leaves ; flowers pendulous. A native of the cape of Good 

 Hope. 5. A. arborefcens, tree atropa, belladonna fiutef- 

 cens, &c. Plum. 46. f. I. " Stem fhrubby ; peduncles 

 crowded ; corollas rtvolute ; leaves oblong." A fmall tree 

 or flirub. Leaves alternate, in tufts towards the ends of 

 the branches, lanceolate-ovate, acute, entire, nerved, of a 

 dark colour ; flowers peduncled, heaped, white, fragrant, 

 nodding ; peduncles numerous, one-flowered, whitifli ; 

 corolla fomewhat bell-diaped, narrow at the bottom, fwelling 

 .at top ; filaments twice as long as the corolla. This fpc- 

 cies is often tetrandrious. A native of South America and 

 Jamaica. 6. A. //■;;/(/■<■«, dirubby atropa. " Stem dirubby; 

 peduncles crowded ; leaves cordate ovate, obtufe." Six or 

 eight feet high ; leaves alternate, roundidi ; flowers come out 

 between the leaves on diort peduncles, and refemble thofe 

 of belladonna, but much fmaller, and of a dirty yellow 

 colour. A native of Spain. Cultivated by Miller in 1739. 

 7. A. herbaua, herbaceous atropa. Mill. Didl. n. 3. " Stem 

 herbaceous; leaves ovate, nerved, with wavtd edges." Root 

 perenni.-.l ; dems chauntUed, about two feet high, dividing 

 into two or three branches ; leaves four inches long and 

 ■three broad, having feveral traufverfe prominent ribs on the 

 under fide ; flowers white, btll-fliapcd. The feeds were 

 ient to Mr. Miller from Campeachy. 8. A. pracumbeus, 

 wheel-jlowered atropa, Cavan. Hifp. 41. 80. t. 72. " £iij;m 



A T R 



proctimbent, herbaceous; leaves twin, unequal, ovale, 

 fmooth ; flowers in umbels." Root annual ; dem grooved, 

 much branched, three feet high; leaves fharp-ovate, running 

 down the petiole, fmooth, entire, one-nerved, glaucous 

 beneath ; common peduncle, folitary, fcarcely an inch in 

 length ; rays of the umbel from two to five ; corolla her- 

 baceous, yellow, wheel-fliaped, which fufficiently diftin- 

 guidies it from all its congeners. A native of Mexico. 



Propagation ami Culture. I. Mandrake is propagated by- 

 feeds, as foon as they are ripe, when they arc to be fown 

 upon a bed of light earth, and occafionally refredied with 

 water. In Auguil they mull be taken up vei-y carefully 

 and tranfplanted into the places where they are to remain, 

 obferving that the foil be light and deep, for the roots run 

 far down, and will grow to a large fize in a few years if 

 not interrupted by gravel or chalk, or rotted in winter by 

 wet foil. The plant diould alio have a warm fituation. 

 The root will remain found above fifty years, and continue 

 to be as vigorous as a young plant Deadly nightfliade 

 may be propagated both by its roots and by its leeds ; it 

 requires a ihady fituation. If the feeds ol the third fpe- 

 cies be permitted to fcattcr, the plants will come up the 

 following fpi'ing, and may then be tranfplanted into the 

 borders of the pleafure garden, where they will grow to 

 a large fize. Species 4tli, &c. may be propagated by 

 feeds, which diould be fown in a hot-bed in the fpring ; 

 and when fit to be removed, they diould be each put into 

 a feparate fmall pot filled with luamy earth, and diaded 

 until they take root. The 4th and 6th may be placed with 

 other hardy exotic plants in a flickered fituation, and in 

 Oftober they mull be removed into the green-houie. The 

 5th, 7th, and Sth, mull be kept in the bark-dove. The 

 7th may be increafed by parting the roots. See Martyn's 

 Miller's Did. 



ATROPATENE, or Atropasia, \\\ Ar.nent Geogra- 

 phy, a counti-y of Ada, occupying the north-wed part of 

 Media, and lying between mount Taurus and the Cafpian 

 fea. It is faid to have taken its name from one Atropatus, 

 who, being governor of this province in the time of Darius, 

 the lad Perfian monarch, oppoled Alexander the Great, 

 and upon the dedruftion of the Perfian monarchy, feized 

 this part of Media, and tranfmitted it to his poderity, 

 who held it as fovereigns to the time of Strabo. (Gcog. 

 lib. xi. p. 523.) It was a cold, barren, and inhofpitable 

 country, and on that account allotted by Slialmanezer for 

 the refidence of many captive Ifraelites, after the conqucft 

 of their kingdom. Its inhabitants, accordiag to Pohbius 

 (I. v. p. 402.), were good foldiers ; and we learn from 

 Strabo, that its kings could bring into the field 40,000 

 foot and 20,000 horfe. The metropolis of Atropatene was 

 Gaza. 



ATROPHY {a.\o(plu, from «, privative, and T;rfi>, nti- 

 trio), in Medicine, a defeft of nouridiment, and confequent 

 emaciation. It differs from phth.fis, by being unaccom- 

 panied with cough, and purulent expeftoration ; and from 

 tabes, by the abfence of heftic fever. This didinftion, 

 however, of fydematie writers, between tabes and atrophy 

 is not altogether io fatisfadlory as could be widied ; fince 

 atrophy in its advanced ftage is often attended with a fymp- 

 tomatic fever refembling the hedlic. In the fourth volume 

 of his Fird Lines of the Praflice of Phyfic, Dr. Cullen has 

 candidly acknowledged that he was not fatisfied with his 

 arrangement of the feveral fpecies of atrophia and tabes. He 

 even exprelTes a doubt, whether the diilinftion attempted in 

 Nofology, between the two difeafes, will properly apply ; 

 being of opinion that there are ceitainaffedlions of the lame 

 nature, which fotnetimes appear with, and fometimes without 



fever. 



