430 



MEDICAL BOTANY. 



Fig. 193. 



hour, vertigo, dimness of sight, great depression of the action of the heart, and 

 cold extremities, without, however, producing any disorder of the merital 

 faculties. He therefore concludes that this substance acts as a direct arterial 

 sedative without any narcotic or acrid properties, and is suited to cases of hy- 

 pertrophy of the heart, and other diseases where it is of importance to decrease 

 the action of that organ ; and from the tannin present that it is peculiarly fitted 

 for cases of hemorrhage, dysentery, &c. These observations are interesting, 

 and if confirmed by further experiments, will give the Kalmia a high station 

 among the sedatives ; they are well worthy of notice and of repetition. 



Dr. Stabler proposes the following form of administration. Macerate two 

 ounces of the leaves in a pint of alcohol for a week and strain ; the dose for an 

 adult would be thirty drops every two or three hours. 



It is very generally believed that the flesh of birds feeding upon the leaves 

 becomes extremely poisonous, and numerous interesting cases have been re- 

 corded by Drs. Mease, Shoemaker, Hayward, and others, of individuals suf- 

 fering severely from having eaten partridges, in whose crops the laurel leaves 

 were found. Notwithstanding the apparent certainty of the deduction, that 

 the flesh had become deleterious from being imbued with the poisonous prin- 

 ciple of the leaves, I am inclined to doubt the truth of the inference, and to 

 attribute it to that peculiar state of animal decomposition in which an active 

 poison is developed. ' The symptoms in. the cases alludedto are precisely 

 similar to those given in most works on Medical Jurisprudence as resulting 

 from other mea f s in a certain stage of putrefaction, added to which hundreds 

 of persons partake every year of partridges that have been feeding upon the 



laurel, without suffering any in- 

 convenience, which would not 

 be the case if the flesh became 

 noxious from this cause. 



Tribe 2. Vaccinie^e. — Ovary ad- 

 herent to calyx, becoming a berry or 

 drupe-like fruit. 



Shrubs or small trees, often 

 evergreen, with alternate undi- 

 vided leaves, often with glandu- 

 lar notches, but without stipules. 

 They principally occur in the 

 more temperate portions of the 

 world in swampy and subalpine 

 situations. Some of the species 

 from the mountains in Peru are 

 said to be parasitic. They in 

 general have edible and plea- 

 sant fruits, and their bark and 

 leaves are astringent, and some- 

 what tonic. 



The berries of the various 

 kinds of Vaccinium are well 

 known under the name of 

 Whortle or HucJde Berries; 

 those of Europe are derived 

 from V. myrtillus, vitis idcea, 

 and uliginosum ; the juice of 

 the latter is said to be somewhat 



O. macrocarpa. 



