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numerous, mostly sessile, of a straw-yellow colour, marked with purple veins, and either 

 arise singly from the axilla of the leaves, or from long, nodding, secund spikes, at the end 

 of the branches and stem. The corolla is monopetalous, funnel-shaped, and divided above 

 into five obtuse segments. The calyx is tubular, 5-clefl, and persistent. The filaments are 

 inserted into the tube of the corolla, downy at base, inclined, and bearing cordate, purple 

 anthers. The ovary is roundish, with a filiform style, having a blunt, round stigma. 

 The capsule is ovate, bilocular, and opening by a convex lid. It contains numerous small, 

 obovate, unequal, brown seeds. 



The Henbane is a native of Europe, and is naturalized in the northern parts 

 of the United States, flowering in July and August. There is some difference 

 of opinion among botanists, whether it is annual or biennial ; naturally, it is 

 probably the former, but in a state of cultivation, it may be either one or the 

 other. The whole plant has an offensive, nauseous odour, and a forbidding 

 appearance. It was well known to the ancients, but not as much employed 

 by them medicinally as another species, the H. albus, though Dioscorides 

 recommends the oil of the seeds in pains in the ear ; this oil was also much 

 employed by the Egyptians for lamps. The present use of the plant may be 

 considered as owing to the experiments of Stoerk, in 1762, who found it 

 highly beneficial as a narcotic and sedative in several morbid affections. The 

 whole plant is officinal, and should be gathered at the time of its full inflorescence. 

 It has a strong, fetid, narcotic odour, and abounds in a clammy juice ; thetaste 

 is mucilaginous, unpleasant, and somewhat acrid. By the process of drying, 

 it loses most of these qualities. The seeds are of a yellowish-gray colour, 

 possess in some degree the odour of the plant, and have an oleaginous, bitter 

 taste. They both owe their active properties to the presence of a peculiar 

 alkaloid, discovered by Brandes, which he has called Hyoscyamia ; it exists 

 in the plant in the form of a malate; it is almost identical in its action on the 

 system with Atropina, and differs from it mainly in being more soluble in water. 



Medical Properties. — Henbane is a valuable sedative and narcotic, when 

 administered in small and repeated doses, and is an admirable substitute for 

 opium, where the latter disagrees, or is contra-indicated. It appears to be 

 free from the constipating effects of opium, and does not, like that drug, lock 

 up, as it were, the secretory and excretory passages. In moderate doses, it 

 acts as a sedative, diminishing irritability, induces sleep, relieves pain, and 

 obviates spasm, and has the advantage, that when conjoined with purgatives, 

 that it does not impede their action. As it has the power of producing dilata- 

 tion of the pupil, it is occasionally used instead of belladonna for that pur- 

 pose, prior to operations for the removal of cataract. Henbane has also been 

 employed as an external application to painful, glandular swellings, irritable 

 ulcers, and other painful diseases ; for this purpose, a cataplasm of the 

 bruised leaves, or fomentations of an infusion of the herb or extract, have 

 sometimes proved beneficial. The seeds appear to have more irritating 

 powers than the leaves, and their administration has in some instances been 

 followed by unpleasant symptoms, analogous to those caused by the irritant 

 poisons. 



The dose of the powdered leaves is from three to ten grains, but in this 

 form it is seldom prescribed ; of the extract, the most usual form of exhibition, 

 it is from five to fifteen grains. It should always be remembered that no pre- 

 paration varies more in strength and efficiency. Henbane is also given in the 

 form of tincture, the dose of which is from half a drachm to a drachm. 



Several other species are equally endowed with active properties ; thus, the 

 H. albus is generally employed in the south of Europe, and is said to be more 

 powerful in its effects on the system than the H. niger ; in botanical cha- 

 racters, it is very closely allied to it. Forskal mentions a species, H. datora, 

 a native of Arabia, the seeds of which he states are used by the natives to 



