HA R D V/ICKE ' S SCIENCE-GOSS/P. 



decreases the activity of the nervous system, and it 

 therefore proves a most efficacious remedy ?gainst 

 tetanus. On the other hand, tobacco agrees with 

 nux-vomica in the peculiarity of producing no effect 

 if applied directly to the nerves. Nicotine has pro- 

 duced serious poisoning by being merely rubbed on 

 the skin, and all smokers know its effects when its 

 vapour is inhaled for the first few times. It soon, 

 however, loses its toxic effect on the smoker (unless 

 smoked in excess), and its peculiar, soothing, and 

 grateful inflence only remains. 



ScrophularinEjE. —Digital is purpurea, the fox- 

 glove, one of the handsomest of British wild plants, 

 is also one of the most powerfully poisonous. From 

 its leaves is prepared 'quite a formidable array of 

 drugs: " Digitaletin, digitaline, digitoleic, volatile 

 and non-volatile digitalic acids, and inosit," but of 

 these digitaline is- the most important. Deaths are 

 on record of persons dying through drinking decoc- 

 tions of its leaves, but by far the greatest number of 

 its victims have perished through' taking over-doses of 

 the powerful medicine prepared therefrom. Sub- 

 stances so toxic as this should never be taken or 

 administered wi'hout competent medical advice, and, 

 as Trofessor Johnson so forcibly puts it, "it would 

 be, indeed, about as wise to trust a child with a 

 lighted taper in a magazine of gunpowder, as a 

 human life to the incautious wielder of a remedy so 

 deadly." It is also believed that digitaline has an 

 " accumulating power " over the action of the heart, 

 and that doses so small that at the time they will 

 produce no unpleasant effect, may, if taken repeatedly 

 for some time, occasion sudden death. 



The Thymel.'EACE.'E constitute an order of gene- 

 rally acrid properties. We have in England Daphne 

 latireola and mczereum. The berries of the 

 spurge laurel and of mezereon contain a substance 

 named coccognin ; they are highly poisonous, a few, 

 three or four, have produced serious illness, and a 

 larger number, if eaten, would prove fatal. Their 

 colour, black in latireola, and bright red in fnezereum 

 makes them attractive' to children, and therefore 

 more dangerous. The bark of these and allied 

 shrubs produces a bitter glucosid, daphnine, which 

 renders them the most powerful of acrid poisonous 

 plants. The mere outward application of the bark 

 on the skin rapidly produces a deep, penetrating, and 

 often ulcerating inflammation, whilst a strong decoc- 

 tion will completely destroy the mucous membrane 

 lining the alimentary canal. 



The Euphorbiace^l, of which we have about 

 sixteen species representing the genus Euphorbia, 

 one Buxus and two Mercurialis in England, con- 

 stitute a large order of some three thousand species. 

 Many of these contain a milky juice, "latex," which 

 is often highly toxic, though in others the poisonous 

 principle may be dissipated by heat, and they then 

 yield such edible substances as cassava meal and 

 tapioca. 



■Euphorbia lathyris, etc. The hardened milky 

 juice of many spurges forms the substance known as 

 euphorbium, which is a violent irritant. This species 

 is often cultivated for the sake of its fruit, which is 

 pickled and eaten as a substitute for capers, hence its 

 name — caper spurge. Real capers are the flower- 

 buds of (Capparis spinosa), a scrambling bush of the 

 south of Europe, and belonging to the quite distinct 

 order Capparideiz. These true capers are quite 

 wholesome, but the fruit cf the spurge is intensely 

 acrid when fresh, and the pickling process it under- 

 goes probably only partly lessens its poisonous'action. 

 All our spurges are more or less toxic, and they well 



Fi£. 70. — Arum maculatum. 



deserve their German name — Wolfsintlch. Several 

 cases of deaths caused by British species are on re- 

 cord, E. pcplis and E. helioscopia being amongst 

 them, and in all instances the alimentary canal was 

 highly inflamed and corroded. Euphorbia hibernisa, 

 so the Rev. C. A. Johns informs us, "is extensively 

 used by the peasants of Kerry for poisoning, or rather 

 stupefying, fish. So powerful are its effects, that a 

 small creel, or basket, filled with the bruised plant, 

 suffices to poison the fish for several miles down a 

 river." 



Mercurialis perennis and annua. The mercury 

 contains a volatile alkaloid — mercurialine, which, at 

 least chemically, somewhat resembles coniine. Cases 

 have been mentioned of persons being poisoned 



