CRIMINAL POISONING 



167 



of the hands and feet, fixed gaze, vivid flush on skin, distension of 

 abdomen, suppression of urine, rise of temperature to 101° F. 

 The poisoning was said to resemble that produced by belladonna. 

 Other species are said to stupefy fish and also to be used as arrow 

 poisons. 



We may perhaps mention here that in this order are many excellent 

 and edible fruits; thus, Melicocca hijuga, a West Indian tree, is 

 cultivated in Brazil because of its agreeable, slightly acid berries, 

 but, on the other hand, the leaves and branches of other species are 

 poisonous. 



Milletia seriacea (Legumi- 

 nos3e) is a poison of the Dutch 

 Indies, causing severe diarrhoea, 

 collapse, and death. i 



Morea collina. — M. collina 

 (Iridaceae), the wild tulip of : 

 South Africa, is said by Grey to j 

 have been used by a Bushwoman 

 to poison a number of people, 

 two of whom died. 



The symptoms were severe : 

 vomiting and a feeling of con- ; 

 striction across the chest, feeble 

 and intermitting heart, and a 

 tendency to coma for hours 

 before death. The post-mortem 

 showed no rigor and no inflam- 

 mation of the stomach. The 

 heart musculature was flaccid, 

 and the right side full of blood. 



Nerium odorum, synonym 

 N. indecmm Mill, 1768 (Apo- 

 cynaceae), is the white oleander, 

 and grows commonly in India, Fig. ii. — Nerium odorum Solan der. 

 where it is a well-known 



poison. It is rarely used for homicidal purposes, but more 

 generally for suicide, abortion, and accidental poisoning. 



The root is the portion used, but all parts are poisonous. The 

 active principles are neriodorin, a powerful cardiac poison acting 

 something like digitalis; karabin, a cardiac poison, with also a 

 strychnine-like action on the spinal cord. 



The symptoms are therefore (i) those of gastric irritat'on — viz., 

 vomiting, pain in the stomach, frothing at the mouth from saliva- 

 tion, but as a rule without diarrhoea; (2) cardiac symptoms, produc- 

 ing at first a slow pulse, which finally becomes quicksand weak — the 

 respirations are rapid from the first; (3) strychnine-like symptoms 

 of twitching of the muscles,|tetanic spasms, with cramps and, at 

 times, lockjaw. 



Towards the end the patient becomes drowsy, then insensible. 



