POISONS OF VEGETABLE OEIGIN 195 



within a quarter of an hour without risk of killing his 

 victim. Burton Bro^vn, however, records a case of 

 premeditated murder in the Punjab : "A man visited 

 a house while food was being cooked : he left suddenly, 

 and the three persons who partook of the food were 

 taken ill and one died. Dhatura seeds were found in 

 the food, and also on the person of the man, who was 

 sentenced to death. This case was import ant^ as 

 murder was evidently intended and not robbery, the 

 man having left before the unconsciousness occurred " 

 (Bef. 2). The seeds are sometimes put into wells and 

 water jars by Malays to poison the drinking water. 

 Bidley records poisoning by a decoction of leaves and 

 flowers in Singapore. One hundred seeds of D. stramo- 

 nium, the species of temperate cUmes, and containing 

 similar active principles, have proved a fatal dose in 

 Europe. 



In 1903, after determining the activity of alkaloidal 

 extracts of parts of the plant D. fastuosa, I collected 

 seeds and submitted them to Professor Wyndham 

 Dunstan at the Imperial Institute, London. He found 

 that seeds of D. fastuosa, var. typica, contained 0*39 per 

 cent, of alkaloid, almost entirely hyoscine (scopolamine), 

 while those of D. fastuosa, var. alba, only furnished 

 0-21 per cent, of alkaloid, chiefly hyoscine with a little 

 hyoscyamine. 



Dose. — The official medicinal dose of hyoscine as 

 hydrobromide in British practice is -^^j to y-J^ grain 

 (0-3 to 0-6 mg.). About eight iry D. fastuosa seeds 

 weigh 1 grain, so that the ordinary dose given by a 

 Malay thief {about fifty seeds) contains somewhat more 

 than grain of hyoscine, or more than double the 

 maximum B.P. official dose. Serious hut non-fatal 

 symptoms of poisoning have been caused by grain 

 of hydrobromate of hyoscine (Bef . 22). - 



IS— 2 



