VERATRUM ALBUM. 
143 
Jeaves and seeds have proved poisonous to diflferent animals.* 
Taken internally, it excites a burning in the mouth and fauces: when 
powdered and appHed to issues or ulcers, it produces griping and 
purging. EttmuUer says, that this root, when applied to the abdo- 
men, produces a violent vomiting ; and Schreder has observed the 
same phenomenon, when it was used as a suppository. Helmont 
relates, that a royal prince died in the course of three hours after 
taking a scruple of this poison ; and given in the same dose, it has 
produced spasms, suffocation, loss of voice, and coldness over the 
whole body.f Several authors affirm that the root of white hellebore 
dried, powdered, and snuffed up the nose with the intention of pro- 
ducing sneezing, has caused abortions, floodings, which it has been 
impossible to restrain, hzemorrhages from the nose, suffocation, and 
sudden death.]: Taken internally, it acts with extreme violence as 
an emetic, and even in small doses has frequently occasioned con- 
vulsions, and sometimes death: it seems to act powerfully on the 
nervous system, producing great anxiety, tremors, vertigo, syncope, 
loss of voice, &c.§ 
Upon opening those who have died by the effects of this poison, 
the stomach discovered marks of inflammation, with corrosions of 
its interior coat; the lungs have also been found inflamed, and 
their vessels distended with dark blood. 
Medical Properties and Uses. The ancients, though suffi- 
ciently acquainted with the virulence of the white hellebore, were not 
deterred from employing it internally in several diseases, particularly 
those of the chronic and obstinate kind, as mania, &c. : they consi- 
dered it safer when it excited vomiting, and Hippocrates, wished this 
to be its first effect ; in persons of weak constitutions, he considered 
the use of it unsafe ; he has frequently observed it to effect a 
cure, not only by its immediate action on the primae vias, but in cases 
where no sensible evacuation was promoted by its use.|j Besides the 
ancients, we have the testimony of several authors of its efficacy 
in various chronic diseases.** The bark of the root was given by 
Greding, in a great number of maniacal cases : in some of these it 
effected cures j in others, it relieved the patients, but without any 
* See Pal]as— Russ. Reise, vol. i. p. 49. 
t Ricat, Histoire des Plaates Veneneuse de la Suisse. 
% Orfila's Toxicology. 
§ Wepfer de Cleat, p. 48. 
II Hippoc. IKgt tWe^o^iofjiS in Oper. ed Lind. torn. i. p. 610. 
** Hannemann, Screta, Wepfer, Linder, &c. 
