10 
SOLANUM DULCAMARA. 
doses of the watery extract, to several persons, without producing 
any untoward symptom. From the above it is probable, that the 
histories of the poisoning by the night-shades, found in the Works 
of Gmelin and others, belong rather to the fruit of the Atropa Bella- 
donna, which was classed with the Solanum tribe by former botanists ; 
M. Dunal is of this opinion.* The Solanum Nigrum, S. Villosum, 
and some other species, appear to possess the same properties as 
the Dulcamara. On some occasions the fruit of the Dulcamara has 
produced vomiting, convulsions, and other unpleasant symptoms ; 
when such symptoms arise from taking the fruit, which children 
will frequently do, no time should be lost in evacuating the stomach 
by emetics, followed by cathartics, and the usual means resorted to, 
where vegetable poisons have been taken. 
Medical Properties and Uses. The virtues of the Dulca- 
mara reside chiefly in the twigs, which, on being chewed, are at first 
bitter, followed by a degree of sweetness ; the infusion of the dried 
twigs is reddish, intensely bitter, and turns rather brown by green 
vitriol.f The climate, and the soil, on which the Dulcamara grows, 
appear to have great influence on its medicinal properties. The plants 
which grow in a warm climate and on a dry soil, being more efficaci- 
ous than those grown in a cold climate, and where the soil is wet. The 
properties of the plant are also said to be strongest in the Autumn,^: 
bence it should be gathered in that season in preference to the Spring. 
Dulcamara acts upon the animal economy as a stimulus, exciting 
the action of the heart and arteries, and is said to increase all the 
secretions and excretions,|| hence it has been recommended in a 
great variety of diseases, by different authors; namely in rheuma- 
tism, scrofula, jaundice, dropsy, obstructed menstruation, and many 
cutaneous diseases,§ particularly in lepra, for which it has been 
recommended as one of the most effectual remedies, taken internally 
aod applied externally in the form of lotion.lT Dulcamara is now, 
however, little used in this country ; the form in which it has been 
usually prescribed is that of decoction ; from one to six ounces of the 
twigs, boiled in six pints of water to four ; dose, three or four ounces. 
♦ Histoire Naturelle, M^dicale, et Economique des Solanum, par M. Dunal, 1813, 
Bp. 70, 73, &c. 
t Gray's Elements of Pharmacy. 
t Colliqunter stipites vel primo vere vel autumni fine, foliis destituti, tumque et 
odor saporque insigniur. Murray Ap. Med. vol. 1, p. 424. 
U Per omnia colatoria corporis efficaciam exercent. 1. c. 
§ Journ. de Medecine, t. 22. p. 336. 
% See Beiteman oa Cutaneous Diseases, p. 34. 
