ATROPA BELLADONNA. 
135 
alcohol, but much more readily iu the former ; perfectly so in aether ' 
and oil ; with the acids, it forms neutral crystallizable salts. Atro- 
pine when perfectly pure, is in the form of white or colourless trans- 
parent crystals. 
Action of Atropine on the Animal Economy. When 
M. Brandes^ was experimenting on this alkali he was obliged to 
desist, in consequence of the violent head-ach, pain in the back, 
giddiness, and nausea, which the vapour of atropine occasioned ; it 
had indeed so injurious an effect upon his health that he has 
entirely abstained from any further experiments, and no one has 
hitherto repeated them. He once tasted a small quantity of the 
sulphate of atropine ; the taste was not bitter, but merely saline ; 
there soon followed however, violent head-ache, shaking in the 
limbs, alternate sensations of heat and cold, oppression of the 
chest, difficulty of breathing, and diminished circulation of the 
blood. The violence of these symptoms ceased in half an hour. 
Even the vapour of the various salts of atropine produces vertigo. 
When exposed for a long time to the vapour from a solution of the 
nitrate, phosphate, or sulphate of atropine, the pupils of the eyes 
become dilated. This occurred frequently to M. Brandes ; and 
when he tasted the salt of atropine, the dilatation followed to so 
great a degree, that it persisted for twelve hours, and was not in- 
fluenced by the different shades of light.* 
Medical Uses, &c. The Belladonnji, besides its narcotic pro- 
perties, when exhibited in small doses promotes all the excretions. 
From a vegetable possessed of properties so energetic and powerful 
as this, we may expect a remedial agent proportionably active, 
and when administered with judgment and care, we shall be seldom 
disappointed in our expectations. 
This medicine should be prescribed in doses, suited to the effects 
we wigh to promote ; in small and repeated doses it operates on 
the nerves, kidneys, intestines, or skin ; thereby proving sedative, 
diuretic, aperient, or sudorific ; hence it becomes beneficial in a 
variety of diseases. If given in larger doses and without promoting 
any of the excretions, it may be absorbed in excess and injurious 
effects will follow. The Atropa Belladonna from the time of Galen 
to the present period has been recommended for the cure of a great 
* Vide lire's Dictionary of Chemistry, and the Formulary of New Remedies, by F. 
Haden, p. 120 and 121. 
