ATROPA BELLADONNA. DEADLY NIGHTSHADE. 
Class Fifth, PENTANDRIA.— Order First, MONOGYNIA. 
Natural Order, SOLANE^. THE NIGHT-SHADE TRIBE. 
Atropa Belladonna, the Dwale, or deadly Night-shade, (the Solanum lethale, maniacum, or furiosum, 
of the older writers,) is one of the most powerful of our native narcotic poisons : and its various syno- 
nymies are truly expressive of its strangely fatal powers. Its present generic name is a slight variation 
of Atropos, one of the evil destinies, and a derivative of « and rgswco, thus signifying the inflexible, and 
being indicative of the inevitable fate of such as become subject to its influence. The modern specific 
name Belladonna, in the Italian language, signifies a beautiful woman ; and was bestowed on this plant, in 
consequence of the use once made of its berries by the Italian ladies as a cosmetic; and older ones, lethale, 
maniacum, and furiosum, allude to the frantic delirium, nay, madness, which precede death when it is 
taken in over doses. From the tempting appearance of its black, shining, cherry-like fruits, accidents have 
frequently happened to children and others who have eaten it, being ignorant of its deleterious properties. 
Koestler, of Vienna, has placed upon record the symptoms which occured in five persons of different 
ages, who ate more or less freely of the berries of this fatal plant; they were a man and his two sons, one 
a boy nine years old, the other five years of age, and two older daughters. The younger children ate the 
most, and in them the phenomena were the most marked ; they became restless and delirious, complained 
of pain in the head, giddiness, dimness of vision, and subsequently loss of sight. The pupils were much 
dilated, the restlessness uncontrollable, but the wanderings all on lively subjects. There were observed 
frequent spasmodic contractions of the muscles of the eye-balls, and of the throat, especially of the latter, 
whenever any attempts were made to swallow; the phenomena, on the whole, bearing a strong resem- 
blance to the symptoms of mania. 
But a still more important record is that of M. Gaultier de Claubry, who relates the case of 150 
soldiers who were poisoned by it near Dresden. (Sedillot’s Journ.) The cases of six soldiers, likewise 
poisoned by this deadly plant, are given by Mr. Brumwell, (in the Lond. Med. Observations and In- 
quiries,) and in most of them the delirium was extravagant, and commonly of the most pleasing kind, 
sometimes accompanied with immoderate and uncontrollable paroxysms of laughter, sometimes with con- 
stant talking, but occasionally as in the soldiers, with complete loss of speech. 
The poisonous qualities of Belladonna reside in every part of the plant, but chiefly predominate in 
the fruit : the berries are said to be less pernicious than the leaves ; and although one, or even half of 
one, has produced death, Hatter informs us that he has seen a fellow student eat three or four with 
impunity. Dr. Paris, in his Synoptical Tables of poisons, remarks that Belladonna is one of the narcotico- 
acrid class, which not only exert a local action, but poisons by entering the circulation, and thereby acting 
through that medium, with different degrees of energy on the heart, brain, and alimentary canal. When 
taken in an over-dose it produces intoxication, — a fact too obvious to have escaped the penetrating genius 
of Shakspeare, for in the speech of Banquo to Macbeth, we read, — 
“ Or have we eaten of the insane root, 
That takes the reason prisoner ?” 
