383 
PHARMACEUTICAL MEETING. 
by surprise by the facts communicated to him by Dr. Harley, that he requested 
Dr. Harley to continue his experiments with some tincture that he would pre¬ 
pare for him. For that purpose he obtained some fruits of coniurn from Covent 
Garden, and in order to guard against all possibility of doubt as to their quality 
and genuineness, he had given some of them to Professor Bentley, who, being 
present, could state the result of his examination. He had also made the tinc¬ 
ture in the presence of Dr. Harley, with some fruits which were taken from the 
same sample forwarded to Professor Bentley. Dr. Harley had kindly, at his 
request, attended there that evening, and would now state to the meeting the 
results he had obtained. 
Dr. Harley said, I have never been able to regard the Coniurn maculatum 
as being the poisonous plant it is commonly reputed to be, and am dissatisfied 
with the evidence from which the conclusions as to its venomous character are 
derived. 
I have occasionally given a large dose ( 5 ij- 5 iij) of tincture of coniurn without 
efiect, and last autumn, upon taking charge of Dr. Garrod’s hospital patients, 
my interest in the matter was excited anew by finding that two of the patients 
■were taking each 5 iv doses of the tincture of the fruit, prepared according to the 
British Pharmacopoeia. On mentioning these facts to Mr. Hemingway, Phar¬ 
maceutical Chemist, of Portman Street, Portman Square, he kindly fell in with 
my views, and prepared me, under my own supervision, a quantity of the tinc¬ 
ture of the fruit. I at once instituted experiments with it, selecting as the sub¬ 
jects, myself and a delicate woman who was ill and confined to bed from the 
effects of a large abscess in the loins. Beginning with 5 SS doses and increasing 
the dose by 5 ss or 53, we finished the supply of tincture,—the woman, by taking 
f^iss, and myself f 51 ], which I drank in Mr. Hemingway’s presence. Ho 
effects followed the exhibition of the drug on any occasion. (Dr. Harley touched 
upon other particulars, but as these are given in detail in another part of the 
present number it is unnecessary to mention them here.) 
Dr. Garrod remarked that for several years he had from time to time made 
clinical observations on the effect of Coniurn maculatum upon the animal economy, 
and the result of such observations he would shortly lay before the Society. In 
the first place he would remark, that there was great evidence to show that the 
activity of the plant depended chiefiy, if not entirely, upon the presence of a 
liquid alkaloid called conia, and that this was a powerful body is rendered evi¬ 
dent by the fact of its poisonous action upon the lower animals,, even when 
administered in minute quantities. This being premised, it is found that the 
alkaloid is contained in much larger quantities in the fruit of the plant than in 
leaves, and manufacturers of conia have always employed the fruit. In the 
the don Pharmacopoeia the tincture is ordered to be prepared from the dry leaf, 
Lonin th (uronortion of 2^ oz. to the pint; in the British Pharmacopoeia the 
Same amOau iuIj xiC luio (omitting the difference between avoirdupois and 
apothecaries’ weight) is made use of, and, therefore, from the above considera¬ 
tions we should be led to infer that the tincture of the British Pharmacopoeia 
is more potent than that of the old London Pharmacopoeia. With regard to 
the relative proportions of conia in the leaf and in the fruit, it may be stated 
that Geiger obtained from 19 lbs. of the dried fruit about 1 fluid ounce of conia, 
Vv'hereas 100 lbs. of the leaves only yielded a drachm or so. 
In reference to the clinical observations. Dr. Garrod remarked, that in a case 
of paraplegia, the details of which he had had an opportunity of referring to in 
one of his hospital case-books that day, he had administered at first 2 drms. of 
the London tincture three times each day without appreciable physiological effect; 
the dose was, after two days, increased to 3 drms., after another two days to 4 
drms., and after another forty- eight hours to 5 drms., and yet no symptoms were 
manifested. On the subsequent administration of 6 drm. doses, slight symp- 
