392 POISONS : THEIR EFFECTS AND DETECTION. [§ 455. 
may be considered with strict propriety as atropine poisoning. Our 
English death statistics for the five years ending 1916 record 64 deaths 
(40 males and 24 females) from atropine (for the most part registered 
under the head of belladonna) ; 31 (or 48 per cent.) were suicidal, the 
rest accidental. 
The greatest number of the accidental cases arise from mistakes in 
pharmacy ; thus belladonna leaves have been supplied for ash leaves ; 
the extract of belladonna has been given instead of extract of juniper ; 
the alkaloid itself has been dispensed in mistake for theine ; 1 a more 
curious and marvellously stupid mistake is one in which it was dispensed 
instead of asafoetida (Schauenstein, op. cit., p. 652). Further, valerianate 
of atropine has been accidentally substituted for quinine valerianate, 
and Schauenstein relates a case in which atropine sulphate was adminis¬ 
tered subcutaneously instead of morphine sulphate ; but the result was 
not lethal. Many other instances might be cited. The extended use of 
atropine as an external application to the eye naturally gives rise to a 
few direct and indirect accidents. Serious symptoms have arisen from 
the solution reaching the pharynx through the lachrymal duct and nose. 
A curious indirect poisoning, caused by the use of atropine as a colly- 
rium, is related by Schauenstein. 2 A person suffered from all the 
symptoms of atropine poisoning ; but the channel by which it had 
obtained access to the system was a great mystery, until it was traced 
to some coffee, and it was then found that the cook had strained this * 
coffee through a certain piece of linen, which had been used months 
before, soaked in atropine solution, as a collyrium, and had been cast 
aside as of no value. 
§ 455. Accidental and Criminal Poisoning by Atropine. —External 
applications of atropine are rapidly absorbed ; e.g., if the foot of a rat be 
steeped for a little while in a solution of the alkaloid, and the eyes 
watched, dilatation of the pupils will soon be observed. If the skin is 
broken, enough may be absorbed to cause death. A case is on record 
in which -21 grm. of atropine sulphate, applied as an ointment to the 
abraded skin, was fatal. 3 Atropine has also been absorbed from the 
bowel; in one case, a clyster containing the active principles of 5*2 grms. 
(80 grains) of belladonna root was administered to a woman 27 years 
of age, and caused death. Allowing the root to have been carefully 
dried, and to contain -21 per cent, of alkaloid, it would seem that so 
little as 10-9 mgrms. (-16 grain) may even prove fatal, if left in contact 
with the intestinal mucous membrane. Belladonna berries and stra¬ 
monium leaves and seeds are eaten occasionally by children. A remark¬ 
able series of poisonings by belladonna berries occurred in London during 
the autumn of 1846. 
1 Hohl, De Effectu Atropini, Diss., Halle, 1863. 
2 Maschka’s Handbuch. 3 pi oss , Zeitschr. f. Chir., 1863. 
