44 ° poisons: their effects and detection. [§§539-541* 
poisonous. From six to ten hours after ingestion there have appeared 
depression, nausea, j aundice, dilated pupils, and in the worst cases, at the 
end of the first day, delirium, somnolence, and muscular cramps, followed 
by collapse and death. In a case observed by Kromholz, the post¬ 
mortem appearances were jaundice, a dark fluid state of the blood, and 
hypersemia of the brain and liver. Bostrom fed a dog with 100 grms. 
of the fresh young morelle ; the animal died on the third day, and the 
canaliculi of the kidney were found filled with the haemoglobin, partly 
amorphous and partly crystalline. 1 
DIVISION II.—GLUCOSIDES. 
I.—Digitalis Group. 
§ 539. The Digitalis purpurea, or foxglove, is a plant extremely 
common in most parts of England, and poisoning may occur from the 
accidental use of the root, leaves, or seeds. The seeds are very small 
and pitted ; they weigh 1126 to a grain {Guy), are of a light brown 
colour, and in form somewhat egg-shaped. The leaves are large, ovate, 
crenate, narrowed at the base, rugous, veined, and downy, especially on 
the under surface. Their colour is a dull green, and they have a faint 
odour and a bitter, nauseous taste. The leaf is best examined in section. 
Its epidermis, when fresh, is seen to consist of transparent, hexagonal, 
colourless cells, beneath which, either singly or in groups, there are 
round cells of a magenta tint, and beneath these again a layer of 
columnar cells, and near the lower surface a loose parenchyma. The 
hairs are simple, appearing scantily on the upper, but profusely on the 
lower, surface ; each is composed of from four to five joints or cells, and 
has at its base a magenta-coloured cell. The small leaves just below the 
seed-case, and the latter itself, are studded with glandular hairs. The 
root consists of numerous long slender fibres. 
§ 540. Chemical Composition. —It is now generally accepted that 
there exist in the foxglove, at least, four distinct principles— digitalin , 
digitonin, digitoxin, and digitalein. Besides these there are several 
others of more or less definite composition, which are all closely related, 
and may be derived from a complex glucoside by successive removals 
of hydrogen in the form of water. 
§ 541. Digitalein (Gitalin), C 28 H 48 O 10 , a white amorphous powder, physiologically 
active ; m.p. 150-156°. Soluble in chloroform, alcohol, and acetone. It dissolves in 
600 parts of cold water. The solution after a time becomes turbid from separation 
of anhydrogitalin, C 28 H 46 0 9 , m.p. 255°. 
1 See Casper’s Viertelj., 1844; Keber, Preuss. Vereinszeitg., 1846; Bostrom, 
Ber. d. Phys. Med. Soc., Erlangen, 1880 ; Schauenstein, “ Giftige Schwamme,” in 
Maschka’s Handbuch, etc. 
