ON  CONIA, 
331 
her  own  remark  was,  "  What  a  wonderful  medicine  !"  This 
lady  was  requested  to  continue  the  same  medicine  after  she 
went  home  if  the  neuralgic  pain  returned.  Let  me  only  add, 
that  the  pain  of  which  she  was  relieved  was  constant  and  se- 
vere. Case  II. — The  next  patient  for  whom  I  prescribed  this 
medicine  was  the  late  Mr.  H.  lie  suffered  for  a  long  time 
from  neuralgia  of  the  extensor  muscles  of  the  lower  part  of  the 
leg.  In  November,  1863,  I  put  him  under  Cicutine  granules, 
which  he  continued  for  a  week,  by  which  time  he  was  com- 
pletely relieved  of  pain,  and  continued  so  for  four  days  ;  but 
on  the  fifth  day  the  pain  returned,  and  ultimately  only  yielded 
to  the  subcutaneous  injection  of  morphia,  and  even  that  was 
but  temporary,  as  the  disease  increased  till  he  died. 
When  Dr.  Christison  saw  Mr.  H.  with  me,  I  told  him  of  the 
great  relief  afforded  to  my  patient  by  the  use  of  Cicutine,  which 
led  to  a  conversation  regarding  this  new  remedial  agent.  Dr. 
Christison  supposed,  at  first,  that  Cicutine  was  the  alkaloid  of 
Cicuta  virosa,  or  Water  Hemlock,  which  is  not  used  in  medi- 
cine, as  it  is  considered  a  narcotico-acrid  poison,  causing  true 
tetanic  convulsions. 
I  told  him  that  I  understood  Cicutine  to  "be  the  same  as  Co- 
n'e'in.  We  accordingly  met  the  next  day  and  subjected  one  of 
the  granules  to  a  careful  analysis,  when  Dr.  C.  and  I  distinctly 
traced  in  it  the  peculiar  mousy  odor  of  Conium.  This  Cicutine, 
then,  is  Conia,  or  Conicin,  the  peculiar  alkaloid  or  active  prin- 
ciple of  hemlock.  Each  granule  contains  go  of  a  grain  of  the 
alkaloid. 
In  Neligan's  "  Materia  Medica,"  I  find  a  recommendation  of 
Conein  in  neuralgic  affections,  as  he  has  known  it  alleviate 
pain  in  doses  of  fa  of  a  grain. 
At  page  233  of  Dungl'son's  Medical  Dictionary,  I  find  Cicu- 
tine, or  Conicine,  mentioned  as  the  active  principle  of  Conium 
maeulatum,  and  that  either  it  or  its  salts  have  been  given  as 
sedatives  to  the  nervous  centres  in  neuralgic  diseases. 
Mention  is  also  made  of  Cicutine  by  Mr.  Justus  Liebig  under 
Volatile  Bases,  where  he  says  that  Conicine,  or  Cicutine,  or 
Conin,  was  discovered  by  Grieseke,  but  first  obtained  pure  by 
Geiger ;  that  it  occurs  in  Conium  maeulatum,  having  a  formula 
