162 
Solnine. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
April,  1894. 
Some  years  ago  my  brother,  Mr.  C.  G.  Lloyd,  asked  me  to  inves- 
tigate the  plant  Stylophorum  diphyllum,  a  member  of  the  papa- 
veracese,  predicting  from  its  relationship,  botanically,  that  it  would 
prove  to  be  an  alkaloid  bearing  plant.  The  result  was  the  discovery 
of  an  abundance  of  an  alkaloid  now  known  as  Stylophorine,  which 
was  supplied  to  Professor  Eykmann,  of  Tokio,  Japan,  who  was  study- 
ing the  relationships  of  the  products  of  that  natural  order  and  who 
established  its  chemical  position. 
Repeated  investigations  with  other  plants,  instituted  at  the  sug- 
gestion of  my  brother,  have  also  resulted  in  the  discovery  of  unseen 
and  yet  clearly  foretold  products.  Usually  success  has  crowned 
such  efforts,  and  it  may  be  said  that  research  in  this  direction  can  be 
made  with  considerable  certainty  and  rendered  quite  systematic 
undera  clear  understanding  of  botanical  relationships  in  connection 
with  allied  plant  constituents.  Some  years  ago  he  asked  me  to 
investigate  Solanum  Carolinense,  predicting  that  it  would  prove  to 
contain  an  alkaloid. 
This  plant  is  well  known  to  country  people  as  "  poison  or  ground 
potato,"  " horse  nettle,"  and  "tread  soft."  It  is  reputed  to  be  a 
poison,  and  animals  of  all  kinds  refuse  to  eat  it,  which  perhaps  estab- 
lishes the  grounds  for  its  lethal  reputation. 
Medical  History. — For  a  long  time  the  plant  has  been  considered 
a  domestic  remedy  for  "fits  "  and  convulsions  among  the  negroes  of 
the  South.  It  was  introduced  as  a  medicine  to  the  profession  in 
1889,  by  Dr.  J.  L.  Napier,  of  Blenheim,  S.  C,  who  presented  a  paper 
on  the  subject  to  the  Medical  Association  of  South  Carolina.  Dr. 
Napier  began  the  use  of  it  in  1887,  having  learned  of  its  reputed 
virtues  in  the  hands  of  the  negro  population.  He  found  the  root 
and  berries  to  check  convulsive  disorders,  especially  with  females 
when  occurring  at  the  menstrual  period.  Tablespoonful  doses  of  a 
whiskey  and  water  preparation  were  administered  to  a  life-long 
epileptic,  the  disorder  previously  appearing  with  each  catamenial 
epoch,  with  the  result  of  completely  checking  the  trouble,  which  did 
not  return.  The  remedy  was  continued  seven  months  afterward. 
Equally  good  results  in  other  cases  led  him  to  try  it  in  both  puer- 
peral and  hysterical  convulsions  with  satisfactory  results.  He  used 
it  in  a  case  of  chorea,  and  has  seen  a  case  of  traumatic  tetanus  con- 
trolled by  it. 
According  to  F.  P.  Porcher  (Southern  Fields  and  Forests)  horse 
