MISCELLANY. 
173 
either alone or united with other substances. In the two first experiments, 
40 grains given to adult animals produced death in less than five hours. 
A young rabbit was killed in six hours by fifteen grains. In the other 
experiments the author associated with the action of the sulphate of qui- 
nine, that of alcohol weakened with water of canella, that of distilled wa- 
ter of the Laurus cerasus, and, finally, that of opium. 
Jour n. de Chem. Med. 
Poisoning by Aconite, — It is well known that the Monitum napella is a 
violent poison. Matthiole, Pallas, and other authors have related cases of 
poisoning by this vegetable, which is found extensively in our gardens as 
an ornament. Here is another example of the danger of this plant. 
At Suippes, (Marne,) a young child, aged twenty-one months, in full 
health, was taken into the garden by her mother, who stopped along side 
of a very poisonous plant, the Monitum napella, commonly known as 
monkshood. The child pulled some leaves and two or three flowers which 
she swallowed. Her mother, attracted by something else, immediately 
on perceiving it, although entirely ignorant of the dangerous properties of 
the plant, took it from her hands and threw it away. Unfortunately it 
was too late ; at the end of half an hour the child began to stagger, its ap- 
pearance became animated, and it was soon unable to stand. At first, 
the parents supposing that she had drank some wine at a neighbor's, were 
not alarmed. Nevertheless, as these symptoms increased more and more, 
and the little patient complained continually of pain in the stomach, they 
called a physician, about two hours after the first manifestation of the 
complaint. This person immediately recognising in the child the symp- 
toms of poisoning, hastened to administer, as an antidote, some spoonfuls 
of an emetic draught, which immediately produced vomiting, but the aid 
was unfortunately too late ; at the time the physician caused the child to 
take some more of the same draught, he perceived the eyelids convulsed 
and the jaws to be set, the body to become rigid and bent back, and the 
limbs to be convulsed. Five minutes after the child was dead. 
Journ. de Chim. Med. 
Sublimed Benzoic Acid. By Fr. Mohr.* — The new French Pharmaco- 
poeia directs that benzoin should be mixed with its weight of fine sand, 
before it is introduced into the vessel, and recommends that the vessel 
should be shallow, and covered by an unglazed vessel, somewhat resem- 
bling an inverted flower-pot. The addition of sand is neither necessary or 
advantageous ; its use, on the contrary, gives rise more readily to empy- 
reumatic products, and at an indeterminate degree, for in it are united all 
the conditions necessary for the production of the colored oil. After ma- 
* Annal. der Pharm. vol. xxix, cap. 2. 
