ON  COMMERCIAL  BELLADONNA  LEAVES. 
127 
with  which  it  was  offered  to  a  careful  and  conscientious  man, 
are  fit  subjects  for  serious  contemplation.  How  did  this  Ger- 
man belladonna  get  to  New  York  ?  Did  it  really  pass  the  cus- 
tom house  ?  And  had  it  been  examined  by  the  drug  inspector  ? 
Any  how,  it  was  labelled  belladonna  and  it  contained  some. 
The  matter,  however,  is  too  serious  to  be  treated  lightly,  and  it 
seemed  to  me  interesting  to  examine  other  specimens  of  bella- 
donna leaves. 
The  next  lot  which  T  was  fortunate  enough  to  fall  in  with  pre- 
sented another  kind  of  adulteration,  so  apparent  in  its  character 
that  it  is  difficult  to  conceive  how  an  apothecary  of  the  most  ordi- 
nary attainments  can  sell  it.  About  25  per  cent.,  I  should  judge, 
consist  of  portions  of  the  stem,  leaves  and  fully  developed  cap- 
sules of  Hyoscyamus  niger,  Linn.  An  accidental  admixture  of  these 
to  belladonna  is  not  possible,  from  the  fact  that  both  had  been 
evidently  mixed  while  drying,  and  were  folded  around  each 
other.  The  greatest  part  of  the  leaves  were  so  much  broken 
as  to  prevent  their  identification  ;  but  among  this  finer  portion 
I  found  some  fruits  of  Malva  rotundifolia,  Linn.,  a  few  small  syn- 
genesious  flowers,  and  the  shrivelled  half  expanded  flowers  with 
a  short  corolla  and  included  stamens,  about  the  size  of  belladon- 
na flowers,  but  quite  distinct  from  them. 
A  third  sample,  apparently  likewise  of  German  origin,  consist- 
ed of  true  belladonna  leaves,  which  were,  however,  gathered  at 
an  improper  season.  None  of  the  leaves  exceeded  two  inches 
in  length ;  a  great  many  measured  between  half  and  one  inch, 
and  were  partly  still  attached  to  the  slender  tops  of  the  branches. 
They  were  collected  before  flowering,  and  their  active  principles 
were  therefore  not  fully  developed;  for  Professor  Schroff  has 
demonstrated  that  the  leaves  as  well  as  the  root  are  most  active 
in  July,  during  the  period  of  flowering  ;  otherwise  the  leaves  were 
unobjectionable,  being  entirely  free  from  any  impurities  what- 
ever. 
Upon  application,  Messrs.  John  &  Cramer,  of  Philadelphia, 
kindly  sent  me  a  sample  of  their  belladonna,  which  had  been 
collected  on  the  Niederwald  near  Wiesbaden,  Germany,  and 
was  imported  from  Edmund  Hardy,  in  Mayence.  This  is  an 
excellent  specimen,  consisting  solely  of  leaves,  measuring  be- 
sides the  petiole  from  two  to  four  inches,  and  having  all  the  char- 
