128 
ON  COMMERCIAL  BELLADONNA  LEAVES. 
acters  of  vigorous  belladonna  leaves,  which  evidently  have  been 
dried  with  great  care,  the  lower  surface  being  of  a  bright  cinere- 
ous green  and  the  upper  surface  of  a  green  color,  sometimes 
with  a  slight  brownish  tinge,  and  but  rarely  of  a  deeper  browm- 
ish  green  ;  they  possess  the  slight  odor  and  the  insipid  some- 
what bitterish  acrid  taste  of  well  dried  belladonna  leaves.  No 
stems,  flowers  or  fruits  of  the  belladonna  are  found  in  it,  and  the 
most  careful  examination  showed  likewise  the  absence  of  all 
other  vegetable  products.  The  sample  is  equal  in  every  re- 
spect to  any  derived  from  England,  and  superior  to  many  that 
I  have  seen,  because  there  is  scarcely  a  broken  leaf  among  them, 
so  that  each  one  may  be  individually  examined  from  the  base  of 
the  petiole  to  the  apex  of  the  blade. 
I  had  occasion  to  examine  a  package  of  German  belladonna, 
which  is  put  up  similar  to  the  packages  of  the  Shakers,  only 
longer  and  broader  and  less  in  thickness  :  it  was  marked  as  fol- 
lows  :  Actien-Gesellschaft  fiir  Fabrikation  comprimirter  Gemiise 
in  Frankfurt-am-Main.  Folia  Belladonna  WarneckeV  Patent 
in  England.  It  contains  besides  the  leaves,  portions  of  the  stems 
or  branches,  some  berries  and  a  few  flowers  of  belladonna.  The 
whole  had  been  well  dried,  and  the  care  taken  with  this  process 
and  with  the  packing  and  cutting  was  evident ;  the  absence  of 
any  foreign  intermixture  speaks  likewise  well  for  the  selection 
of  the  proper  herbs.  But  the  presence  of  other  portions  of  the 
plant  and  of  some  decayed  belladonna  leaves  exclude  these  pack- 
ages from  the  use  for  preparations  of  our  Pharmacopoeia,  which 
directs  the  leaves  only.  Although  it  may  be  inferred  from  the 
above  mentioned  discussion  in  the  London  Pharmaceutical  Socie- 
ty that  the  soft  parts  of  the  plant,  together  with  the  flowers  and 
fruit,  yield  an  extract  stronger  than  that  of  the  leaves,  still  it 
must  be  remembered  that  the  plants  were  collected  in  September 
and  had  been  kept  back  in  growth  by  severe  frosts  in  the  spring. 
Schroff  states  distinctly  that  after  July  the  strength  of  the 
leaves  is  diminished,  and  in  the  fall  they  are  nearly  inactive.  It  is 
well  known  that  the  fruit  is  extremely  poisonous,  and  the  relia- 
bility of  most  English  extracts  is  probably  in  part  due  to  the 
use  of  the  fruit  in  preparing  it.  Is  such  a  deviation  from  the 
Pharmacopoeia,  in  fact  from  nearly  all  Pharmacopoeias,  war- 
ranted ?  I  think  not.  A  deviation  in  one  instance  will  be  the 
cause  of  others  ;  why  then  have  a  Pharmacopoeia  ?  The  proper 
