AmNov.r;i886arm'}    Mydriatic  Action  of  the  Solanacece.  559 
pupils1 — the  word  appears  to  have  been  first  used  by  Cselius  Aure- 
lianus  ("  Chron.,"  ii.,  p.  344). 
The  first  mention  of  a  mydriasis  produced  by  preparations  of  Sola- 
nacese2  we  find  in  Galen's  third  volume  of  "  Methodus  Medendi "  (Edit. 
Kiihn,  torn.  x.,  Lipsise,  1825,  p,  171).  This  author  states,  in  the  sec- 
ond chapter  of  the  quoted  volume,  that  grave  visual  interferences  and 
mydriasis  may  result  by  a  too  intensive  local  application  of  drugs  con- 
taining mandragora  or  hyoscyamus.  Dioscorides  and  Plinius  Secun- 
dus  do  not  appear  to  have  known  anything  of  this  action,  at  least 
these  writers  never  mention  it,  while  mydriasis  itself  occurs  in  Pliny, 
who  even  mentions  an  artificial  production  of  mydriasis  by  the  seeds 
of  anagallis.  Galen,  therefore,  is  unquestionably  the  first  author  who 
refers  to  the  mydriatic  action  of  two  species  of  Solanacese.  Still,  his 
in  every  way  correct  statement  appears  to  have  been  wholly  forgot- 
ten, for  no  subsequent  writer  ever  speaks  of  this  action,  which  fifteen 
hundred  years  later  had  to  be  discovered  anew.3 
In  1686,  Dr.  Ray,  a  famous  English  physician,  reported  in  his 
"  Historia  Plantarum  "  (vol.  i.,  p.  680)  that  a  lady  coming  under  his 
observation  had  placed  upon  a  small  ulcer  beneath  the  eye  a  belladonna 
leaf,  and  had  afterwards  been  annoyed  by  an  excessive  dilatation  of  the 
pupil.  Simultaneously  the  lady  lost  entirely  the  power  of  the  pupil 
to  react  on  light.  The  physician  regarded  this  defect  at  first  as  a 
matter  of  accident,  until  a  repetition  of  the  belladonna  application 
taught  him  that  a  dilatation  of  the  pupil  and  loss  of  reactive  power 
for  several  days  were  the  physiological  effects  of  belladonna. 
But  this  second  discovery  also  was  again  forgotten,  although  Pay's 
work  was  largely  read.  Thus  Boerhave  (1668-1738),  however  familiar 
with  medical  literature,  says  in  his  book,  "  De  Morbis  Nervorum  "  (p. 
371),  expressively  that  the  juice  of  belladonna  had  no  influence  upon 
the  eye,  while  Van  Swieten,  in  his  commentary  of  Boerhave's  "  Aphor- 
1  The  word  pupil,  with  its  present  signification,  was  used  by  Cicero  ("  De 
Natura  Deorum,"  ii.,  57),  who  derived  it  from  pupula,  a  little  doll. 
2  The  identification  of  the  Solanacese  of  the  ancients  is  a  difficult  and  as  yet 
but  partially  solved  problem,  vide  Sprengel  ("  Ped.  Dioscorides  de  Mat.  Med.," 
Lipsiee,  1829,  pp.  602-605),  Francis  Adams  ("  Paulus  iEgineta,"  London,  1847, 
ii.,  pp.  218-219,  and  iii.,  p.  290),  and  Imbert  Gourbeyre  ("Kecherches  sur  les 
Solanums  des  Anciens,"  Paris,  1834).  For  our  purposes  it  is  of  importance  to 
know  that  all  of  the  species  in  question  have  a  mydriatic  action. 
3  Ebn,  Baithar,  and  Paulus  iEgineta,  know  positively  nothing  of  this 
action. 
