f 
AmxoT'iS16arm'}    Mydriatic  Action  of  the  Solanacece.  561 
action.  Independently  of  him,  Schiferli,1  following  the  example  of 
his  preceptor  Loder,  who  appears  to  have  found  the  belladonna  action 
for  himself,  used  and  recommended  in  1796  an  infusion  of  belladonna 
for  cataract  extraction.  Loder  is  consequently  the  sixth  discoverer  of 
this  action. 
After  this  time  the  specific  action  of  belladonna  upon  the  eye  became 
generally  known  in  Germany  and  other  countries. 
Thus  we  find  it  mentioned  as  something  generally  known  in  Tromms- 
dorff's  "Pharmacological  Dictionary"  (Hamburg  and  Leipzig,  1802, 
vol.  i.,  p.  299).  The  action  of '  hyoscyamus  was  discovered  byHmily, 
in  1800,  from  botanical  deductions,  and  was  warmly  recommended  for 
ophthalmological  purposes.2  Ehlers,3  one  of  his  pupils,  translated  the 
publication  of  Himly  in  question  into  French,  but,  either  on  purpose 
or  by  mistake,  always  wrote  belladonna  instead  of  hyoscyamus,  indu- 
cing thus  the  French  physicians  to  employ  belladonna  therapeutically. 
In  the  second  French  edition,  however,  appearing  1803  in  Altona,  the 
word  jusquiame  is  used  instead  of  belladonna.  In  England  Paget4 
recommended  the  belladonna  application  for  cataract  extraction. 
In  lay  circles,  however,  the  mydriatic  action  of  the  Solanacese  was 
in  the  beginning  of  this  century  still  wholly  unknown,  and  was  anew 
discovered  by  Eunge,  the  discoverer  of  the  aniline  colors.  This 
chemist  makes,  in  his  "  Chemischen  Briefen,"5  the  following  interesting 
communication : — 
"In  Jena  I  became  soon  acquainted  with  Dobereiner,  and  discussed 
with  him  my  researches  about  vegetable  poisons,  especially  the  Sola- 
naceae.  Dobereiner  appeared  pleased  with  the  methods  instituted  by 
me  and  the  results  of  my  iuvestigations ;  he  constantly  stimulated  me 
1  Rud.  Abraham  Schiferli,  "Dissertatio  de  Cataracta,"  Jense,  1796;  and 
"  Theoretical  Practical  Treatise  on  Cataract,"  Jena  and  Leipzig,  1797,  p.  85.  He 
was  military  surgeon,  later  professor  of  surgery,  and  died  as  such  in  Bern  in 
1837. 
2  "  Ophthalmolog.  Beobachtungen  und  Untersuchungen,"  Bremen,  vol. 
i.,p,  1. 
3  "De  la  Paralysie  de  FIris  occasioned  par  Application  locale  de  la  Belladone, 
et  de  son  Utilite  dans  le  Traitement  de  divers  Maladies  des  Yeux,"  par  Himly. 
trad,  par  Emil  August  Ehlers,  Paris,  1802. 
4  London  Med.  mid  Phys.  Journal;  1801,  vi.,  p.  352  ;  cf.  Edinburgh  Med.  and  Surg. 
Journal,  1813,  ix.,  p.  279. 
5  This  book  is  wholly  unobtainable  in  the  book  market.  A  brief  abstract  of 
it  appeared  in  the  Pharmac.  JETandelsblatt,  1885,  p.  23. 
36 
