356 
Tincture  of  Hyoscyamus. 
(Am  Jotm.  Pharm. 
t    Aug.  1, 1871. 
order  to  produce  its  sedative  effects.  The  experiment  was  made  on 
several  persons,  beginning  with  a  drachm  dose,  increasing  it  to  six 
drachms,  and  in  my  own  case  to  one  ounce,  of  the  tincture  of  the 
Dublin  Pharmacopoeia.  In  no  case  were  any  effects  observed  beyond 
dryness  of  the  throat  and  fauces.  The  experiments  were  made  with 
tinctures  prepared  from  the  dried  leaves  of  garden-grown  plants, 
from  wild  plants  collected  in  a  mountainous  district  of  North  Wales, 
and  from  the  leaves  dried  and  undried. 
I  was  under  the  impression  that  some  of  the  plants  employed  in 
making  the  tinctures  on  which  I  experimented  were  in  the  second 
year  of  their  growth,  but  the  trials  now  to  be  described  have  con- 
vinced me  that  none  of  them  could  have  been  more  than  one  year 
old.  At  that  time  1  was  not  acquainted  with  the  means  which  I  have 
since  discovered  of  testing  the  age  of  the  plant. 
I  satisfied  myself  by  these  experiments  that  tincture  of  hyoscyamus 
prepared,  as  I  believe  it  generally  is  in  this  country,  from  leaves  of 
one  year's  growth,  is  all  but  powerless.  I  was  strengthened  in  this 
opinion  by  finding  that  M.  Hertz  has  given  upwards  of  fifteen  grains 
of  the  extract,  most  probably  made  from  the  plant  in  its  first  year, 
without  any  sensible  effect. 
Mr.  Iloulton  had  long  before  affirmed  the  inertness  of  the  one-year 
old  plant,  and  the  activity  of  that  of  two  years  old. 
In  order  to  come  to  some  determination  on  this  subject  I  adopted 
means  of  procuring  a  tincture  certainly  made  from  the  latter,  and 
from  trials  with  it  soon  convinced  myself  that  it  was  an  article  of 
very  different  value  from  a  tincture  of  the  one-year  old  plant,  and 
that  all  my  former  experiments  must  have  been  made  with  the  latter, 
although  I  was  led  to  believe  that,  in  some  of  them,  the  plant  of  two 
years'  growth  had  been  used. 
My  first  trial  was  on  myself.  I  took  one  drachm,  and  for  an  hour 
or  two  felt  no  effect  beyond  dryness  of  the  mouth.  On  a  subsequent 
occasion  I  took  two  drachms,  and  in  two  hours  had  proof  that  I  had 
taken  a  sufficiency.  My  sensations  were  indescribable :  one  was  a 
feeling  of  uncertainty  of  my  steps  in  walking,  although  they  were 
really  quite  steady,  and  a  slight  sensation  of  giddiness.  This  trial 
convinced  me  that  I  had  taken  as  full  a  dose  as  prudence  would  per- 
mit. To  a  lady  who  suffered  from  headache  I  gave,  at  her  own 
request,  one  drachm  of  this  tincture.  In  about  two  hours  she  felt  so 
oyercome  by  sleepine^  that  she  could  scarcely  keep  her  eyes  open ; 
