SPONTANEOUS  DECOMPOSITION  OF  BELLADONNA  LEAVES.  458 
given  three  times  a  d,ay.  The  first  dose  generally  gives  immediate 
relief,  and. the  others  are  merely  given  by  way  of  precaution. 
After  the  dose  is  swallowed  the  remaining  boiled  plant  is  to  be 
applied  to  the  bitten  part  as  a  cataplasm. 
The  immediate  effect  on  the  system  appears  to  be  that  of  a 
powerful  anodyne  sudorific,  arresting  the  nausea  and  vomiting, 
and  giving  instantaneous  relief  to  the  pain,  to  be  speedily  suc- 
ceeded by  free  perspiration  and  gentle  slumbers.  Shortly  after 
swallowing  a  dose,  an  agreeable  sensation  of  warmth  is  felt 
throughout  the  entire  frame,  commencing  in  the  region  of  the 
heart  and  extending  to  the  surface  and  extremities.  The  stomach, 
no  matter  how  irritable,  scarcely  ever  rejects  the  remedy,  and  if 
it  does  never  more  than  once  or  twice. 
Dr.  Harris  states  that  it  has  been  used  in  forty  cases  of  snake 
bite  in  his  neighborhood  with  entire  success,  and  that  it  proves 
equally  successful  in  spider  bite.  He  hence  infers  that  it  would 
prove  successful  as  an  antidote  to  all  animal  poisons,  even  "  hy- 
drophobia."— Southern  Medical  and  Surgical  Journal,  July, 
1855. 
ON  THE  SPONTANEOUS  DECOMPOSITION  OF  BELLADONNA 
LEAVES. 
By  Norbert  Gille. 
It  is  well  to  observe,  says  M.  Gille,  tbat  the  leaves  referred  to 
in  the  following  observations  were  not  old,  but  had  been  collected 
and  dried  according  to  the  rules  of  our  aft,  and  had  been  placed 
afterwards  in  a  glass  stopped  bottle,  among  the  drugs,  and  had 
been  often  opened  in  the  course  of  business,  and  doubtless  not 
always  hermetically  closed. 
Well  dried  at  first,  these  leaves  gradually  reabsorbed  humidity 
every  time  the  bottle  was  opened  as  long  as  the  hygrometic  state 
of  the  external  air  exceeded  that  of  the  bottle.  Under  the  in- 
fluence of  this  moisture  a  reaction  soon  commenced,  a  mixed  odor 
of  mould  and  ammonia  occupied  the  interior  of  the  bottle,  and 
then  moist  reddened  litmus  paper,  suspended  in  the  ai"r  of  the 
bottle,  is  quickly  changed  to  blue,  and  a  rod  moistened  with 
chlorohydric  acid  held  to  the  mouth  of  the  bottle  gives  off 
abundant  white  vapors  of  muriate  of  ammonia. 
