property exists independently of its operation as a violent acrid on the bowels. It has certainly been taken to a considerable amount without the intended effect; of which Foderé has noticed an unequivocal example. The woman took daily for twenty days no less than a hundred drops of the oil, yet carried her child to the full time.[1] The powder has likewise been taken to a large extent without avail. A female, whose case is noticed by Foderé, took without her knowledge so much of the powder that she was attacked with vomiting, hiccup, heat in the lower belly, and fever of a fortnight's duration; nevertheless she was not delivered till the natural time.[2] There is no doubt, however, that if given in such quantity as to cause violent purging, abortion may ensue; but unless there is naturally a predisposition to miscarriage, the constitutional injury and intestinal irritation required to induce it are so great, as to be always attended with extreme danger, independent of the uterine disorder. Of this train of effects the following case, for which I am indebted to Mr. Cockson of Macclesfield, is a good illustration. A female applied to a pedlar to supply her with the means of getting rid of her pregnancy: and under his direction appears to have taken a large quantity of a strong infusion of savin-leaves on a Friday morning and again next morning. A very imperfect account was obtained of the symptoms, as no medical man witnessed them; but it was ascertained that she had violent pain in the belly and distressing strangury. On the Sunday afternoon she miscarried; and on the ensuing Thursday she died. Mr. Cockson, who examined the body next day, found extensive peritonæal inflammation unequivocally indicated by the effusion of fibrinous flakes,—the uterus presenting all the signs of recent delivery,—the inside of the stomach of a red tint, checkered with patches of florid extravasation,—and its contents of a greenish colour, owing evidently to the presence of a vegetable powder, as was proved by separating and examining it with the microscope. My colleague Dr. Traill has communicated to me the particulars of a similar case. A servant-girl, after being for some time in low spirits, was seized with violent colic pains, frequent vomiting, straining at stool, tenderness of the belly, dysuria and general fever; under which symptoms she died after several days of suffering. The stomach was inflamed, in parts black, and at the lower curvature perforated. The uterus with its appendages was very red, and contained a fine membrana decidua, but no ovum. The lower intestines were inflamed. There was found in the stomach a greenish powder, which, when washed and dried, had the taste of savin.
A singular case is quoted by Wibmer of a woman who died from taking an infusion of the herb for the purpose of procuring miscarriage, and in whom death seems to have been occasioned by the gall-bladder bursting in consequence of the violent fits of vomiting.[3]
In a charge of wilful abortion the mere possession of oil of savin would be a suspicious circumstance, because the notion that it has
