appeared as if he had got drunk, and a woman became profoundly and irrecoverably comatose. Emetics could not be introduced into the stomach, stimulant clysters had no effect, external stimuli of every kind failed to rouse her, and she expired next morning at six.[1] The roots in this instance were gathered in the winter time,—a fact, which does not quite coincide with the conclusions of Orfila, that the plant must be in full vegetation before the energy of the root is considerable.
From these and other cases, the abstracts of which are to be seen in Orfila's Toxicology, or in Wibmer's Treatise on the Operation of Medicines and Poisons, it follows that hyoscyamus in a poisonous dose causes loss of speech, dilatation of the pupil, coma, and delirium, commonly of the unmanageable, sometimes of the furious kind. In general a stage of delirium precedes coma; and sometimes as the coma passes off, delirium returns for a time. It has been known to act powerfully in the form of clyster.[2] It has also been known to act with considerable energy even through the sound skin, as appears from a case which occurred to Wibmer. He was called to a lady affected with great stupor, dilated pupils, flushed face, loss of speech, full hard pulse, and swelling of the abdomen; and he found that these symptoms were owing to several ounces of henbane leaves having been applied to the belly in a poultice, on account of strangury and tympanitis. She was still capable of being roused by speaking loudly close to her ear; and under proper treatment she recovered.[3]
Henbane seldom causes any distinct symptoms of irritant poisoning. In several, however, of the cases related by the older modern authors some pain in the belly, a little vomiting, and more rarely diarrhœa, appear to have occurred.[4] Plenck quotes, from a Swedish authority, an instance of its having produced burning in the stomach, intense thirst, watching, delirium, depraved vision, and next day a crowded eruption of dark spots and vesicles, which disappeared on the supervention of a profuse diarrhœa.[5] The same author alludes to cases where it proved fatal; but this event is rare in the present day, obviously because the precursory stage of delirium gives an opportunity of removing the poison, before the stage of coma is formed. A fatal case, which occurred to Mr. Wibmer, has been mentioned above; and another has been related in Pyl's Magazin. Two boys a few minutes after eating the seeds were attacked with convulsions and heat in the throat; and one of them, who could not be made to vomit, died in the course of the ensuing night.[6]
The accidents it has occasioned have commonly arisen from the individuals confounding the root with that of the wild chicory or with the parsnep, the latter of which it somewhat resembles.
Of the other species of the hyoscyamus, the H. albus has been known to cause symptoms precisely the same with those above
