rarely fatal; for, as the state first induced is delirium, not sopor, suspicion is soon excited, and emetics may be made to act before a sufficient quantity of the poison has been absorbed to prove fatal. Hence few fatal instances have occurred in recent times. Mr. Wilmer, however, has mentioned two fatal cases occurring in children, and terminating within twenty-four hours.[1] M. Boucher, a writer in the old French Journal of Medicine, has referred to several cases of the same nature;[2] Gmelin has described the particulars of a good example;[3] and many others have been succinctly quoted by Wibmer, chiefly from the older authors.[4]
Cases of poisoning with this plant have occurred in man through other channels besides the stomach. Allusion has already been made to the instance of a tailor who was poisoned by an injection. A small quantity will sometimes suffice when administered in that way. A woman, whose case is mentioned in Rust's Journal, was attacked with wild delirium, flushed face and glistening eyes, in consequence of receiving, during labour, a clyster, that contained six grains of the common extract;[5] and Dr. Simpson's patient, who was severely affected, had only two grains.
Perhaps the berry is in some circumstances not very active. A French physician, M. Gigault of Pontcroix, says he has frequently had occasion to treat cases of poisoning with it, as accidents of the kind are extremely common in his neighbourhood; that he never knew it prove fatal; and that in one instance a young man took a pound of the berries before going to bed, and was not subjected to treatment till next morning, when he was found in a state of delirium, but speedily recovered after the free operation of emetics.[6]
Morbid Appearances.—I have hitherto seen but one good account of the appearances after death from poisoning with belladonna. It is described by Gmelin. The subject was a shepherd who died comatose twelve hours after eating the berries. When the body was examined twelve hours after death, putrefaction had begun, so that the belly was swelled, the scrotum and penis distended with fetid serum, the skin covered with dark vesicles, and the brain soft. The blood-vessels of the head were gorged, and the blood every where fluid, and flowing profusely from the mouth, nose, and eyes.[7] In the only other fatal case I have read, where the body was inspected, there appears to have been no unusual appearance at all.[8]
As the husks and seeds of the berries are very indigestible, some of them will almost certainly be found in the stomach, as happened in the instance last quoted. It should likewise be remembered that the best possible evidence of the cause of the symptoms may be derived during life from the presence of the seeds, husks, or even entire berries, in the discharges. If vomiting has not been brought on at
- ↑ On Vegetable Poisons, p. 18.
- ↑ Roux's Journal de Méd. xxiv. 321.
- ↑ Geschichte der Pflanzengifte, p. 538.
- ↑ Die Wirkung der Arzneimittel und Gifte, i. 347-364.
- ↑ Mag. für die gesammte Heilk. xxv. 578.
- ↑ Journal de Chim. Méd. iv. 390.
- ↑ Geschichte der Pflanzengifte, p. 538.
- ↑ Histoire de l'Acad. de Paris, 1703, p. 69.
