two ounces and a half of the fresh root, when secured in the stomach of a dog by a ligature on the gullet, excited efforts to vomit, dilated pupil, and lethargy; and in two hours the animal suddenly fell down in a violent fit of tetanus, and expired. From thirty-six grains injected into the jugular vein no effect followed for sixteen hours; when at last, as in the former case, the animal dropped down convulsed and died immediately.[1]
The effects, however, caused by squill on man leave no doubt that it is also an active irritant; for it causes sickness, vomiting, diarrhœa, gripes, and bloody urine, when given in over-doses. It has likewise produced narcotic symptoms in man. Lange mentions an instance of a woman, who died from taking a spoonful of the root in powder to cure tympanitis. She was immediately seized with violent pain in the stomach; and in a short time expired in convulsions. The stomach was found every where inflamed, and in some parts eroded.[2]—A woman, whose case is mentioned in a French journal, after taking from a female quack a vinous tincture made with seventy-five grains of extract of squill, was seized with nausea and severe colic, to which were added in twenty-four hours a small contracted pulse, extreme tenderness of the belly, and cold extremities; and she died in the course of the second day.[3] Twenty-four grains of the powder have proved fatal.[4] I have seen a quarter of an ounce of the syrup of squills, which is a common medicinal dose, cause severe vomiting, purging, and pain.
An acrid principle, named scillitin, has been discovered in the squill. A difference of opinion prevails as to its nature. Some chemists consider it to be a resin; but Landerer has obtained it in the crystalline form, with alkaline properties. A grain of it will kill a dog.
Of Poisoning with White Hellebore and Cevadilla.
White hellebore, the rootstock of Veratrum album, and cevadilla, the seed and capsules of Asagræa officinalis, and possibly of Veratrum sabadilla, seem to be characteristic examples of the narcotico-acrid poisons. They both possess a strong bitter taste, followed by acridity. The cevadilla-seed in particular has an intensely disagreeable and persistent bitter taste, and produces at the same time a combination of acridity and numbness of the lips, tongue, and cheeks. They owe their active properties chiefly to an alkaloid of great energy, termed veratria.
White hellebore root is familiarly known to be a virulent poison. The best account of its effects is contained in a Thesis by Dr. Schabel, published at Tübingen in 1817. Collecting together the experiments previously made by Wepfer, Courten, Viborg, and Orfila, and adding a number of excellent experiments of his own, he infers
