Of Poisoning with Rue.
The Ruta graveolens, or rue, although its wild variety is expressly declared by Dioscorides to be mortal when taken too largely, has attracted little attention as a poison in recent times, and is indeed scarcely considered deleterious. Orfila seems to have found it by no means active; for the juice of two pounds of leaves, secured in the stomach of a dog by tying the gullet, did not prove fatal till the second day, the symptoms were not well marked, and the only appearances in the dead body were the signs of slight inflammation in the stomach. Even when the distilled water was injected into a vein, the only effects were a temporary nervous disorder similar to intoxication.[1]
According to the late experimental inquiry, however, by M. Hélie,[2] rue is possessed of peculiar and energetic properties. All parts of its organization, especially the roots and leaves, produce the effects of the narcotico-acrid poisons; and although he never met with any instance of a fatal result, its activity is such as to render this event not improbable, even when the dose is by no means very large. His attention was drawn to the subject in consequence of finding, that it was often employed in his neighbourhood for producing abortion,—a property ascribed to it immemorially by the country-people of France; and all the instances he has seen of its poisonous action were cases in which it had been given with this object. Sometimes the juice of the leaves is given, sometimes an infusion of them, sometimes a decoction of the root; and in one instance a woman took a decoction of two roots, each about as thick as the finger. The effects were, severe pain in the stomach, followed by violent and obstinate vomiting, drowsiness, gididness, confusion, dimness of sight, difficult articulation, staggering, contracted pupils, convulsive movements of the head and arms, like those of chorea, retention of urine, slowness of the pulse, and great prostration. There was never any purging. In the course of two days or a little more miscarriage took place, preceded by the usual precursors, and followed by abatement of the symptoms of poisoning. At the period of the milk-fever, however, these symptoms again increased, and the patient was also attacked with swelling and pain in the tongue and copious salivation. In about ten days the pulse began to increase in frequency; and a mild typhoid fever commonly succeeded, from which recovery took place slowly. In another case the symptoms throughout their whole course were so mild, that, although miscarriage occurred, the subject of it was not confined to bed, and in fifteen days recovered her health completely. M. Hélie adds, that with full knowledge of the doubts entertained by eminent authorities, whether any substance whatever possesses a peculiar property of inducing miscarriage, he is strongly persuaded that rue is really a substance of
