Part 10 (2/2)

_Test._-There is no very certain test for _Atropia_ beyond its effect on the pupils and on vision.

STRAMONIUM (_Datura Stramonium_, _Thorn-Apple_) is an indigenous plant found in waste places. The fruit and seeds are the most poisonous parts of the plant. The active alkaloid, named Daturia, has properties resembling those of atropia, with which it would seem to be almost identical.

The poisonous effects of stramonium are the same as those of belladonna, and are to be relieved by similar remedies. When this drug is prescribed as a medicine it should be immediately discontinued if it produce dryness of the throat and dilatation of the pupils.

_Dhatoora._-In India the seeds of the Datura alba, a plant which grows abundantly in most parts, are frequently used for the purpose of hocussing travellers, in order that they may be robbed with impunity.

The seeds, which closely resemble those of the capsic.u.m, are mixed with food, and give rise to total insensibility on the part of the recipient, often with noisy delirium or delusions. Death is not unfrequent after a large dose, although it would seldom seem to be administered for that purpose. Its effect may be for the time being to completely alter the disposition of the individual, and to cause him to give way to all kinds of foolish notions and antics.

NIGHTSHADE.-The _Solarium dulcamara_ (Bittersweet, or Woody Nightshade) and the _Solanum nigrum_ (Garden Nightshade) contain an active principle known as Solania. The red berries of the first-named plant, and the black berries of the second, have been eaten by mistake; and have given rise to great thirst, headache, giddiness, dimness of vision, dilated pupils, convulsions, vomiting, and purging. Orfila relates the cases of three children who died from eating the berries of the Solanum nigrum, after suffering from vertigo, dilated pupils, nausea, colic, stertorous breathing, and convulsions.

CHAPTER XXVI.

CONVULSIVES.

NEUROTICS PRODUCING CONVULSIONS.

NUX VOMICA-BRUCIA-STRYCHNIA.

The plants which yield the alkaloid Strychnia are, the _Strychnos nux vomica_, a native tree of Coromandel, Ceylon and Bengal: the _Strychnos Ignatii_, which abounds in the Philippine Islands, and furnishes the hard seed, about the size of a filbert, known as the bean of St.

Ignatius; the _Strychnos tieute_, a large climbing shrub of Java; the _Strychnos toxifera_, of Guiana; and the _Strychnos colubrina_, or _Snakewood_, of the East Indies. The effects of these plants are exerted upon the spinal cord; as is manifest by the violent convulsions and the tetanic contractions of the muscles which they produce. They have no effect on the brain, consciousness remaining intact until death.

A powerful juice, used by the Indians of Guiana as an arrow poison, and variously designated as _curare_, _woorara_, &c., is in all probability obtained from the Strychnos toxifera. The composition of the arrow poison varies in different tribes; in some it is a mysterious compound of many substances, obtained from plants, red and black ants, and the fangs of venomous snakes; but in all the active ingredient would seem to be the Strychnos toxifera. It destroys the power of the motor nerves-an action the reverse of that possessed by strychnia.

NUX VOMICA.-A powder, a tincture, and an extract, obtained from the seeds of the Strychnos nux vomica, or koochla tree, are used in medical practice. Thirty grains of the powder have proved fatal, and so have three grains of the alcoholic extract. Death may occur in from fifteen minutes to twelve hours. It is possible that nux vomica may acc.u.mulate in the system, as serious symptoms have arisen from the long-continued use of small doses. Thus a lady took nine grains of the powder daily, in divided doses, for sixteen days. As purging then set in with colic, the medicine was withdrawn. Five days after the withdrawal there was ringing in the ears, with drowsiness, impairment of speech, &c.; on the ninth day tetanic symptoms set in, with trismus; and on the twelfth day, after several tetanic convulsions, death took place from exhaustion.

BRUCIA.-The seeds of the nux vomica not only yield strychnia but brucia, an alkaloid which has the same properties, and causes the same symptoms as strychnia, though it is much less powerful.

STRYCHNIA.-This alkaloid may very justly be termed a deadly poison. It is unfortunately the active ingredient of some preparations sold to the public for destroying vermin: a circ.u.mstance which has now led to the death of several individuals. ”Battle's Vermin Killer” is said by Dr.

Letheby to consist of flour, Prussian blue, sugar, and strychnia in the proportion of twenty-three per cent. Since the use of strychnia by those notorious criminals Palmer and Dove, this formidable agent has been employed by other murderers.

The medicinal dose of strychnia is from the 1/30th to the 1/12th of a grain twice a day. Dr. Christison communicated a case to Dr. Taylor in which the 1/16th of a grain caused the death in four hours of a child between two and three years of age. One quarter of a grain has nearly proved fatal to adults. A woman twenty-two years of age died in the Jersey Hospital, from the accidental administration of half a grain.

Death has occurred in twenty minutes from this poison. In eleven cases a.n.a.lyzed by Dr. Guy two hours and three-quarters were the limits respectively.

_Symptoms._-The time at which the symptoms commence varies according as the strychnia has been taken in solution or in a pill. In the first case a very bitter taste is experienced during swallowing, usually followed in a few minutes by a sense of suffocation and difficulty of breathing.

Then there are twitchings of the muscles, jerking movements of the limbs, and a quivering of the whole frame. The limbs become rigid, the head is bent back, while the body is stiffened and arched, so that it rests on the head and heels (opisthotonos). The difficulty of breathing causes the face to become dusky, the eyeb.a.l.l.s prominent, and the lips livid. The features a.s.sume a peculiar grin (risus sardonicus); there is much thirst, but perhaps inability to drink from spasm of the jaws; while the sufferer is quite conscious, is much alarmed, and is impressed with the idea that death is surely stealing upon him. As the attacks of spasms are commencing the patient cries out, and warns those about him of the approach of the seizure; he begs for help, and perhaps asks to be held, or rubbed, or turned over; and when the seizure pa.s.ses off, at the end of forty or sixty seconds, he is exhausted, and bathed in sweat.

The more he is disturbed or excited the shorter is the intervals between the attacks; and though a firm grasp seems to afford relief, yet a slight touch, a gust of air, or opening a door, will increase the suffering. As death approaches the tetanic spasms rapidly succeed each other; and the patient sinks, suffocated during an attack, or exhausted during an interval, in about two hours from the beginning of the symptoms.

When the strychnia has been taken in a pill two hours have elapsed before any effects have been produced. A case is also reported (_Glasgow Medical Journal_, July, 1856) where a medical man took three grains of strychnia dissolved in spirits of wine and diluted sulphuric acid. He went to bed and slept for an hour and a half, and then awoke with a spasm. Under treatment he recovered.

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