(Atropa Belladonna.) _Deadly Nightshade._
QUALITIES. The leaves are inodorous. _Taste_, slightly nauseous,
sweetish, and sub-acrid; their peculiar properties are not lost by
drying. CHEMICAL COMPOSITION. Vauquelin found that the leaves contained
a substance analogous to albumen, salts with a base of potass, and a
bitter principle on which its narcotic properties depended, and more
lately the presence of an alkaline element has been detected, which has
received the appellation of _Atropia_, the sulphate of which
crystallizes very beautifully. SOLUBILITY. Water is the most powerful
solvent of its active matter. USES. It is a powerful sedative and
narcotic, both as an internal medicine and as an external application;
in this latter form, it alleviates local pains very effectually, but is
liable to affect the nervous system. The recent leaves powdered, and
made into an ointment with an equal weight of lard will be found an
efficient form for many purposes; rubbed over the penis it prevents
priapism and relieves chordee more effectually than any application
which has been proposed. FORMS OF EXHIBITION. Every part of the plant is
poisonous, and the berries from their beautiful appearance have often
tempted the unwary; the leaves however furnish the most convenient and
powerful form of exhibition; externally, they may be used as a poultice,
internally, one grain of the dry leaves powdered, and gradually
increased to 10 or 12 grains, or the leaves may be infused in boiling
water in the proportion of four grains to two fluid-ounces, which may be
given as a dose. A little of this infusion dropped into the eye
permanently dilates the pupil, for which intention it has been
successfully applied previous to an operation for the cataract. The
extract of this plant, since its active principle is fixed, ought to
possess activity, but as it occurs in commerce it is found to be very
uncertain and variable, a circumstance which entirely depends upon the
manner in which it has been prepared.[426] See _Extractum Belladonnæ_.
An overdose of belladonna produces the most distressing and alarming
symptoms, and so paralyzing is its influence, that vomiting can be
hardly excited by the strongest doses of tartarized antimony; in such
cases vinegar will be found the best antidote, or the affusion of cold
water over the surface of the body, after the application of which,
emetics are more likely to perform their duty, for physiological reasons
explained in p. 85. OFFICINAL PREPARATIONS. _Extract: Belladonnæ_ L.
_Succus spissatus Atropæ Belladonnæ_. E.