[Illustration]
This is an herbaceous plant with a creeping and somewhat ligneous,
cylindrical stem, the upper branches being covered with short and
crooked thorns. The leaves, of a dark green, are alternate, irregularly
pennate; the folioles are long, lanceolate, almost sessile on a thorny
spike; there are from 7 to 9, those at the top being the largest. The
flowers are supported by ramose pedicles, which do not grow out of axils;
calice campanulate, with five divisions; corolla of a greenish white,
monopetalous, with five equal, rotaceous, somewhat reflexed divisions
alternating with those of the calix. Five stamens with erect, converging
and bilocular anthers; their filaments are short, with the exception of
one, which is longer than the rest. Ovary oval, surmounted by a filiform
style. Berry spherical with two compartments, of a dark green, with white
spots. This solanum grows on the shores around Rio Janeiro, in damp and
shady places. We employ the flower.
1. Scanty urine. Short-lasting menses. Toothache at night. Acute catarrh.
5. Suffocating cough. Pain in the face. Toothache. Pain and swelling
of the face and throat, with inflammation. No sleep for two nights. 10.
Stye on the right lower eyelid. Swelling of a cervical glands. Continual
redness of the face. Difficult digestion. Pain at the internal canthi
of the eyes. 15. Inflammation of the left upper eyelid. Tickling at
the lower limbs. Pustules all over, first white, then red, with an
intolerable itching now and then. Lancinating pain in the stomach not
lasting long. Sense of chilliness in the left side of the chest, after
drinking. 20. Violent pain in the left cheek, spreading over the whole
face. Discharge of fetid yellow mucus from the left nostril. Sadness.
Irritable. Drowsiness with headache. 25. Herpetic eruption at the ankle.
Nettle-rash fever. _Sore throat._ Itching. Ptyalism. 30. No appetite.
Tongue coated white. No sleep. Drowsy for four hours in the middle of
the day. Discharge of white mucus from the vagina. 35. Swelling of the
mammary glands with profuse effusion of milk, on the second day. Drowsy
all day. Shortly after taking the drug the breasts of a negro-woman of 60
years began to swell and discharged a quantity of milk.