DATU′RA. Syn. Thorn-apple; Stramo′nium (Ph. L. E. & D.), L. A genus of plants belonging to the nightshade order, or ‘Atropaceæ,’ The species Datura Stramonium is an important medicinal plant, the leaves and seeds being officinal in B. P. It is anodyne and sedative, but not hypnotic, though it will often induce sleep by relieving pain. It affects the constitution in much the same way as belladonna.—Dose, 1 to 4 or 5 gr., in asthma, gout, headache, neuralgic and rheumatic pains, &c. In spasmodic asthma smoking the leaf often gives instantaneous relief, but must be exhibited with care, as the whole plant is intensely poisonous. No antidote is known.
Another species, namely, Datura tatula, is now preferred for cigars or cigarettes. Cigars are made from Datura Stramonium more frequently than from Datura tatula. They are recommended for asthma. See Asthma, Cigars (Stramonium), Daturia (below).
DATU′RIA. Syn. Datu′rine, Daturin′a, Hyoscy′amine. An organic alkali, discovered by Geiger and Hesse in Datura Stramonium or thorn apple. It occurs also in Hyoscyamus niger or henbane. It is best obtained from the seeds. Daturia dissolves in 280 parts of cold and 72 parts of boiling water; it is very soluble in alcohol, less so in ether. It tastes bitter, dilates the pupil strongly, and is very poisonous. It may be sublimed unaltered, and may be obtained in prismatic crystals by the addition of water to its alcoholic solution. With the acids it forms salts, which are mostly crystallisable.
DAVIDS-THEE—David’s Tea (B. Fragner, Prague). Recommended as a domestic remedy for chronic catarrh of the lungs and air passages, and especially for tuberculosis. A mixture of equal parts of great centaury, hyssop, chervil (Scandix odorata), white horehound, milfoil, Iceland moss, and carduus benedictus.
Davids-Thee, Echter Karolinenthaler—Genuine Karolin’s Dale David’s Tea (Kràl). Recommended for the same diseases as the preceding. A mixture of white horehound, milfoil, Iceland moss, great centaury, and ground ivy. According to a communication from a Bohemian apothecary the original prescription reads thus:—Herba cerefolii (Scandicis, chervil), hb. centaurii minoris (lesser centaury), hb. marrub. (horehound), flor. millefol. (milfoil flowers), lichen. Isl., of each 6 parts; hb. hyssopi, 3 parts; hb. cardui benedicti, 2 parts. (A. Selle.)
DEAD, DISPOSAL OF. As every dead body during the process of the decomposition it undergoes gives rise to products that are not only in the highest degree offensive, but in an especial sense dangerous to the health and lives of a community, the disposal of the dead in a manner best calculated to ensure, with the removal of the corpse from amongst the survivors, the least injurious consequences of its subsequent decay, becomes a problem of supreme importance to the sanitarian.
Probably amongst the nations of antiquity the Romans, with their eminently practical minds, and as we may infer from their other enlightened sanitary arrangements, were the only ancient people who were not guided either by superstitious or religious ideas in the disposal of their dead, at one time burned, but afterwards buried them. The Greeks practised cremation, the Egyptians embalmment (previously disembowelling the body), under the belief that after the lapse of many thousands of years the soul would return to its earthly mansion. The Hebrews sometimes burned their dead, and sometimes interred them. Amongst the ancient Hindoos the body was got rid of sometimes by cremation, sometimes by being cast into the Ganges, or other sacred river, and sometimes by exposure, until eaten by vultures. The Icthyophagi, or fish-eaters, appear to be the only people of antiquity who disposed of their dead by throwing them into the sea.
Amongst modern civilised nations interment is the method almost universally adopted for disposing of the dead.
Embalmment has been of late years occasionally practised in America, and was frequently adopted during the late civil war in many cases, since it afforded the means of sending the bodies of the slain to surviving relatives at long distances. Sir Henry Thompson’s advocacy of cremation was the means of causing the establishment in England a few years back of a society for its introduction; but neither here nor in Germany, where it has occasionally been employed, has the practice being adopted, save in a very few instances, most of which seem to have been merely experimental. In Calcutta cremation is still practised to some extent by the native population; the process being very effectively carried out by a French company, which has been established for some years. We may mention here an important modification of the ordinary form of interment proposed by Mr Sydney Hadden. Mr Hadden’s proposal is to dispense with the coffin, and to place the corpse instead in a large wickerwork receptacle filled with flowers, then inter it.
Of the three modes of disposal of the dead, viz. by burial, by burning, and by consignment to the sea, the first, as we have already said, is the almost invariably prevalent custom amongst civilised communities. That in a sanitary point of view it is less to be commended than either of the other methods is, we think, not difficult of demonstration. When a body is burned the resulting gaseous products of combustion, which most probably consist mainly of carbonic acid, carbonic oxide, and nitrogen, diffuse harmlessly into the atmosphere, and there remains behind only the calcined bones which formed the skeleton. An experiment by Sir Henry Thompson has shown that cremation may be performed without giving rise to odour of any kind at a comparatively small expense, and within a very moderate space of time. He burned a body weighing 227 lbs. in fifty-five minutes by placing it in a cylindrical metallic vessel seven feet long and six feet in diameter, previously heated to incandescence. The evolved gases were made to pass over a large surface of strongly heated fire-bricks, which formed part of the furnace in which the metallic vessel was placed. The furnace and its fittings were designed by Dr Siemens. The remaining ashes weighed about 5 lbs. In his pamphlet ‘On Cremation,’ Sir Henry Thompson