Since Stoerck, who first extolled the virtues of Hemlock, this plant has undergone numerous alterations of credit and neglect which may be explained by the want of certainty, or rather by the irregularity, of its action.
An important work has just appeared on this subject, executed conjointly by a physician and pharmacien of Lyons, MM. Devay and Guillermond. This work, which developes and completes what has been said upon the medicinal virtues of hemlock, furnishes a new element which will fix, we believe, the therapeutic value of that substance. It is the substitution of the seed like fruits for the other parts of the plant. We will briefly explain the motive of that preference.
The principle to which cicuta owes both its toxicological and therapeutic powers has received the names of cicuta, coneine and conicine, the last of which is now generally adopted. It is a volatile alkaloid, of a sharp penetrating, disagreeable smell, somewhat like that of mice. It is of an oily consistence, and easily decomposed by heat. In these respects it resembles nicotine. But, a characteristic readily recognized and which distinguishes it from the latter, when shaken with water it again floats upon the surface, while nicotine is immediately dissolved by that liquid.
The volatility of conicine, the readiness with which it is {300} decomposed by heat or time alone, are such that the Lyonese experimenters do not hesitate to propose the abandonment both of the herb itself, and of all the pharmaceutic forms prepared by the aid of heat, or in which the conicine is susceptible of undergoing decomposition. We think this is going rather too far. The extracts of cicuta prepared with care, and particularly those prepared in vacuo, are of daily service. We have been able to verify by trituration with potassa, the presence of conicine in a hydro-alcoholic extract, a number of years old. But, notwithstanding, recognizing the fact that the preparations of cicuta of this kind are often inert, we agree with the experimenters that it is of consequence to escape from such a state of things.
The tincture of cicuta prepared with the fresh plant, is a very beautiful product, but made from parts of the plant containing but a small proportion of conicine, or at all events containing it in very variable proportions, may be inert or irregular in its action. What then is to be done? employ conicine itself? But the preparation of the alkaloid is difficult; it is promptly decomposed by contact with the air and light, and the apportionment of its dose, offers serious inconveniences.
There is a organ of the plant in which its active principle is found in larger and more constant proportion, and under conditions in which it is better preserved than in any other; that organ is the fruit. It is at the moment of its most perfect development, when the plant commences to flower, that it contains the largest proportion of conicine, and that the principle is most perfectly elaborated. At a later period it disappears and is fixed in the fruit, in which it is concentrated in great quantity. It is in the fruit that we seek it when we wish to extract it. It is in the fruit we should seek it for medical use.
PHARMACEUTICAL PREPARATIONS. FORMULÆ.—“Having shown by experiment as well as by reasoning, that the fruit of the cicuta (akène) should henceforth replace all the preparations of the plant employed in medicine: we have to make known the use we have made of this fact. It is important in the first {301} place, that the fruit employed should be that of the great cicuta, and that it should not be mingled with seeds of the other umbelliferæ. They may be known by being almost globular with five crenelated sides.
When the fruit is divided, the sides fold in the form of a crescent. They do not possess like most of the other umbelliferæ, a peculiar aromatic odor. This appears to be covered by that of conicine. The fool’s parsley, (æthusa cynapium,) the phellandrium aquaticum, the anise, bear fruits which, physically, have much resemblance to that of the cicuta; but, when the latter is pulverized, the characteristic odor which is developed is sufficient to enable us readily to recognize it. Another precaution to be taken is in relation to the time at which the fruit should be collected. Those which were employed in our experiments and preparations had reached the perfection of their maturity. It is then it should be collected for medical use, because then it is isolated, so to speak, from the plant which produces it; the active principle exists then in them in a true state of concentration and permanence.
1st. FORMULÆ FOR INTERNAL USE.—“The fruit of the cicuta does not need any complicated pharmaceutic preparation. It is active enough of itself to be employed in its natural condition. A very simple manipulation only seems necessary to facilitate its use. It is to reduce it to powder and to form it into pills, which, coated with sugar, may be preserved an indefinite time. We have thought best to give the pills two degrees of strength according to the following formulæ.
“Pills of Cicuta, No. 1.—Take one gramme of the fruit of the cicuta recently pulverized; make with a sufficient quantity of sugar and of syrup a mass, to be divided into 100 pills. These are to be covered with sugar; each pill will weigh about 10 centigrammes. These are suited to persons who are not yet habituated to the use of the drug, and who are of a delicate constitution. We commence with two pills the first day, and the dose is augmented day by day to 10, 15, or 20. It is then most convenient to employ pills No. 2. {302}