The whole coats of the stomach, but especially the villous membrane, were of a deep-red or almost black colour; the colon, and still more the rectum, were of a lively red internally, and their inner membrane was checkered with little ulcers. Two drachms of the powder thrust into a wound in the thigh, and secured by covering it with the flaps of the incision, killed a dog in twenty-seven hours; and death was preceded by no remarkable symptom except great languor. The wounded limb was found after death highly inflamed, and the redness and sanguinolent infiltration, which were alluded to in the general observations on the vegetable acrids, extended from the knee as high up the trunk as the fifth rib,—a striking proof of the rapidity with which this variety of inflammation diffuses itself.[[1406]] Mr. Blake concludes from his experiments, that euphorbium, when injected in a state of solution in the jugular vein, acts by obstructing both the pulmonary and systemic capillaries, and so preventing the passage of the blood into the left side of the heart; but that the heart is not primarily acted on.[[1407]]
The most common symptoms occasioned in man by euphorbium are violent griping and purging, and excessive exhaustion; but it appears probable that narcotic symptoms are also at times induced. A case of irritant poisoning with it has been related in the Philosophical Transactions; but it is not a pure one, as a large quantity of camphor was taken at the same time. Much irritation was produced in the alimentary canal; but by the prompt excitement of vomiting and the subsequent use of opium the patient soon recovered.[[1408]] Mr. Furnival has related a fatal case which arose from a farrier having given a man a tea-spoonful by mistake for rhubarb. Burning heat in the throat and then in the stomach, vomiting, irregular hurried pulse, and cold perspiration were the leading symptoms; and the person died in three days. Several gangrenous spots were found in the stomach, and its coats tore with the slightest touch.[[1409]] The operation of this substance is so violent and uncertain, that it has long ceased to be employed inwardly in the regular practice of medicine, and has been even excluded from some modern Pharmacopœias. It is still used by farriers as an external application; and in the Infirmary of this city I met with a fatal case of poisoning in the human subject, which was supposed to have been produced by a mixture containing it, and intended to cure horses of the grease. Pyl has related the proceedings in a prosecution against a man for putting powder of euphorbium into his maid-servant’s bed; and from this narrative it appears, that, when applied to the sound skin, it causes violent heat, itching and smarting, succeeded by inflammation and blisters.[[1410]] Dr. Veitch denies that the powder has any such power;[[1411]] but the effects described by Pyl correspond with popular belief.
Probably all the species of euphorbium possess the same properties as E. officinarum. Orfila found that the juice of the leaves of E. cyparissias and lathyris produces precisely the effects described above. Sproegel applied the juice of the latter to his face, and was attacked in consequence with an eruption like nettle-rash; and he found that it caused warts and hair to drop out.[[1412]] Vicat mentions analogous facts, and Lamotte notices the case of a patient who died in consequence of a clyster having been prepared with this species instead of the mercurialis.[[1413]] The seeds and root of the E. lathyris or caper-spurge are used by the inhabitants of the northern Alps in the dose of fifteen grains as an emetic; and very lately the oil of the seeds has been employed in Italy as an active purgative, which in the dose of two or eight grains is said to possess all the efficacy of croton oil.[[1414]] MM. Chevallier and Aubergier have also found the seeds of the E. hybeua and their expressed oil to be very energetic. The seeds yield 44 per cent. of oil, which in the dose of ten drops produces copious watery evacuations without pain, and resembles closely croton-oil in its effects.[[1415]] The E. esula appears to be a very active species. Scopoli says that a woman who took thirty grains of the root died in half an hour, and that he once knew it cause fatal gangrene when imprudently applied to the skin of the belly.[[1416]] Withering observes that all the indigenous species blister and ulcerate the skin, and that many of them are used by country people for these purposes.[[1417]]
I have no where seen any notice taken by authors of narcotic symptoms as the effect of poisoning with euphorbium; and indeed this substance has always been considered a pure irritant. I am informed, however, by the Messrs. Herring, wholesale druggists in London, that their workmen are subject to headache, giddiness and stupor, if they do not carefully avoid the dust thrown up while it is ground in the mill; and that the men themselves are familiarly acquainted with this risk. An analogous fact has likewise been communicated to me by Dr. Hood of this city, relative to the effects of the seeds of the E. lathyris. A child two years of age ate some of the seeds, and soon after vomited severely, which is the usual effect. Drowsiness, however, succeeded; and after a few returns of vomiting, which were promoted by an emetic, deep sleep gradually came on, broken by convulsions, stertorous breathing and sighs. Sensibility was somewhat restored by blood-letting and the warm bath; after which the tendency to sleep was interrupted by frequent agitation and exercise in the open air. The vomiting then recurred for a time; but the child eventually got well.
Of Poisoning with the Seeds of the Castor-Oil Tree.
Castor-oil at present so extensively used as a mild and effectual laxative, is nevertheless derived from a plant hardly inferior in activity as a poison to that just considered. It is the expressed oil of the seeds of the Ricinus communis or Palma Christi. Much discussion has taken place as to the source of the acrid properties of this seed, some supposing that they reside in the embryo, others in the perisperm, others in the cotyledon, others in a principle formed from the oil by heat; and the question is scarcely yet settled. It is certain, however, that, although castor oil owes its occasional acridity to changes effected by the heat to which it is sometimes exposed in the process of separation, nevertheless the cotyledons are in themselves acrid.[[1418]]
Two or three of the seeds will operate as a violent cathartic. Bergius, as quoted by Orfila, says he knew a stout man who was attacked with profuse vomiting and purging after having masticated a single seed. Lanzoni met with an instance where three grains of the fresh seeds, taken by a young woman, caused so violent vomiting, hiccup, pain in the stomach, and faintness, that for some time her life was considered in great danger.[[1419]] Mr. Alfred Taylor met with three cases of poisoning with castor-oil seeds. Two sisters, who took each from two to four seeds, suffered severely; and a third, who took twenty, died in five days, with symptoms like those of malignant cholera.[[1420]] Climate probably affects their activity; for I have known a person eat without any effect several seeds ripened in the open air in this neighbourhood. Dogs vomit so easily that they may take thirty seeds without material inconvenience, if the gullet is not tied. But if the gullet is secured, a much less quantity will occasion death in six hours. They produce violent inflammation when applied to a wound.[[1421]]
Of Poisoning with the Physic-nut.
The plants of the genus Jatropha, belonging to the same natural family, have all of them the same acrid properties as the castor-oil tree. The seeds of the J. curcas, the physic-nut of the West Indies, when applied in the form of powder to a wound, produce violent spreading inflammation of the subcutaneous cellular tissue; and when introduced into the stomach they inflame that organ and the intestines.[[1422]] Four seeds will act on man as a powerful cathartic.[[1423]] I have known violent vomiting and purging occasioned by a few grains of the cake, left after expression of the fixed oil from the bruised seeds; and in some experiments performed a few years ago, I found that twelve or fifteen drops of the oil produced exactly the same effects as an ounce of castor-oil, though not with such certainty. In the last edition of this work some observations were made, on the authority of MM. Pelletier and Caventou, respecting the properties of a pure oil and a volatile acid, supposed by them to exist in the physic-nut; but they analyzed the croton seed by mistake for it.
Two other species have been also examined, but not with care, namely, the Jatropha multifida, and the Jatropha or Janipha manihot. It is probable that the seeds of both are acrid, and also the oil which may be extracted from them by pressure. But a much more interesting part of the latter species in a toxicological point of view is the root; the juice of which is a most energetic poison. The Janipha manihot, or cassava-plant, has two varieties, one of which produces a small, spindle-shaped, bland root, called, in the West Indies, sweet cassava, while the other has a much larger, bitter, poisonous root, called bitter cassava, and in universal use for obtaining the well-known amylaceous substance, tapioca. The juice of the bitter variety is watery, and so poisonous that, according to Dr. Clark of Dominica, negroes have been killed in an hour by drinking half a pint of it.[[1424]] It has been commonly, but erroneously, arranged among acrid poisons. It really belongs to the narcotic class, for it occasions coma and convulsions. And we now know the cause of this extraordinary anomaly in the natural family to which the species belongs; because MM. Henry and Boutron ascertained that the juice imported into France, as well as what they expressed from fresh roots sent from the West Indies, contains hydrocyanic acid, produces in animals all the usual effects of that poison, and is rendered inert by such means as will remove the acid,—for example, by the addition of nitrate of silver.[[1425]] I confirmed this singular discovery in 1838 by examination of some well-preserved juice from Demerara. It is easy to see how tapioca, which is obtained from the poisonous root by careful elutriation, becomes quite bland during the process.