Of Poisoning with Manchineel.
The manchineel [Hippomane mancinella], another plant of the same natural family, contains a milky juice, which is possessed of very acrid properties. Orfila and Ollivier have made some careful experiments with it on animals,[[1426]] and M. Ricord has since added some observations on its effects on man.[[1427]] From the former it appears that two drachms of the juice applied to a wound in a dog will cause death in twenty-eight hours, by exciting diffuse cellular inflammation; and that half that quantity will prove fatal in nine hours when introduced into the stomach. From the observations of M. Ricord it follows that inflammation is excited wherever the juice is applied, even in the sound skin; but he denies the generally received notion, that similar effects ensue from sleeping under the branches of the tree, or receiving drops of moisture from the leaves. This notion, however, it is right to add, has been adopted by other recent authors. Descourtils, for example, states that it is dangerous to sleep under the tree; that drops of rain from the leaves will blister any part of the skin on which they fall; and that on these accounts the police of St. Domingo were in the practice of destroying the trees wherever they grew.[[1428]] Other species of Hippomane are equally poisonous. The H. biglandulosa and H. spinosa are peculiarly so, especially the latter, which is known to the negroes of St. Domingo by the name of Zombi apple, and is familiarly used by them as a potent poison.[[1429]]
Of Poisoning with Croton.
The oil of the Croton Tiglium has been familiarly known for some years as a very powerful hydragogue cathartic in the dose of a few drops; and therefore little doubt could exist that both the oil and the seed which yields it must be active irritant poisons in moderate doses. Accordingly it has been lately found by experiments in Germany that forty seeds will kill a horse in the course of seven hours;[[1430]] and Rumphius mentions that it was a common poison in his time at Amboyna among the natives. I have known most violent watery purging and great prostration caused by four drops of the expressed oil. A fatal case of poisoning with it occurred not long ago in France. A young man who swallowed two drachms and a half of the oil by mistake, instead of using it as an embrocation, was soon seized with tenderness of the belly, violent efforts to vomit, cold sweating, laborious respiration, blueness of the lips and fingers, and an almost imperceptible pulse,—then with profuse, involuntary discharges by stool, burning along the throat and gullet, and insensibility of the skin;—and in four hours he expired. The villous coat of the stomach was soft, but not otherwise injured.[[1431]]
The activity of the seed and oil seems to depend on a peculiar volatile acid, which was discovered by MM. Pelletier and Caventou when they analysed the croton seed by mistake as the seed of the Jatropha curcas, or physic-nut. When the oil was saponified by potash and then freed of the acid by distillation, it became inert. On the other hand, the acid was found by them to excite inflammation of the stomach, and spreading inflammation of the cellular tissue, according as it was administered internally or applied to a wound.[[1432]]
The next natural family in which plants are to be found that possess the properties of the acrid poisons, is the Cucurbitaceæ, or gourds. This family, it should be remarked, does not in general possess poisonous properties. On the contrary, they are, with a few exceptions, remarkably mild; and many of them supply articles of luxury for the table. The melon, gourd, and cucumber belong to the order. The only poisons of the order which have been examined with any care are elaterium, bryony, and colocynth.
Of Poisoning with Bryony.
The roots of the Bryonia alba and Dioica possesses properties essentially the same with those of euphorbium. The B. dioica is a native of Britain, where it grows among hedges, and is usually known by the name of wild vine, or bryony. The flowers are greenish, and are succeeded by small, red berries. The root, which is the most active part of the plant, is spindle-shaped, and varies in size from that of a man’s thigh to that of a radish.
Orfila found that half an ounce of the root introduced into the stomach of a dog, killed it in twenty-four hours, when the gullet was tied; and that two drachms and a half applied to a wound brought on violent inflammation and suppuration of the part, ending fatally in sixty hours.[[1433]]
Bryony root owes its power to an extractive matter discovered in it by Brandes and Firnhaber, to which the name of Bryonine has been given. According to the experiments of Collard de Martigny, bryonine acts on the stomach and on a wound exactly as the root itself, but more energetically. When introduced into the cavity of the pleura it causes rapid death by true pleurisy, ending in the effusion of fibrin.[[1434]]