The genus Ranunculus is of some interest to the British toxicologist, because many species grow in this country, and unpleasant accidents have been occasioned by them. The most common are the R. bulbosus, acris, sceleratus, Flammula, Lingua, aquatilis, repens, Ficaria, which are all abundant in the neighbourhood of this city. The Ranunculus acris is the only species that has been particularly examined. Five ounces of juice, extracted by triturating the leaves with two ounces of water, killed a stout dog in twelve hours when taken internally. Two drachms of the aqueous extract applied to a wound killed another in twelve hours by inducing the usual inflammation.[[1446]]
Krapf, as quoted in Orfila’s Toxicology, found by experiments on himself, that two drops of the expressed juice of the Ranunculus acris produced burning pain and spasms in the gullet and griping in the lower belly. A single flower had the same effect. When he chewed the thickest and most succulent of the leaves, the salivary glands were strongly stimulated, his tongue was excoriated and cracked, his teeth smarted, and his gums became tender and bloody.[[1447]] Dr. Withering alleges that it will blister the skin. A man at Bevay in the north of France, after swallowing by mistake a glassful of the juice which had been kept for some time as a remedy for vermin on the head, was seized in four hours with violent vomiting and colic, and expired in two days.[[1448]] The acridity of the genus ranunculus is entirely lost by drying, either with or without artificial heat. The R. acris, however, is far from being the most active species of the genus. The taste of the leaves of R. bulbosus, alpestris, gramineus, and Flammula, and also of the unripe germens of R. sceleratus, is much more pungent. The R. repens, Ficaria, auricomus, aquatilis, and Lingua, I have found to be bland.
The genus Anemone produces similar effects on the animal economy. The most pungent species I have examined are the A. pulsatilla, A. hortensis, and A. coronaria; the A. nemorosa and A. patens are less active; and the A. hepatica, as well as the A. alpestris, are bland. The powder of the A. pulsatilla causes itching of the eyes, colic and vomiting, if in pulverizing it the operator do not avoid the fine dust which is driven up; and Bulliard relates the case of a man who, in applying the bruised root to his calf for rheumatism, was attacked with inflammation and gangrene of the whole leg.[[1449]] The same author mentions an instance where violent convulsions were produced by an infusion of the A. nemorosa, and the person was for some time thought to be in great danger.[[1450]] The acridity of the anemone is retained under desiccation even in the vapour-bath; but is very slowly lost under exposure to the air, not entirely, however, in two months. The ripe fruit of the A. hortensis is bland. The activity of the anemones is owing to a volatile oil, which, when left for some time in the water with which it passes over in distillation is converted into a neutral crystalline body called anemonine, and a peculiar acid termed anemonic acid.[[1451]]
The Caltha palustris, or marsh marigold, a plant closely allied in external characters to the ranunculus, is considered by toxicologists a powerful acrid poison. Wibmer observes that it has an acrid, burning taste,[[1452]]—a remark which has been also made by Haller.[[1453]] On the continent the flower buds are said to be sometimes pickled and used for capers on account of their pungency. The following set of cases which happened in 1817 near Solingen will show that in some localities it possesses energetic and singular properties. The poison was taken accidentally by a family of five persons, in consequence of their having been compelled by the badness of the times to try to make food of various herbs. They were all seized half an hour after eating with sickness, pain in the abdomen, vomiting, headache, and ringing in the ears, afterwards with dysuria and diarrhœa, next day with œdema of the whole body, particularly of the face, and on the third day with an eruption of pemphigous vesicles as large as almonds, which dried up in forty-eight hours. They all recovered.[[1454]]
Notwithstanding these apparently pointed facts, however, I have no doubt that the marsh marigold is in some circumstances bland, and is commonly so in this country, or at least but feebly poisonous. Haller, in speaking of its acrid taste, adds that when young it is eaten with safety by goats. For my own part I have never been able to remark any distinct acridity in tasting it either before inflorescence, or in the young flower-buds, or in any part of the plant while in full flower. It produces a peculiar, disagreeable impression on the back of the tongue, when collected in dry situations; but never occasions that pungent acridity which so remarkably characterizes many species of ranunculus, anemone, and clematis.
The stavesacre, or Delphinium staphysagria, another plant of the same natural family, is interesting in a scientific point of view, because its properties have been distinctly traced to a peculiar alkaloid. The seeds, which alone have been hitherto examined, were analyzed by MM. Lassaigne and Feneulle, who, besides a number of inert principles, discovered in them an alkaloid, possessing in an eminent degree the poisonous qualities of the seeds. This alkaloid is solid, white, pulverulent but crystalline, fusible like wax, very bitter and acrid, almost insoluble in water, very soluble in ether and alcohol, and capable of forming salts with most of the acids.[[1455]] It has been named delphinia. It was also discovered about the same time by Brandes.[[1456]]
Orfila found that six grains of it diffused through water, introduced into the stomach of a dog and retained there with a ligature on the gullet, brought on efforts to vomit, restlessness, giddiness, immobility, slight convulsions, and death in two or three hours. The same quantity, if previously dissolved in vinegar, will cause death in forty minutes. In the former case, but not in the latter, the inner coat of the stomach is found to be generally red.[[1457]]
An ounce of the bruised seeds themselves killed a dog in fifty-four hours when introduced into the stomach, and two drachms applied to a wound in the thigh killed another in two days. In the former animal a part of the stomach was crimson-red; in the latter there was extensive subcutaneous inflammation reaching as high as the fourth rib.[[1458]]
Besides these four genera of the ranunculaceæ many other genera of the same natural order are equally energetic. The Clematis vitalba or traveller’s-joy is said to be acrid, but does not taste so: the C. flammula, however, is pungently acrid to the taste; it reddens and blisters the skin; and when swallowed excites inflammation in the stomach. The trollius or globe flower is also considered acrid; and its root in appearance, smell, and taste, has been said to resemble closely that of the black hellebore. The herb, however, in Scotland, has certainly none of the peculiar acrid pungency of the ranunculus, anemone, or clematis, but is on the contrary bland. Some other genera of equal power have been usually arranged with the narcotico-acrid poisons on account of their action on the nervous system; and probably some of the present group of acrids might with equal propriety be removed to the same class.
Of plants possessing acrid properties and interspersed throughout other natural families, the only species I shall particularly notice are the mezereon, cuckow-pint, gamboge, daffodil, jalap-plant, and savine.