Few trustworthy observations have been made on the effects of the other species of aconite. Dr. Pereira found the A. ferox of the East Indies to be a much more deadly poison to animals than common monkshood; but its effects were otherwise identical.[[2262]] Three grains of the root put into the throat of a rabbit, killed it in nineteen minutes; one grain of the alcoholic extract, introduced into the peritonæum, proved equally deadly. Nine grains will kill a cat in four hours.[[2263]]——Of the other aconites the A. cammarum, and A. lycoctonum are said to have proved fatal frequently in Germany; but no accurate facts on the subject are on record.—It was stated above that the A. paniculatum, supposed by De Candolle to have been the true aconite of Baron Störck, is inert in this country. I introduced the alcoholic extract of three ounces of the fresh leaves collected near the end of June, into the cellular tissue between the skin and muscles of a young rabbit, having previously converted the extract into an emulsion with mucilage and water. This was four times the dose of A. napellus, which I had found sufficient to kill a strong adult rabbit in two hours and a quarter; but no effect whatever was produced.—Mr. Ramsay of Broughty Ferry has described a case of fatal poisoning with a handful of aconite leaves which were mistaken for parsley, and which he supposes to have been those of A. neomontanum. The subject, a boy of fourteen, was attacked with a sense of burning in the mouth, throat, and stomach, afterwards with vomiting and convulsions, and died considerably within five hours.[[2264]] The very feeble taste of this species—which besides is little cultivated in Scotland,—inclines me to doubt whether it was the species that produced such violent effects.
Of Poisoning with Black Hellebore.
Black hellebore, or Christmas-rose, the Helleborus niger of botanists, is a true narcotico-acrid poison. It is a doubtful native of this country. It produces a large white ranunculus-like flower about midwinter. The root, the only part used in medicine, or to be found in the shops, consists of a short root-stock and numerous, long, black undivided rootlets. The fresh root in January is not acrid to the taste. Its active principle appears from the researches of MM. Feneulle and Capron, to be an oily matter containing an acid.[[2265]]
Its action has not yet been examined with particular care. Two or three drachms of the root killed a dog in eighteen hours, when swallowed; two drachms killed another in two hours, when applied to a wound; and six grains in a wound caused death in twenty-three hours. In all cases the leading symptoms are efforts to vomit, giddiness, palsy of the hind-legs, and insensibility.[[2266]] Ten grains of the extract introduced into the windpipe killed a rabbit in six minutes.[[2267]] Orfila found redness of the rectum, when the animals survived a few hours. But none of these experiments show the powerful irritant action exerted by the root upon man.
The Bulletins of the Medical Society of Emulation mention two cases of poisoning with hellebore, which arose from the ignorance of a quack doctor. Both persons, after taking a decoction of the root, were seized in forty-five minutes with vomiting, then with delirium, and afterwards with violent convulsions. One died in two hours and a half, the other in less than two hours.[[2268]] Morgagni has related a case which proved fatal in about sixteen hours, the leading symptoms of which were pain in the stomach, and vomiting. The dose in this instance was only half a drachm of the extract.[[2269]] In a case not fatal, related by Dr. Fahrenhorst, the symptoms were those of irritant poisoning generally, that is, burning pain in the stomach and throat, violent vomiting, to the extent of sixty times in the first two hours, cramps of the limbs, and cold sweating. The most material symptoms were at this time quickly subdued by sinapisms to the belly and anodyne demulcents given internally; and in four days the patient was well. The dose here was a table-spoonful of the root in fine powder.[[2270]] In small doses of ten or twenty grains, it is well known to be a powerful purgative to man. I have known severe griping produced by merely tasting the fresh root in January.
The morbid appearances in Morgagni’s case were the signs of inflammation in the digestive canal, particularly in the great intestines. In the case described in the French Bulletins, there was gorging of the lungs, and the stomach had a brownish-black colour as if gangrenous.
The other species of hellebore have not been carefully examined; but it is probable that they all possess similar properties. The H. hyemalis and viridis are said by Buchner to be weaker than the H. niger; and the H. fœtidus is the most poisonous of all.[[2271]]
CHAPTER XXXVI.
OF POISONING WITH SQUILL, MEADOW-SAFFRON, WHITE HELLEBORE, AND FOXGLOVE.
The natural family Liliaceæ, and the allied family, Melanthaceæ, contain many species which possess narcotico-acrid properties. Those which are best known in Europe are squill, meadow-saffron, cevadilla, and white hellebore. To these may be added foxglove, as possessing properties in some measure analogous, and also rue and ipecacuan.