Though all these are disgusting as practices, there is no doubt, but, medicinally, they may be attended with good effects. By smoking and chewing, tooth-ach has often been relieved; and some persons consider the former a means of guarding against contagion. The occasional and moderate use of snuff has, in several cases, been found beneficial, particularly in head-achs, and in diseases of the eyes and ears. Infusions of tobacco are sometimes administered in medicine, but this drug is principally given in the form of a vinous or watery infusion. Tobacco is a powerful medicine, and requires to be used with great caution. The smoke of this herb, when blown against noxious insects, destroys them, and is the means which gardeners adopt for ridding hot-houses and green-houses of such as infest their plants.
The tobacco plant is sufficiently hardy to sustain the rigour of an European climate, and is cultivated in several parts of Spain and Portugal. As however, on importation, it pays a heavy tax to government, the culture of it in this country is restricted, by the legislature, to half a rod of ground in physic gardens; and if this be exceeded the cultivator is liable to a penalty of ten pounds for every rod.
The different kinds of tobacco and snuff are attributable rather to the difference of climate and soil in which the plants have been grown, and to the different modes of management and manufacture, than to any essential distinction in the plants from which they are manufactured.
66. DEADLY NIGHTSHADE (Atropa belladonna) is an extremely poisonous plant, which grows in hedges and waste grounds, in several parts of England, and has somewhat oval leaves of dull green colour, purple bell-shaped flowers, and shining black berries, each about the size of a small cherry.
There is no British plant so injurious in its effects on the human frame as this; and the alluring appearance and sweetish taste of the berries have, in many instances, particularly with children, been succeeded by the most fatal consequences. It is true that some persons have been known to eat three or four of them without injury; but in others a single berry, and even the half of one, has occasioned death. The leaves are more powerful than the berries. The usual symptoms of this poison are a deep and deadly stupor, giddiness, delirium, great thirst, retching, and convulsions. A draught of vinegar, and keeping the patient constantly in motion, are said to be the best means of cure.
Some writers have supposed it was the deadly nightshade which produced those strange and dreadful effects that are described by Plutarch to have been experienced by the Roman soldiers, under the command of Antony, during their retreat from the Parthians:—"Their distress for provisions was so great that they were compelled to eat of plants unknown to them. Among others, they found an herb of which many ate; these, shortly afterwards, lost their memory and their senses, and wholly employed themselves in turning over all the stones they could find; then, being seized with vomiting, they fell down dead."
The leaves of the deadly nightshade have sometimes been used externally, and with good effect, in cases of cancer; and in ulcers and tumours of different kinds. They are likewise given, internally, in infusion; but the sufferings of the patient, however small the dose may be, are so dreadful that few practitioners like to resort to them.
67. POTATOE (Solanum tuberosum) is a well known edible root, which was originally imported into this country from America.
No root with which we are acquainted is so valuable to mankind in temperate climates, as the potatoe. In some countries, particularly in Ireland, it forms a most important article of food to the lower classes of inhabitants. By the English peasantry the potatoe is by no means esteemed as it deserves. In addition to its value for culinary uses, it might, in a very essential degree, be made to serve as a substitute for bread. If duly prepared, and mixed with a nearly equal portion of wheat flour, it may even be made into loaves. A kind of cheese may be made, by reducing potatoes to the consistence of paste, adding an equal quantity of the curd from which cheese is made, with a little salt and some other ingredients, mixing the whole together, and forming them in moulds. The Germans prepare a favourite dish by slicing boiled potatoes and pouring over them the same kind of sauce which is used for salads, and mixing anchovies with them.
These roots afford an excellent food for horses and cattle; and it is said that bullocks will fatten on them more speedily than on cabbages or turnips. Potatoes are likewise serviceable for the fattening of hogs; but, for a little while before these are killed, it is requisite to use barley meal in addition, as otherwise the fat of the bacon is liable to boil away in the cooking. In the use of potatoes as food, it is requisite to prepare them in some manner by heat, as otherwise they are both unpalatable and poisonous.