622

ELEMENTS OF MATERIA MEDICA.

gouty and rheumatic cases it sometimes speedily relieves the pain in amost surprising manner.

In excessive or poisonous doses colehicum acts as a powerful poison.In a case related by Mr. Fereday ( Lond. Med. Gaz. vol. x. p. 160), wheretwo ounces of the wine of the seeds of colehicum were swallowed, thesymptoms were acute pain in the bowels, coming on in about an hourand a half after taking it, vomiting, acute tenesmus, small, slow, andfeeble pulse, cold feet, and weakness of limbs. The nausea, vomiting,and pain in the stomach, continued with undiminished violence, thepulse became also imperceptible and intermitting, the urine was sup-pressed, the respiration hurried, purging of copious liquid stools came on,and loss of sight for a minute or two after getting out of bed. Thepatient died forty-seven hours after swallowing the poison. On a post-mortem, examination, the skin of most parts of the body was found to becovered with a purple efflorescence; no inflammation was observed inthe alimentary canal; two red patches were found, one in the stomach,and the other in the jejunum. These were produced by the effusion ofa small quantity of biood, in the one case, between the muscular andmucous coats ; in the other, between the peritoneal and muscular coats.Ecchymosed spots were observed on the surface of the lungs, of theheart, and of the diaphragm.

In this instance the only indications of an affection of the nervoussystem were weakness of the limbs, the temporary loss of sight, and theslowness and feebleness of the pulse.

It is deserving of notice, that in this case, also in another case relatedby Chevallier {Journ. de Chim. Med. viii. 351), likewise in a third casementioned by Mr. Dillon (Stephenson and Churchill’s Med. Bot. vol. »•)>and in Mr. Iladen’s case ( Magendie's Formulary, by C. T. Haden), u°convulsions were observed ; and in the three first cases no insensibility -In the last case, however, Mr. Iladen mentions that at “ ten p. m.fell into an apoplectic kind of sleep, which terminated in death beforemorning. It is remarkable that convulsions are ascribed to veratria bjjMagendie, and to colchicina by Geiger and Hesse. In one case of fatupoisoning from an ounce and a half of the tincture of colehicum [&'Med. and Surg. Journ. xiv. 262) delirium occurred.

I he above account of the eff ects of colehicum applies both to th®cormi and the seeds. The flowers are likewise poisonous, and a fata 1case from their use is mentioned by Dr. Cliristison [Treat, on Poiso>3d ed. p. 792). They have been recommended for medicinal use.

Uses.— The following are the principal diseases in which the Meado' v ’Saffron has been employed:—

1 . In Gout. — The circumstances which of late years have led to the e*'tensive employment of colehicum in gout are the following:—About seven 1 'years ago, M. Husson, a military officer in the sendee of the king 0France , discovered, as he informs us, a plant possessed of extraordinWvirtues in the cure of various diseases. From this plant he prepared ‘remedy called Eau Medicinale, which acquired great celebrity for abatiObthe pain and cutting short the paroxysm of gout (Dr. E. G. Jones, -fAccount of the Remark. Effects of the Eau Medicinale d’Husson in \^ eGout). Various attempts were made to discover the nature of its act1 'principle. In 1782, MM. Cadet and Parmentier declared that it c ° ol(tained no metallic or mineral substance, and that it was a vinous infos 1