BELLADONNA.

853

Th‘ 1S Preparation, as ine t with in the shops, is extremely variable.Pren ar * Ses principally from the unequal care with which it has been^ ose ' s ^ rom 8 r - v. to 9j. Occasionally very much largerv lli Vi Ve ^ een ta ^ cn without any injurious effects. It is said to be ait r i e a ddition to the compound extract of colocynth, whose operationt (| , ■ U< : ers milder, though not less efficacious. It is sometimes used as a^ruif a .PP^ ca ti° n to inflamed or tender parts: thus, alone, or in theit c f °* °intment, it is applied to painful hemorrhoids; spread on linenPaiiw*i S a piaster, which has been used in neuralgia, rheumatic pains,^ U 1 glandular swellings, &c.

C’T'noTES.—The treatment of a case of poisoning by henbane is thee as that by opium.

r °Pa Belladonna, Linn. L. E. D., Common Dwale; Deadly Nightshade .

4f

Sex. Syst. Pentandria, Monogynia.(Folia, L. —Leaves, E .—Folia et radix, D.)

Ist 0Rv.—S ome persons have suggested that this plant may be theHii s Pa> ?P ae of Theophrastus (Hist. PI. lib. vi. cap. 2,) the fruit of which,h, n a '* c ient botanist says, “ is black, racemed, and, to the taste, vinous.”ha,j ® plant noticed under this name by Dioscorides , (lib. iv. cap. 76),l°w fruit, and is universally admitted to be the Mandragora offici-al p ’ 'Phe earliest undoubted notice of belladonna occurs in the work* a S u s (A.D. 1532,) who calls it Solanum hortense nigrum (Bauliin,It has been supposed that it was this plant which produced suchand fatal effects on the Roman soldiers, during their retreatSe °f. /r Parthians (see Plutarch’s Life of Antony). Buchanan ( Rerum' hb- vii.) relates, that the Scots mixed the juice of this planttW he b rcad and drink, which, by their truce, they were to supply thePart S which so intoxicated them, that the Scots killed the greatestSc etl °* Svveno’s army while asleep. Shakspeare ( Macbeth , Act i.]> 6 3 d) i s supposed to allude to it under the name of the insane root.ul TA!,Y ' ^ en - Char. — Calyx campanulate, five-cleft. Corolla cam-fly e n^’ l "’re e the length of the calyx, five-lobed, equal. Filamentsftp 1 Pbrnj. Berry globose, seated in the calyx (Bot. Gall.)

Sob, ' ^ IIAR . — Stem herbaceous. Leaves ovate, undivided. Flowers

j^y (Smith).

liiri,] ° fleshy, creeping. Whole plant fetid when bruised, of a dark andas Pect, indicative of its deadly narcotic quality. Stems herbaceous,ktgj. ’ three feet high, round, branched, leafy, slightly downy. Leavesfy,’ la ostly two together of unequal size, ovate, acute, entire, smooth.>n t}, e f hnperfectly axillary, solitary, stalked, drooping, dark dull purplev iol et border, paler downwards, about an inch long. Berry of a shiningblack, the size of a small cherry, sweetish, and not nauseous

flov.^'T'Indigenous: hedges and waste ground, on a calcareous soil.I)jf rs June.

b'ch SCRu> tion. —Tlie root ( radix belladonna), when fresh, is one or moreintem 8 }^ c k, and sometimes a foot or more long: it is branching, fleshy,S light y w hite, externally grayish or brownish-wliite. Its taste is° r e a 1 S ^ eel ish: its odour is feeble. It may be collected in the autumn^ C U;<3 ■ * n the spring. The flowering stems ( herba belladonna) are col-re June or July ; they are then deprived of leaves ( folia bella-