The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1897-05-05

action Of the heart. The green helle-
bore that decks the spring woods with
strong fresh leaves and spike of whit
ish blossoms yields another sort of
poison, which makes its root valuable
in veterinary medicine. Its worth as
an insect and animal poison were
known to the Romans, who employed
1t poison vermin.
The yellow-fowered, hairy weed
henbane, that grows here and in Great
Britain, has still different and distinct
medicinal properties in its root and
leaves. The extract of its leaves is
administered to quiet maniacs in asy-
lums. The root has an opposite effect.
Belladonna, or the deadly nightshade,
yields TO the pharmacist the poison
known as atropine, an overdose of
which will produce delirium. A good
many allied species of the plant grow
here, although it is not indigenous to
the soil. 1t belongs to the same family
as the potato. Well-known cases are
on record, by the way, of poisoning
from the eating raw of very young po-
tatoes, which seem to contain some of
the deadly properties of the belladonna.
Atropine is also obtained from the
thorn apple, very common poisonous
plant which grows in vacant lots, and
is recognizable by its prickly burr, and
white flower, resembling the blossom
of the morning glory. The drug it
yields has been known TO the Hindoos
from the most remote time, under the
Sanscrit name of dhatoora. 1t ap-
pears that it was often used to produce
insanity in persons in high station
when it was feared that their brains in
normal condition would prove better
than the ruling sovereigns. Belladon-
ma and its alkaloids although menace
to children who are liable to eat its
berries, is priced by oculists for it's
property of dilating the pupil of the
eye, and by physicians for its quality
of paralyzing the nerves in neuralgia
and contracting the blood vessels in
cases of Inflammation arising from
colds. Atropine is perfect antidote
for the poisonous mushroom.
Professor Telliffe described at length
and entertainingly the manufacture of
quinine from the bark. OF the discov-
cry of this most valuable drug he told a
romantic story. eve are told" he
said, that an Indian of South Amer.
lea, who was lying helpless in a wilder
ness, sick of violent fever, dragged
himself to pool of water near at hand
to quench his burning thirst. After
drinking he felt his strength gradually
returning, and was eventually able to
rise and 60 home. His experience ex.
cited the greatest surprise, as no rem
edy was then known for intermittent
fever, and many visited the pool. The
bitter taste of the water led to the dis
covery that it was impregnated with
the properties of the bark of the trees
growing at the gorge. Its virtue was not
known to civilization, however, until it
happened that the wife of the Viceroy
of Peru was lying i'll of fever, and a
Jesuit priest recommended that the
bark be ground to powder and admins.
tered to her. The resultant cure was
considered so wonderful that the Vice.
roy sent an expedition into the forest
to collect the bark, and upon his re-
turn to Spain brought it with him and
gave away large quantities of it to the
sick. The name of the Viceroy was
Luis Geronimo Fernandez de Cabrera
Bobadilla, fourth Count of Chinchon,
and the scientific name of quinine Chi
chona owes its origin to the Countess OF
Chinchon, the Viceroy's wife, who was
cured by the virtues of cinchona bark