menstrual flow of the female. It has been prescribed with advantage as an expectorant in chronic bronchial affections, and even in caseous pneumonia and phthsis. In fatty heart it is safer than digitalis, and may be used in dilated heart, languid circulation and oppressed breathing. It has also been used as a diaphoretic in rheumatism and as a diuretic in dropsies. As an antispasmodic in chorea it enjoys a high reputation. In the relief of after-pains, and in menorrhagia it' is frequently of service, and it is a good remedy in subinvolution of the uterus. Administration.-Dose, in powder, gr. xx-3j. Of the fluid extract or tincture the dose is fɔ̃ss-j or ij.

DEPRESSO-MOTORS.

CONIUM.

Conium maculatum, or Hemlock (Nat. Ord. Umbellifera), is a biennial European plant, naturalized in many parts of the

FIG. 22.

CONIUM MACULATUM.

United States. Its stem is erect, from three to five feet high. The leaves are large and bright green; the flowers are small,

white, and arranged in umbels. The whole plant is narcotic and virulent, and has a fetid, heavy odor. The FULL-GROWN FRUIT (gathered while yet green, and carefully dried) is the only portion used. It has a yellowish-gray color; a feeble odor, and a bitterish taste; it is roundish ovate, a line and a half in length by a line in breadth, and striated.

The active principle of hemlock is an alkaloid termed coninc (CHN), which exists in larger proportion in the seeds than in the leaves. It is a colorless, transparent, volatile, oily fluid, of a peculiar repulsive, suffocating, mouse-like odor and a bitterish taste, sparingly soluble in water, and freely so in alcohol, ether and chloroform, and undergoes decomposition upon exposure to the air. It is a highly energetic poison, even in very small quantity; the dose of it is gr. Other alkaloids, termed conhydrine (CH1NO) and methylconine (CHCH,N), have been isolated; all probably exist as malates. Conine combines with acids to form salts and unites with water as a hydrate.

Physiological Effects.-The following account is based on the investigations of Lautenbach * (chiefly) and Hubert-Valleroux.† Local action: conine applied to a part produces loss of function of the tissues with which it is brought in contact. Nervous system: hemlock has but little influence upon the cerebral hemispheres, for in cases of poisoning from it, consciousness has been preserved to the last. A full medicinal dose induces the following effects: a sense of muscular fatigue and feebleness of the legs is felt, the eyelids droop, and vision becomes impaired, accompanied by dilatation of the pupil. In lethal doses conium causes paralysis, which is due to a paralyzing influence on the terminal extremities of the motor nerves. It impairs the conductivity of the sensory nerves, while its action on the cord is one of progressive depression (Lautenbach). The circulation is at first accelerated, then retarded, but further investigation. is here required. The arterial pressure is at first lowered, and then decidedly raised; the respiratory movements are not altered unless a poisonous dose has been taken, when the respiratory

* Trans. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., 1875, p. 367; The Phys. action of hemlock and its alkaloid.

† Arch. Gén, de Médecine 6o ser. t. xvi, p. 83. De la ciguë at son action phys. et Thérap.

centre is paralyzed and death ensues from asphyxia. Temperature: some lowering of the animal heat has been noted; but this, lately, has been denied by Lautenbach. Secretions: conium has no action on the glandular organs, except the salivary glands, the discharge from which it increases. Elimination: hemlock is eliminated in part by the urine, as it has been found there. Orfila detected it in the spleen, kidneys, and lungs.

In large doses it causes nausea, vertigo, dimness of vision, relaxation of the muscles; and in poisonous quantities, dilatation of the pupils, difficulty of speech, delirium or coma, paralysis, and finally convulsions (of cerebral origin) and death. It has no direct hypnotic effect. Like woorara, its characteristic physiological effect is the production of pure motor paralysis, beginning in the extremities and extending to the trunk, involving chiefly the terminal nerve-endings. In cases of poisoning, alcoholic stimuli are to be given, and as physiological antidotes, the tetanizing agents, as strychniue.

Medicinal Uses.-It is employed as a general and topical anodyne, to relieve the pain of malignant tumors; and, even if destitute of the deobstruent powers which have been ascribed to it, it certainly exerts a remarkably palliative influence upon painful chronic indurations. It has also been recommended as an antispasmodic in whooping-cough, asthma, paralysis agitans, and as an anodyne in neuralgia; as an adjuvant to other remedies in mania, and especially in melancholia; to moderate irritability of the sexual organs; in diabetes; to relieve the blepharospasm of many acute inflammations of the eye; and it is used externally as a cataplasm to cancerous and irritable ulcers. Conium is quickly absorbed, and is eliminated with equal rapidity; hence its effects are speedily induced, and are of brief duration. It is the cicuta of Hippocrates, Galen, and Pliny, and is supposed to have been the poison administered to Socrates and Phocion.

Administration.—The dose of the powder, gr. ss-j. The extract (alcoholic) may be given in the same doses. An abstract is also officinal; dose, gr. 4-j. A tincture (dose fɔ̃ss-j) and a fluid extract are also used; of the fluid extract, in preparing which hydrochloric acid is employed to fix the alkaloid conine, the dose is giv-v, gradually increased until some effect is obtained.

The preparations of conium are uncertain, from the fact that the active principle is very volatile and easily escapes. Probably the best preparation is the fluid extract.

PHYSOSTIGMA.

Physostigma or Calabar Bean is the SEED of Physostigma venenosum (Nat. Ord. Leguminosa), a perennial climbing plant of the western coast of Africa. The seed is about the size of a large horse-bean, irregularly kidney-form in shape, with a hard, brittle integument, and of a dark chocolate-brown color. The inner kernel is by far the more active portion. Alcohol, but not water, extracts its medicinal virtues. It yields an active alkaloid, termed eserine or physostigmine (C15H21N3O2) sparingly soluble in water, but more soluble in alcohol, ether, and chloroform; and

FIG. 23.

CALABAR BEAN.

recently another alkaloid, termed calabarine, which is believed to be a tetanizing agent, has been found in it in variable amount. The Calabar bean has long been used among the negroes of western Africa as an ordeal to determine the guilt or innocence of accused individuals, whence its name, the ordeal bean of Calabar.

Physiological Effects.-It has been found, in full medicinal doses, to produce giddiness, torpor, paleness and coolness of the surface, weak and irregular pulse, relaxation of the muscular system, and drowsiness, but not stupor. An interesting effect of its action is a remarkable power of contracting the pupil, whether taken internally or applied externally; its seems probable that this is accomplished by a local peripheral action—i. e., paralysis of the sympathetic terminals and stimulation of the oculomotor fibres in the iris; and it also contracts the ciliary muscle, which regulates the accommodating power of the eye. Ner

vous system: the brain is not directly affected by Calabar bean, the paralysis induced by it being due to a depressing action upon the spinal cord. In proof of this statement can be offered the fact that the muscular contractility and irritability of the motor and sensibility of the sensory nerves remains unimpaired in cases of poisoning by physostigma. The local application of a strong solution abolishes the functions of both kinds of nerves (Fraser).* Lethal doses of physostigma cause total loss of reflex activity in the cord. Circulation: small doses of physostigma retard the heart's action by lengthening the diastolic pause, while toxic doses arrest it in diastole, but before the movements are extinguished there is a marked fall in blood pressure. The stoppage is probably due to paralysis of the cardiac ganglia. Respiration toxic doses of physostigma cause slowing of these movements, and eventually they are abolished, death ensuing from asphyxia. Intestines: Calabar bean increases decidedly intestinal peristalsis. Increase of the salivary secretion has been observed. A poisonous dose of physostigma in man causes nausea, giddiness, muscular weakness and tremors, diminished heart action, abolition of reflex action, slow respiration, myosis and motor-paralysis. It is allied in its effects to woorara and conium, but differs from them in its tendency to produce muscular twitchings, and contraction of the pupil. In cases of poisoning, after emptying the stomach, the hypodermic administration of a solution of atropine is the best physiological antidote. Chloral mitigates the symptoms.

Medicinal Uses.-Calabar bean has been found highly efficacious in traumatic tetanus, but it must be given in doses large enough to attain decided effects. Fraser advises the exhibition of eserine hypodermically, in severe cases. It has been used also with success in chorea, in poisoning from strychnine, and in spasmodic cholera. In ophthalmic surgery its employment is obvious, either to produce contraction of the pupil or to increase the power of accommodating the eye to distances.

The dose of the kernel is laid down as gr. ij-iij, to begin with, gradually increased. By exhausting the kernel with alco

* For an elaborate account of the action of Calabar bean, consult Dr. T. R. Fraser's Thesis, 1863.