Part 6

The Deadly Nightshade was very soon discovered by the revivers of botany after the restoration of learning; and, agreeable to the fashion of those days, it was greatly debated among commentators, whether it was known, and by what name, to the fathers of botany Theophrastus and Dioscorides. Several of the writers of that time, as Dodenæus, Guilandinus, Fuchsius, and Cordus, were of opinion, that it was the Mandragora morion of Theophrastus; and their sentiments were espoused by his learned commentator Bodæus à Stapel[3], who moreover supposes it the plant, which Dioscorides describes, lib. iv. cap. 69. under the name of Στρύχνος μανικὸς. On the other hand, Matthiolus[4] has taken great pains to prove, that it is not the Mandragora of Theophrastus; and both he and Ruellius[5] are inclined to think, that the Bella-donna was not known to either of the Grecian Fathers; who are so short, vague, and immethodical, in their descriptions, that it is very difficult, not to say impossible, to apply them to particular species with justness and precision.

Be this as it will, our restorers of botany agreed in general to rank it with the Solana, or Nightshades; and as most of them took it to be the Στρύχνος μανικός of Dioscorides, so we find thereto the addition of some epithet, expressive of its deleterious quality, in most of their writings; such as lethale, somniferum, furiosum, &c. Its general agreement with the plants of that genus, and also the knowledge the world soon had of its poisonous quality, when it is considered, that systematic distributions, from the parts of fructification, had not been thought of at that time: these, I say, were sufficient reasons for referring it to the Nightshades. By such names therefore is it found in most of the old writers; till Clusius, who, observing perhaps, that it differed in its parts of fructification from the Solana, adopted the indigenous Italian name, as a generical one, and called it Bella-donna. Cæsalpinus, the first inventor of a botanic system, did not separate it from the Nightshades. Morison and Ray, the revivers of method almost an hundred years afterwards, were aware of the difference; the former having placed it in a chapter among the _Solanis affines_, and the latter constituted a distinct genus of it, tho’ he retained the old name in his history of plants. Tournefort adopted Clusius’s name _Bella-donna_, and was followed by all the systematic botanists, who have since wrote; as Boerhaave, Rivini, Ruppius, Knaut, Magnol, Ludwig, and Haller; until Linnæus, conformable to the 229th rule of the Fundamenta Botanica[6], rejected it, and very expressly calls it Atropa[7]; in which he is followed by all succeeding writers, who have chosen his method.

Cæsalpinus, Morison, Ray, Herman, and Boerhaave, who range these plants according to the fruit, place the Deadly Nightshade among the _Herbæ Bacciferæ_ in their respective systems.

Rivinus, Ludwig, and Christian Knaut, who adopt the number and regularity of the petals in the corolla, for their classical character, refer it to such as have regular monopetalous flowers. Ruppius, whose method is upon the same plan, brings it among the irregular monopetalous ones.

Tournefort’s method, which is established upon the figure of the flower, takes it into the first class among such plants as have campaniform or bell-shaped flowers.

Dr. Van Royen, whose system is undoubtedly a very elegant attempt towards the natural method in botany, arranges it among such as he calls Oligantheræ; namely, such plants as have the stamina equal to, or fewer in number than, the segments of the corolla.

Dr. Haller, whose method is upon the plan of a natural one also, includes the Bella-donna among the Isostemones, such plants as have the number of the stamina equal to the segments of the corolla.

In the sexual system of Linnæus, at this time so generally received, and so well established, it belongs to the Pentandria monogynia, or such plants as have five stamina and one style. The plants of this order are arranged into five subdivisions. The Atropa comes in among those, that have declinated stamina. According to this method, we shall give its generical characters from the last edition of Linnæus’s Genera Plantarum.

The most obvious and essential character of the genus is the _globose berry, and open calyx_[8]. The general character is as follows.

ATROPA Linn. Gen. Plant. Ed. 5. Nº. 222.

The calyx is a gibbous permanent perianthium, formed of a single leaf divided into five acute segments.

The corolla is formed of a single bell-shaped petal, the tube of which is very short; the limb ventricose, of an oval figure, and longer than the calyx. The mouth is small, expanded, and divided into five pretty equal segments.

The stamina are five subulated filaments proceeding from the base of the flower, and are of the same length: at the base they are connivent, and at the top bent outwardly. The antheræ are thick and assurgent.

The germen is of a semiovated figure: the style is filiform, of the length of the stamina, and inclinated. The stigma is capitated, transversely oblong, and assurgent. The fruit is a globose berry, standing in a large cup, and containing three cells. The receptacle is convex on both sides, and kidney-shaped.

The seeds are numerous, and kidney-shaped also.

_The_ +SPECIES+.

1. Atropa caule herbaceo, foliis ovatis integris. Linn. Spec. Plant. p. 181.

Atropa. Linn. Hort. Cliff. 57. Roy. Lugd. 423. Hort. Ups. 45. Dalib. Paris. 70.

Bella-donna majoribus foliis et floribus. Tourn. Inst. 77. Boerh. Lugd. II. 69. Miller, plate 62.

Bella-donna dicta Solanum lethale. Hill. Herb. Britan. p. 328. tab. 47.

Bella-donna. Clus. Pan. p. 503. Bod à Stap. p. 586. Cat. Gissen. 142. Raii Syn. ed. 3. p. 265. Vaillant. Botan. Par. p. 20. Hall. Helv. 507. Dale Pharmacol. 4° ed. p. 72. Wilson. Synop. p. 122.

Solanoc ongener flore campanulato vulgatius, latioribus foliis. Hist. Oxon. III. p. 532. sect. 13. tab. 3. fig. 4.

Solanum somniferum. Fuchs. 689. Icon. opt.

Solanum maniacum multis sive Bella-donna. J.B. III. p. 611.

Solanum melanocerasos. C.B. pin. 166.

Solanum lethale. Ger. 169. emac. 340. Park. 346. Raii. Hist. Plant. 679.

Solanum majus sive Herba Bella-donna. Matthiol. Oper. Omn. p. 756.

Solanum somniferum et lethale. Lobel. Adversar. p. 102.

_Deadly Nightshade_, or _Dwale_.

2. Atropa caule fruticoso. Spec. Plant. 182.

Bella-donna frutescens rotundifolia Hispanica. Tourn. Inst. 77.

Solanum frutex rotundifolium Hispanicum. Barril. Obs. 2. Icon. 1173.

_Round-leaved shrubby Spanish Bella-donna._

3. Atropa foliis sinuato-angulatis, calycibus clausis acutangulis. Spec. Plant. 181.

Bella-donna flore magno violaceo. Hill. Herb. Brit. 319.

Alkekengi amplo fiore violaceo. Few. Per. 724. tab. 16.

_Large violet-flower’d Bella-donna, or Deadly Nightshade._

The first of the species here enumerated is the plant in question. The second has been found growing naturally in no other country than Spain. The third was first discovered by Father Feuillée in Peru, and is therefore only an inhabitant of the gardens in this part of the world.

_The_ +DESCRIPTION+.

The root is perennial. It is pretty long, and divided into many branches of a brown colour, succulent, and of a disagreeable smell. The radical leaves are frequently a foot long, and five inches broad, of an oval acuminated figure, and not sinuated on the edges. The stalk rises to three or four feet: it is much divaricated and branched. The cauline leaves stand alternately upon it, in shape like the radical, of a dusky-green colour on the upper part, and a paler green underneath, being a little hairy on both sides. The flowers stand on single footstalks, in the alæ of the leaves: they are large, of a campanulated figure, and striated, of a dusky-purple colour within, with a yellow variegated base; the outer surface of the flower is of a greenish red. After the flower succeeds a fine beautiful large berry, which is black when ripe. For the rest, take in the generical character.

Most of the old authors give us figures of this plant, which, tho’ they convey a general idea of it, are yet scarce any of them exact. This fault in general runs thro’ all, that I have had an opportunity of examining; namely, that the flowers and fruit are represented by much too large in proportion to the leaves. Morison’s is perhaps one of the best among the old figures: it is, upon the whole, tolerable, but not accurate on account of the before-mentioned objection. Petiver’s does by no means represent the plant justly, in that the alæ of the leaves are not properly filled up. The most accurate figure of all, that I have seen, is Mr. Miller’s, in his plates adapted to the Gardeners Dictionary, which is undoubtedly taken from nature itself.

+PLACE+ _of_ +GROWTH+.

The Deadly Nightshade is found in many parts of Europe, especially in England and in Austria; and yet in our own country it is happily not very plentiful, inasmuch as our botanical writers usually reckon it among the _more rare_ plants, and specify particularly the places where they have observed it.

Here in England it is chiefly found in uncultivated places: in church-yards, about old walls, among rubbish in shady places, about dunghills, in lanes, and sometimes about woods and hedges. It begins to flower in June, and maintains a succession of flowers for two months. The berries are ripe in September and October.

It is of great importance, that the knowlege of poisonous plants should be extended as much as possible, that they may the better be avoided, and their fatal effects thro’ mistake be guarded against: there can therefore be no impropriety in enumerating particularly some of those places, where our English botanists have observed it. Mr. Ray mentions its being found in the church-yard and lanes about Fulburn in Cambridgeshire, Sutton-Colefield in Warwickshire: in the Downs: at Cuckstone, near Rochester in Kent, all the yards and backsides are over-run with it. _Ray. Syn._ Upon Clifton-hill, near Nottingham; also in a quarry near the cold-bath at Mansfield. _Catal. Notting_. In Currenwood-kins, near Burton in Kendal, and other places in Westmorland. _Wilson’s Syn._ Dr. Wilmer found it amoung the bogs going down to Dorking in Surrey, plentifully. In Preston church-yard, near Feversham in Kent. Mr. Watson found it by the wood-side, under the park-wall, between Temsford-mills and Welwyn, Hertfordshire; and near the road between Rochester and Maidstone. Mr. Blackstone found it in a shady gravel-pit near the old park-wood at Harefield, and in the gardens at More-park near Rickmansworth, plentifully. _Specim. Botan._ About Rochester and Chatham, where it grows in the joints of old walls, and in most of the unfrequented lanes: also in Woodstock-park in Oxforshire, and Up-park in Hampshire. I have observed it four or five years since on the edge of Charley-forest: about Grace-Dieu, Leicestershire. It grows about North Luffenham in Rutland.

_Its_ +POISONOUS QUALITY+.

There have been many fatal instances of the narcotic and deleterious effects of the berries of this plant. They are upon record in almost all botanical, and many medical authors. Children have unhappily been the principal sufferers this way, being tempted to eat by the enticing aspect of the berries, or by mistaking them for some other fruit. The berries, however, are not the only part of the plant, which partake of this intoxicating and poisonous property: the whole plant is endued with it, and that in no small degree.

If the Bella-donna is allowed to be the Στρύχνος μανικὸς of Dioscorides[9], this quality of it was not unknown to that writer. It was very soon known to the first writers in the medical and botanic way after the restoration of letters; and they have not failed to inform us of it.

Tragus and Fuchsius, who wrote about the middle of the sixteenth century, both relate instances of the poisonous effects of these berries: the former, of a man, who went mad after having eaten of them; the latter, of two children, who perished by the same means[10].

Lobel[11] tells us, that the berries of this plant are present death; and informs us of some youths, who, after eating them, became stupified, and died as from an over-dose of opium.

Matthiolus[12] relates, from his own knowlege, of some children poisoned by the same means.

Among all the instances of the intoxicating nature of this plant, there is none more memorable than that mentioned by the Scotch historian Buchanan[13], of the destruction of the army of Sweno; which is quoted by almost all authors, who have wrote upon this plant. It is there said, that the Scots mixed a quantity of the juice of these berries with the drink, which, by their truce, they were to supply the Danes with; which so intoxicated them, that the Scots killed the greatest part of them while they were asleep. How far this anecdote is to be depended upon, or whether other concurrent circumstances ought not to be taken into the account, I cannot determine.

Our own herbalist Gerard[14] mentions the case of three boys in the Isle of Ely, who, having eaten of these berries, two of them died in less than eight hours; but the third, by drinking plentifully of honey and water, and vomiting after it, recovered.

Bodæus à Stapel, in his comment upon Theophrastus[15], tells us of two youths, that eat two or three of these berries, which they got in the Leyden garden, mistaking them for black currants: one of them perished, and the other recovered with great difficulty.

Simon Pauli relates two or three examples to the same effect[16]. Wepfer gives us a circumstantial account of a child about ten years old, who was thrown into a great variety of convulsive symptoms after eating of this fruit: but proper care being taken by vomiting, and afterwards giving alexipharmics and anti-epileptic medicines, he recovered[17].

M. Boulduc[18] laid before the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris, the case of some children, who, upon eating these berries, were seized with a violent fever, palpitations of the heart, convulsions, and lost their senses. One of them, a little boy of four years old, died the next morning.

Boerhaave has instances to the same effect[19]: and it was the misfortune of Dr. Abraham Munting, a noted botanist and professor of physic in the university of Groningen, to have his own daughter poisoned with the berries of the Bella-donna.

It would be almost endless to recite all the instances to be met with upon this head. The German Ephemerides, the Commercium Literarium, and other periodical works, furnish us with farther proofs of the deadly quality of the Bella-donna; and they are unhappily corroborated by more recent instances in modern authors. The Gentleman’s Magazine[20], Mr. Miller in his Gardeners Dictionary, and Dr. Hill in his British Herbal[21], exhibit to us several melancholy cases of this kind.

The effects of this plant have been so extraordinary, that several distinct treatises have been published professedly upon it. The most remarkable of these is that of J.M. Faber’s, printed at Augsburg in 1677, under the following title; _Strychnomania explicans Strychni manici antiquorum, vel Solani furiosi recentiorum historiam_. In this tract the author has collected a number of cases from various hands, concerning the poisonous quality of the plant in question. In the year 1714. C. Sicelius published a treatise upon this plant, under the title of _Diatribe de Bella-donna. Jenæ_. 8vo.

+MEDICAL HISTORY+.

Who it was, that was bold enough to venture first upon the internal use of this plant as a medicine, I cannot say; chance very probably led to it, as in many other cases. In the mean time, there is reason to believe, that it is not altogether a modern practice. One would be led to think, by the accounts given us in Matthiolus and Bodæus, that in their days its operation was very well known; and that they knew how to dose it very exactly, since they give us an account of tricks being played with it, by infusing the quantity of a scruple of the root in wine, and intoxicating people therewith. The former of these authors relates, that the distilled water from this plant, in a dose of about two or three spoonfuls, was exhibited by some people in inflammations of the viscera; and, he observes, with good success. Parkinson seems to have transcribed this account, respecting this use of it; but neither of them speak of it from their own knowlege. It may be questioned, however, whether this could act otherwise than as mere water; since the principles with which this plant is endued, do not seem capable (if one may judge from its sensible qualities and effects upon those who have taken it) of rising in a still.

Mr. Ray[22], from the German Ephemerides, an. 13. obs. 64. presents us with the relation of a shepherd in Denmark, who administered an infusion of the berries in wine in the dysentery, which was there very common, and very obstinate; adding, that it was attended with great success, not only restraining the flux, but carrying off the disorder by sweat. Mr. Ray observes further, that, correspondent with this practice, Conrade Gesner actually prepared a syrop from the berries, and gave it in dysenteric cases with great success. This account is found in Gesner’s Epistles, and is quoted also by Dr. Haller[23], when treating of this plant. Possibly its efficacy in these cases may be accounted for, from considering it merely in the quality of an opiate; and therefore it cannot be adviseable to use it, when safer medicines are always at hand.

Its external use seems to be of as long a date as its internal; and it was on account of its cooling and repellent quality, that it came into credit as a fucus among the Italian ladies. Matthiolus recommends it in the erysipelas, the shingles, and other inflammatory disorders of the skin. The leaves, applied in the form of a cataplasm, are much celebrated by many writers, as of great use in resolving tumors, particularly of the breast, and even such as are of a schirrous and cancerous nature. Many of the old authors[24] mention this application of it, among other of the cooling and narcotic herbs; such as the common nightshade, henbane, hounds-tongue, _&c._ which it was usual to apply on such occasions. Mr. Ray informs us, that Mr. Percival Willughby experienced its efficacy repeatedly, in discussing hardnesses and cancerous tumors in the breast.

Its relaxing quality is very surprising, as appears by that memorable case related by the last-mentioned author, of a lady’s applying a leaf of it to a little ulcer, suspected to be of the cancerous kind, a little below her eye, which rendered the pupil so paralytic, that it lost all its motion for some time afterwards: and that this event was really owing to that application, appears from the experiment’s being repeated with the same effect three times.

The German physicians have gone much further: they have even ventured to give it inwardly in cancerous cases. Dr. Haller, when treating of the quality of this plant, refers to Junker, and others of the modern physicians, as recommending the decoction of it with caution, that it be not given in such quantity as to cause sleep. So long since as the year 1739. there was a thesis published at Hall, by Michael Albert, in which the Bella-donna is proposed as a specific in cancerous cases. What other physicians patronize this use of it, I cannot say, having but little opportunity of consulting those academic pieces, which are of such eminent use in compilations of this kind. Thus much is certain, that its use, in such cases, rather gains ground; and the case, published in the French Bibliotheque[25], printed at the Hague, of an ulcerated cancer being radically cured by an infusion of the leaves of this plant in water, deserves particular attention, on account of its being so well attested. The case is extracted from an inaugural thesis of Professor Lambergen’s, who was the physician concerned[26]. The event was so singularly happy and successful in this instance, that we hope it will need no apology, if we give a particular detail of it.

The person afflicted with this miserable disease was a widow of 34 years of age, and mother of four children. She had but weak nerves, and had been subject to inflammatory disorders. She informed M. Lambergen, upon examining her, that she had had a quinzy six times, which had twice ended in suppuration: that eight years before her right breast had suppurated, and discharged much matter: that two years after it suppurated again; and that at the end of another year both breasts underwent the same fate; since when the right had remained schirrous, but was without pain, except when she handled it. She had suckled her youngest child about six months, when she was seized with a fever; and the left breast (with which only she could suckle since the other had suppurated) soon swelled, inflamed greatly, was very painful, and soon became almost as large as a child’s head. Dr. Lambergen being called in, ordered copious bleeding, and that the child should suck as little as possible. She took some medicines, and soon recovered.

A year passed after this without any bad accident; when the lunar evacuations, which she had had from her 18th year, beginning to diminish, she felt a pricking pain in her left breast, and her right began to swell. Upon a fright, she had a fall, which accident increased both the pain and swelling; and she had recourse again to Dr. Lambergen.

He found the tumors in her right breast much enlarged, and so connected together, as to feel like one large one only. On the upper part of the breast, upon the pectoral muscle, it felt rugged, unequal, and almost as hard as a stone. The patient complained of a constant itching in the part, and at times a pungent pain, which seemed to shoot from the armpit, and end in the tumor. Under this armpit the glands were hard and schirrous; and the left breast was not exempt from the like indurations. A vein or two on the right breast was a little enlarged, otherwise no alteration. It was no hotter than common; nor had it undergone any change of colour. To mitigate the pain of the schirrous, Dr. Lambergen ordered the following plaister:

℞ _Ung. Diapomphol._ ℥ ij. _Amalgam, merc. et Plumb._ ȝ iij. _Sperm. Cet._ ȝ j. _M._

With this external application he prescribed likewise the following powders, to be taken night and morning, and gave directions relating to the non-naturals.

℞ _Coral. rub. Antimon. Diaphoret. illot. Sper. Ceti a_ ȝ ij. _Laud. gr._ vj. _M._ for 12 doses.

Under this method the pain remitted, but the tumor inlarged, and a little rising was observed on the upper part of it; and towards the nipple, where there was the least hardness, a small spot was perceived, which, at the next return of the catamenia, inflamed, and became the seat of the most excruciating pain. Dr. Lambergen, during this period, in the room of the powders, substituted emmenagogic pills, and ordered the pediluvium. She lost ten ounces of blood from the foot: and by these means the swelling of the breast diminished, and the patient suffered very little for some days. This truce, however, was but temporary: the rising on the upper part of the tumor began to inflame, itched intolerably, the pain returned, was almost perpetual, and insupportably pungent.