Principles of forensic medicine / by William A. Guy and David Ferrier.

Date:
1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Principles of forensic medicine / by William A. Guy and David Ferrier. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    RANUNCULUS, 537 ¥ii!. 105. oE mezereon. The symptoms, joost-mortem app^^^^ and treatment are those of irritant poisoning (M'^»> , ^^.^^ Banunculus {Orowfoot, lnMercup).-Theve aic no lesb fifteen species of ranunculus, or crowfoot, natives of these islands, and common in our meadows and pastures, and most of them have more or less irritating properties. Those which are esteemed most poisonous are the Banunculus dammula, bulbosus, and sceleratus; the ±t. acris and arvensis being less deleterious, ii ig. 165 shows a plant of the Ranunculus acris. Every part of the fresh plant is pervaaed by an acrffl principle, which, like that of Arum maculatum, is volatile, and dissipated by heat, or when the plants are dried. Water distilled from the fresh plants contains the acrid prin- ciple, as is shown by the stinging taste and sense of heat in the stomach. The distilled water of | the R. sceleratus yields crystals. The juice of the plants is a powerful vesicant, and prior to the introduction of cantharides was used by medical men for this purpose. It is now so used to produce ulcers on the legs by mendicants and maUngerers. The distilled water of the R. flammula is an effectual and speedy emetic; and was greatly commended by Withering as preferable to any other when the object is to produce a quick evacuation of the stomach. The bruised leaves, too, are used as vesicants. The symptoms, post-mortem appearances, and treatment of poisoning by the ranunculi are those of irritant poisoning (p. 338). Bryony.—The two plantswhichbearthe common name ol bryony have a certain importance as poisons, partly on account of their strong irritant action, and partly from their common presence in our woods and hedgerows. Though they bear the- same English name, they do not even belong to the same natural order, the white bryony being the solitary representative among our common wild plants of the Cucurbitaceas, while the black bryony belongs to the Dioscoriaceee. The Wliite Bryony {Bryonia dioica, or wild tine) is very common in our woods and hedges, twining among trees and bushes, and clinging by its tendrils. The leaves are rough, the flowers small and of a faint green colour; the berries clustered, and, when ripe, red, filled with a foetid unpleasant juice, and containing six seeds ; and the root, spindle-shaped, fleshy, and pale in colour, often attains a considerable size and thickness. Fig. 166 shows a cutting of the plant, with a small cluster of berries. The root of this plant was formerly in use as a medicine, and was known to occasion vomiting and purging, with symptoms of