COLCHICUM, the meadow saffron, or autumn crocus (Col chicum autumnale), a perennial plant of the family Liliaceae, found wild in rich, moist meadow-land in England and Ireland, in middle and southern Europe and in the Swiss Alps. It has pale-purple flowers, rarely more than three in number; the perianth is funnel-shaped, and produced below into a long slender tube, in the upper part of which the six stamens are inserted. The ovary is three-celled, and lies at the bottom of this tube. The leaves are three or four in number, flat, lanceolate, erect and sheathing; and there is no stem. Propagation is by the formation of new corms from the parent corm, and by seeds. The latter are nu merous, round, reddish-brown and of the size of black mustard seeds. The corm of the meadow-saffron attains its full size in June or early in July. A smaller corm is then formed from the old one, close to its root ; and this in September and October pro duces the crocus-like flowers. In the succeeding January or Feb ruary it sends up its leaves, together with the ovary, which per fects its seeds during the summer. The young corm grows con tinuously, till in the following July it attains the size of a small apricot. The parent corm remains attached to the new one, and keeps its form and size till April in the third year of its existence, after which it decays. In some cases a single corm produces sev eral new plants during its second spring by giving rise to imma ture corms. C. autumnale and its numerous varieties, as well as other species of the genus, are well known in cultivation, forming some of the most beautiful of autumn-flowering plants.
Colchicum or colchicine, applied to the skin, causes pain and congestion; inhaled, causes violent sneezing; and taken internally, increases the amount of bile poured into the intestine. In larger doses it is a violent gastrointestinal irritant, causing severe colic, vomiting, diarrhoea, haemorrhage from the bowel and ultimately death from collapse. This is accelerated by a depressant action upon the heart and nervous system similar to that produced by veratrine and aconite. The action of the drug upon the kidneys has been studied, but is not yet fully clear.
The sole medical use of colchicum is in gout. It has an extraor dinary power over the pain of acute gout ; lessens the severity and frequency of the attacks when given continuously between them, and benefits such symptoms of gout as eczema, bronchitis and neuritis, though inoperative against them when not of gouty origin. Veratrine, a constituent of the colchicum corm, is useless in the treatment of gout. The drug is generally given as vinum colchici, in doses of io to 3o minims. It is apt to render the patient low-spirited and tearful and must only be given with great care.
In colchicum poisoning, empty the stomach, give white of egg, olive or salad oil and water. Use hot bottles and stimulants, especially trying to counteract the cardiac depression by atropine, caffeine, strophanthin, etc.