BARLOW'S DISEASE, See SCOR BUTUS, INFANTILE.
BELLADONNA.—Belladonna (deadly nightshade) is a solanaceous plant, bo tanically known as Airopa belladonna, Linne. It is indigenous to southern Europe and central Asia. Two parts of the plant are used in medicine: the leaves and root. The preparations are extract (solid) and tincture of the leaves, and fluid extract of the root. Bella donna plaster and belladonna ointment are made from the extract of the leaves, but belladonna liniment is made with fluid extract of root. The active prin ciple is the alkaloid atropine, which oc curs in the plant in combination with malic acid as bimalate. Another prin ciple, analogous to atropine and pos sessed of mydriatic properties, is obtained from the mother-liquor, after atropine has crystallized out, which is called "belladonnine," the latter being an amorphous, brown, varnish-like mass, freely soluble in chloroform and slightly soluble in water. Atropine is used in all cases where is desired an immediate and rapid action, as when a patient can not swallow, and when the stomach will not tolerate belladonna or its prepara tion. Belladonna and its preparations are preferred when a slow and more con tinuous action is desired.
Dose and Physiological Action.—The dose of belladonnas foliorum is 1 to 5 grains. Of belladonna' radix from 1 to 3 grains may be given. The extractum belladonme foliorum is given in doses of Vio to grain. The dose of extractum belladonnw radieis fluidum is from 1 to 3 minims, and of the tinctura bella donme foliorum is from 5 to 15 minims. The physiological action of belladonna has been already described in the article On ATROPINE.
Belladonna Poisoning. — The symp toms of poisoning by belladonna appear usually within two hours, and are similar to the poisonous effects of all the solana ceous plants (stramonium, or thorn apple; Jamestown weed; hyoscyamus, or henbane; Solanum dulcamara, or bitter sweet; woody-nightshade, etc.). The characteristic effects, stated briefly (fuller description has already been given in article on ATROPINE), are frequently flushed face, redness of the skin, heat and dryness in the throat, dilatation of the pupil, sensory illusions, and active delirium. Death, when it occurs, usu
ally takes place within twenty-four hours. A few berries of belladonna and one drachm of the extract have prove fatal. The post-mortem appearances are not constant or well marked. The pupils are dilated. The brain may be congested and the stomach inflamed. The remains of the leaves or berries should be searched for in the stomach and intestines.
Incompatibility or antagonism of the coal-tar preparations and any forms of belladonna noted. If either is being taken and the other is given, delirium is produced at once. Several eases observed with the same result. J. R. Nelms (Med. Brief, Feb., '98).
Effect of belladonna upon the human vision was considered in a libel suit re cently reviewed by Appellate Division of the Supreme Court at Albany, New York. The plaintiff was a physician who treated the defendant's daughter for some ail ment of the eyes, and in the course of the treatment administered belladonna. The girl subsequently became blind, and her father attributed the loss of her eyesight to the unskillfulness of the plaintiff and his ignorance in giving her belladonna and thus producing her blindness. The doctor sued him for libel for publishing statements of this purport. Every med ical witness testified that belladonna would not, and, indeed, could not, cause blindness in any person. They all agreed that the drug produced a dilation of the pupil, accompanied by a partial loss of vision, but that this was only temporary and the effect would gradually pass away. Proof on this point was so clear and conclusive as to leave no doubt in the mind of the Appellate Court that the unhappy father was mistaken in holding the doctor responsible for the misfortune of his child. Editorial (Med. Standard. May, 'OS).