SO LAN UM DELCAMA'RA, an indigenous perennial climbing plant, common in wet and shady places, especially hedges. It has a remark ably zigzag stem, with alternate leaves, the lower ones Lanceolate, enure, the upper hastate; the flowers resemble those of the potato, but are and are succeeded by a cluster of red berries. This plant is called ;mode nightshade. to distinguish it from the A trapa belladonsa, or deadly nightshade. The young twigs or tops are officinal, and they should be gathered in spring, before the flowering of the plant, or in autumn while the leaves are yet fresh, as much activity seems to belong to the leaves, and the twigs are best from plants about three VOWS old. When fresh, the plant has an unpleasant odour, i which as in a great measure lost by drying, as is also a large portion of water. The taste Is at first hitter and slightly acrid, then sweet ; hence the name biteer.streel given to it Ten pounds of the dried twigs yield two pounds of extract Accord ing to Pfaff, 100 pounds of perfectly dried stems yield a bitter-sweet extractive (pieroglycion), 21; vegeto-animal matter, 3 ; gummy extrac tive, 12; gluten with wax, 1 ; resin with benzoic acid, 2; gum, starch, (chiefly of lime), 6 ; and woody fibre, 62. Solanina (solania) has been found by Desfosses. Whether picroglycion, called also dulcamarin, and dulcarin, is a distinct principle, or a combination of solanina with sugar, is doubtful.
Bitter-sweet, when taken fresh, has a slightly narcotic influence, causing also nausea, vertigo, and a dryness of throat, like other solana ceous poisons. If delirium display itself, it is always of a most frantic kind. Perspiration or an increased discharge of urine generally occurs, followed by gentle purging.
Bitter-sweet is chiefly employed in cutaneous diseases, especially of the scaly kind, such as lepm ; it may be given internally, while a strong wash of it is applied externally. It Is also useful in some vesicular diseases, such as herpes and eczema. In these its virtues as an external application may be increased by dissolving in It sulphuret of potass. This combination relieves most effectually the intolerable irritation of these complaints.
It is usually ordered in the form of decoction, but long boiling is destructive of its powers. Slow simmering is preferable. The extract, when prepared'from the fresh plant with a low degree of heat, is a good form for internal administration, as it may be combined with antimonials.
In cases of poisoning by the berries, often mistaken for currants, the stomach-pump should be used as speedily as possible, and moderate venesection is of service.