apple, even to five or fix grains daily, was fafe at leaft. This plant abounds in Carolina and Virginia too; and Beverley's Hiftory of the laft of thefe colonies informs us, that fome of the carlieft Settlers, or fome Sailors landing there, and miftaking it for fpinage, (a very grofs mistake) boiled and eat plentifully of it. The confequence of which was, a ridiculous and filthy idiocy of about twenty-four hours duration. Perhaps its being boiled in a large quantity of water, might leffen the proportion of thofe oblong bright fpicular falts which, the Doctor informs us, abounded and fparkled in the black friable.extract he obtained from the evaporated juice; and which remind us a little of the fhining needle-like fpicula in a lump of crude antimony. The Extract of Henbane was given in thirteen cafes, after a dog had first taken ten, and then twenty grains of it, without any enfuing fymptom: but two drachms, given three days after the laft, were attended with high nervous ones; a ftrong contraction of the pit of the ftomach; a great dilatation of the pupil, nearly a total lofs of fight, with trembling and weakness; though after vomiting, purging, and fleeping much, he recovered entirely. Dr. Storck next took one grain fafting for feven enfuing days, without the least alteration in his health or fight; having rather a more open belly, and a far better appetite on thofe days, than at other times.-The first Patient and Subject of it, had been afflicted with wandering convulfions for a year before; which had baffled all other remedies. She took from three to nine grains of the extract of Henbane, for the space of about two months; after which, as no convulfive fymptom appeared, it was difcontinued. The fecond had a convulfive tremor of the right foot. She took from two to three grains of the extract; and in three weeks the diforder went quite off. She had daily plentiful ftools with thefe pills, being coftive before. Within half an hour after taking a pill of one grain, which was given twice the four firft days, and thrice the fubfequent ones, The began to feel: a chillinefs and fhuddering all over her body, with anxieties, a cold fweat, weakness of fight, and a fenfe of a beginning fainting fit, as the Tranflator expreffes it: but these fymptoms lafted not above two or three minutes. He calls this a perfect cure, which he had not fo expressly affirmed of the first Patient; but left his Readers to infer it. The third, Patient was a man of fixty, afflicted with involuntary twitchings of the tendons of both feet. This we may reafonably fuppofe to be the circumftance of most painful twitchings, as no perfons would chufe them. The Patient imagined himfelf more chearful by the ufe of the extract. It is probable notwithstanding this, his chearfulness never rofe to joy; for after taking it a long time, the Doctor fairly confeffes the difeafe remained in the fame con dition dition; and he was forced to be fatisfied with its doing him no harm. It should feem as if Henbane was not a poifon fufficient either to kill or cure him; and from the fequel of this article, we fhall find occafion to regret, that he was not pot into a courfe of the more poifonous and potent Monkfhood: but this plant, very probably, had not as yet been fubjected to a course of experiments. A chronical palpitation of the heart, with great anxiety.on the leaft motion, and an apprehenfion of fuffocation, or (wooning, was the cafe of the fourth Patient, a female of fifteen. She took two grains at twice for fome days, which abated her diforder; and then three grains at thrice in a day; and we are told, that in eighteen days the diforder went quite off. It had been attempted to increase this Patient's dofe to two grains at once taking; but on each fuch attempt he had cholic pains, tho' of fhort duration. The fifth cafe was a true madness, from paffion, and a fubfequent melancholy. Bleeding and other evacuations, and opiates were given, to no effect. He took from three to nine grains of this extract, and feemed almost recovered on the tenth day; but on omitting the pills the madness returned, and was aggravated: upon which he took fifteen grains daily for three weeks, became well, and went about his bufinefs. A man with a tickling cough, whofe fpittle was streaked with blood, was the fixth fubject of Henbane. He took two grainsat twice the firft and the second day, and three grains on the third; when the blood disappeared, and concocted matter was coughed up. On the fixth day he took nine grains at three times: the fame dofe was continued for four weeks, when his breaft became free; he had three or four flools daily, and yet recovered his ftrength at the fame time. This Patient is faid to have got well, but his cough only almost well: however the pills were forbore, tho' Dr. Storck does not fay for what reafon, nor mention their difagreement with him in any refpect. We acknowlege this plant has been boldly recommended in fpitting of blood and dyfenteries, internally: but our most prudent Practitioners have certainly abftained from directing it. The feventh cafe was alfo a fpitting of blood, fubfequent to a violent paffion. The Patient took from three to fix, and to nine grains, for eleven or twelve days; when complaining of a flight cholic pain after a fizy ftool, and growing weak, the pills were omitted for fome days: but upon this her appetite went off; foon after he felt a ftraitnefs in her breaft, and became. live. She begged to have the pills again, which he has taken e weeks fince, nine grains daily; and has recovered her appetite, appetite, and an increafe of her ftrength, with ftools. As Dr. Storck does not expressly fay fhe is cured, there is only room for a candid perfon to infer, fhe was in a ftate of confiderable amendment. The eighth Patient was afflicted with a melancholy madness, accompanied with fuch great fear, as to make the man run away from flies; neither had he fleep or appetite. Bleeding and other means rather heightened the disorder; but, on the fecond night of taking Henbane, he immediately began to fleep, and his whole afpect feemed calmer. In a week's time he was not afraid even of men, but would not speak to them. In a month he would make proper anfwers, but only in foliloquy. In the fecond month he began to talk and jest, and was well. The first three days he took three grains daily; on the fourth, he took fix; and every third or fourth day the dofe was increased, 'till at last he took twenty grains daily,--Thus Henbane, we fee, proved a great remedy for aphony or filence; and this may furnish a hint, perhaps, for giving it to dumb parrots, as a fuccedaneum to Moliere's bread and wine, to which his Mock Doctor afcribes their talking: except it should prove peculiarly venemous to birds, as its English appellation might induce us to fufpect. Dr. Colin, a Colleague of Dr. Storck's in the fame hospital,. has added five other cafes, all of female Patients, whom he reports perfectly cured by the Henbane. The first was maniacal, the fecond epileptic; the third had a violent head ach and vertigo, with a previous obftruction of the menfes, and fome convulfive and delirious paroxyfms. The fourth had violent convulfions of the abdomen and diaphragm, attended with a vehement hiccough, the rifus fardonicus, or convulfive laughter, and a frequent lots of fpeech. She took Henbane, May 3; on the 15th fhe had no fenfible complaint: it was continued however, in the quantity of fix grains daily, to the end of the month; and on June 4, he was feen by the Prefident in perfect health. The laft cafe was a contraction of the ftomach, with a difficulty of breathing and swallowing. The Patient took two grains June 18, and was difcharged, cured, July 2. Dr. Colin adds, he is adminiftering thefe pills to other perfons, under various nervous diforders, with good fuccefs: but as their cures are not yet compleated, he referves their cafes for another opportunity. The extraordinary falutary effects of this extract, thus attested, are the more furprizing, as Henbane has been affirmed by many reputable medical Writers, to be a moft violent narcotic'; difordering the fenfes, and occafioning either a deadly or chronical madness. Haller informs us, that one who eat all the poi fons of the phyfic garden, the Napellus, Apocynumt, and Bella Denna, with impunity, was maftered by this: that after its ufual narcoti· effects, a pally of one of the legs remained. Boerhaave had his fenfes difordered only by making a plafter from this plant. What we had formerly fuggefted, of the evaporation of the juice of Hemlock, rendering its poifon lefs violent, by the avolation of its moft volatile particles, may probably hold equally true with relpect to Henbane. A very remarkable hiftory of the effects of its roots, boiled by mistake amongst Cichory roots, may be feen in Wepfer's Cicuta Aquatic. p. 292 to 295.1 The last chapter treats of the Napellus, the Blue Monkshood or Helmet Flower, which is often cultivated in our flowergardens. Dr. Storck acknowleges, it has been accounted amongst the rankeft poifons: but this, perhaps, was not the fmalleft inducement to Dr. Storck, who, probably, fuppofes, that the greatest remedies may be concentered, as it were, in the greatest pollens, After trying the powder of it on his tongue, which it affected with a degree of burning heat, he exprefied its juice; and made an extract as ufual. He powdered two grains of this extract, adding to it two drachms of loaf-fugar, and took from fix, to eight, ten, and twenty grains, within four fucceffive mornings, without any diforder; but obferved, that his whole body, to the extremities, perfpired extraordinarily, and was even moift with fweat the whole day. From this he naturally infered, that its principal ufe might be in fuch diseases as are chiefly expelled by this evacuation. It was given to fourteen Patients, in most of whofe cafes the ufual remedies had been vainly employed; and in fome of which even the Hemlock had failed or difagreed. The complaint of the firft, was fuch an exquifite pain in his right fide, that he could not move his hand, with a lofs of appetite, &c. He took ten grains of the powder, night and morning, for two days: from the third to the twelfth, the fame dofe was given thrice a day; which always fweated him in the night, and, if he lay down, in the day too. On the fixth, he was free from all pain, and could walk about; but omitting the powders, from the thirteenth to the -fifteenth inclufive, he found his limbs become languid, and felt a little return of his pains. For the three days after thefe, he took thirty grains daily; and the diforder, fays our Author, was fo far amended, that all his functions were restored; and a univerfal wafte of the whole body was removed. He di not fweat the two laft weeks, nor did his pains return afterwards; tho' he had then difcontinued the powder four months. * Monkshood. † Dogbane. Deadly Nightfhade. The The fecond cafe was an exquifite Sciatica, to which a violent pain of the arm fupervened. The Patient, a man of twentyfeven years, took twenty grains twice, and, on the firft night, flept infenfible of pain. A very general and troublesome eruption of ruddy puftles, full of an acrid humour, came out the next day, and chiefly about the privities. His rength and appetite increased, with a continual breathing fweat, though lets than the firft Patient. He took the fame dofe for five weeks aft ter, and at the end of five months, tho' under an exceffive ja clemency of the air, (by which we fuppofe Dr. Storck means exceffive cold weather) he had no relapfe. The third Patient had a Quartan of three years ftanding, which had been only mitigated, not cured, by the Bark. H took twice daily ten grains of the powder, which purged him, without abating his ftrength, and fenfibly relieved him. Ca the feventh day it ceafed purging him. On the ninth a gentle fweat and flying heat pervaded all his limbs, and he was well in other refpects. The fame dofe was continued for three weeks more; the Patient was perfectly cured, and had not relapfod during two enfuing months. 1 A woman of twenty had a tumour of five years-flanding, extending nearly over the left fide of her face, it felt like th Exoffs, or excrefcence of the bones. Hemlock, in large dofes, had been ineffectually given her for feveral months. When Dr. Storck publifhed her cafe, fhe had taken this powder for three months. The tumour is become fofter and moveable, diminished above Half of its bulk, and the motion of the jaw is much freer, with an increafe of ftrength and appetite. Sne continues taking half a drachm of the powder (i. e. half a grain of the extract) daily, and the tumour abates in fize. But it appears this cure was not compleated when the Doctor publifhed. Nether was the cure perfected in the fifth cafe. It was a Sephus, 'attended with violent rheumatic pains, to remove which bienlock had been employed in vain, for feveral months.. She took twenty grains daily of this powder, and is faid to have found herfelf well, (tho' not of the Scirrhus ;) but fhe continued it many weeks longer, to prevent a return of her pains. The third week the tumour leffened. She continues taking thirty grains daily, and the Scirrhus is faid to abate gradually.. The fuccefs of the fixth cafe is fill more partial. The Hemlock had been ineffectually employed three months, to difperfe fcirrhous tumours in a young woman's neck. Some few of them remain after taking this powder two months. A full drachm was taken daily for five weeks. She has a good appetite, fleeps found, |