On poisoning by the root of aconitum napellus / by F.W. Headland, M.D., B.A., F.L.S.

  • Headland, Frederick William
Date:
1856
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On poisoning by the root of aconitum napellus / by F.W. Headland, M.D., B.A., F.L.S. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ON POISONING BY THE ROOT OE ACONITUM NAPELLUS* The plant which we call Aconite, or Monkshood, is probably the same as the Aconitnm, so interesting to students of classical literature as the poison which, next to conium, w'as probably in most extensive use amongst the nations of antiquity. Though the description given by the ancient botanist, Theophrastus, is not very distinct, Dioscorides describes several kinds of aconite, in one of which we seem to recognise our A. Napellus, which is still indigenous in the mountains and uplands of Greece:—another is thought to be a species of Delphinium. He states that aconite was used in painful affec¬ tions of the eye; that by its root scorpions were stupefied and rendered torpid, being again restored by hellebore; also that flesh poisoned with aconite was used as a bait wherewith to kill panthers, wild boars, and wolves. The invention of Aconite was attributed by the ancients to Hecate,—or it was believed that it sprang from the foam of Cerberus. The uses to which they put it were worthy of its fabled origin. It entered into the poisonous cup which Medea mingled for Theseus, and into the draught by means of which a barbarous law disposed of the old men of Ceos, when infirm, and no longer of use to the state. It was employed in secret * The author’s best excuse for uot having treated the subject in a more adequate manner than in this brief paper, is, that it was put together in its present form in order to be read at the weekly meeting of the Medical Society of London, (March 15th.)
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