Drugs and medicines of North America : a publication devoted to the historical and scientific discussion of botany, pharmacy, chemistry and therapeutics of the medical plants of North America, their constituents, products and sophistications.

Date:: 1884-1887

Credit: Drugs and medicines of North America : a publication devoted to the historical and scientific discussion of botany, pharmacy, chemistry and therapeutics of the medical plants of North America, their constituents, products and sophistications. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$ence, in cases of hypochondriasis and hysteria, especially when attended with moroseness and violent outbursts of passion. In addition, we offer the following synopsis, by Prof. Stille, of the medi- cal uses of the species, Delphinium consolida and Delphinium Staphisagria, and no doubt our native species will conform in properties. They have been used in the treatment of dropsy and spasmodic asthma, generally in the form of a tincture, which has been much employed as a lotion, or as an ointment for the destruction of lice. These effects are due to the alkaloid delphinine. ACONITUM. ACONITE. Parts Used.—The roots of Aconitum uncinatum Linn., and Aconitum Fischeri Reich. Natural Order Ranunculaceae, Tribe Helleboreae. Introductory Remarks.—The genus Aconitum has been celebrated from the earliest ages on account of the poisonous principle with which nearly all species of the family are possessed.* It is among the first recorded vege- table poisons used, and it is supposed to be that referred to by Pliny as being used for an arrow poison by the aboriginal Gauls. In India where some species are very virulent it is in common use to this day by the natives for this purpose. To the ancients aconite was considered the most virulent poison, and has a prominent place in their mythology and legends. It was used to poison wild animals; hence the name wolfsbane, by which it is now commonly known, f The genus Aconitum is a native of mountainous countries, consisting of about twenty species, mostly found in the mountains of Europe and Asia. The species are specially liable to vary and on this account much confusion exists in their nomenclature. J The flowers of Aconite are large and showy, and often an Aconite plant is found in flower-gardens. The color is usually blue, though a few European 'The 'A/co'eiTov of the Greeks and Aconitum of the Romans are held to refer to the identical plant now mostly- used in medicine, the Aconitum napellus. In reference to the derivation of the word aconitum Dr. Chas. Rice writes us : The etymology is uncertain, and as there is no ancient name of the plant in other old languages, related to Greek and Latin, in which the same root occurs, we can only make a close guess. Pliny states that its name is derived from the fact that it grows iv a<6va.is 'on steep rocks.' Theophrast refers it to the name of the city of Akonai, in Bithynia. Others refer it to clkovt) [akone], 'whetstone,' 'sharp point.' There is no doubt it belongs to the Indo- germanic root ak, ' to be sharp.' f'The hunters which seeke after woolfes, put the juice thereof into rawe flesh, which the woolfes devoure, and are killed.—Gerarde (1597). \ Nearly thirty forms of the common European Aconitum napellus were mentioned by Seringe, in De Candolles Prodromus (1824), the most of which had been previously described as distinct species in Reichenbach's Monograph of the Genus. 4$