_Dhatoora._—In India the seeds of the Datura alba, a plant which grows abundantly in most parts, are frequently used for the purpose of hocussing travellers, in order that they may be robbed with impunity. The seeds, which closely resemble those of the capsicum, are mixed with food, and give rise to total insensibility on the part of the recipient, often with noisy delirium or delusions. Death is not unfrequent after a large dose, although it would seldom seem to be administered for that purpose. Its effect may be for the time being to completely alter the disposition of the individual, and to cause him to give way to all kinds of foolish notions and antics. NIGHTSHADE.—The _Solarium dulcamara_ (Bittersweet, or Woody Nightshade) and the _Solanum nigrum_ (Garden Nightshade) contain an active principle known as Solania. The red berries of the first-named plant, and the black berries of the second, have been eaten by mistake; and have given rise to great thirst, headache, giddiness, dimness of vision, dilated pupils, convulsions, vomiting, and purging. Orfila relates the cases of three children who died from eating the berries of the Solanum nigrum, after suffering from vertigo, dilated pupils, nausea, colic, stertorous breathing, and convulsions. CHAPTER XXVI. CONVULSIVES. NEUROTICS PRODUCING CONVULSIONS. NUX VOMICA—BRUCIA—STRYCHNIA. The plants which yield the alkaloid Strychnia are, the _Strychnos nux vomica_, a native tree of Coromandel, Ceylon and Bengal: the _Strychnos Ignatii_, which abounds in the Philippine Islands, and furnishes the hard seed, about the size of a filbert, known as the bean of St. Ignatius; the _Strychnos tieute_, a large climbing shrub of Java; the _Strychnos toxifera_, of Guiana; and the _Strychnos colubrina_, or _Snakewood_, of the East Indies. The effects of these plants are exerted upon the spinal cord; as is manifest by the violent convulsions and the tetanic contractions of the muscles which they produce. They have no effect on the brain, consciousness remaining intact until death. A powerful juice, used by the Indians of Guiana as an arrow poison, and variously designated as _curare_, _woorara_, &c., is in all probability obtained from the Strychnos toxifera. The composition of the arrow poison varies in different tribes; in some it is a mysterious compound of many substances, obtained from plants, red and black ants, and the fangs of venomous snakes; but in all the active ingredient would seem to be the Strychnos toxifera. It destroys the power of the motor nerves—an action the reverse of that possessed by strychnia.