The Catholic World, Vol. 03, April to September, 1866Various
Religion
The Catholic World, Vol. 03, April to September, 1866
Various
Catholic Church -- Periodicals
_Arabian Laughing Plant_.--In Palgrave's "Central and Eastern Arabia"
some particulars are given in regard to a carious narcotic plant. Its
seeds, in which the active principal seems chiefly to reside, when
pounded and administered in a small dose, produce effects much like
those ascribed to Sir Humphrey Davy's laughing gas; the patient
dances, sings, and performs a thousand extravagances, till after an
hour of great excitement to himself and amusement to the bystanders,
he falls asleep, and on awaking has lost all memory of what he did or
said while under the influence of the drug. To put a pinch of this
powder into the coffee of some unexpecting individual is not an
uncommon joke, nor is it said that it was ever followed by serious
consequences, though an over quantity might perhaps be dangerous. The
author tried it on two individuals, but in proportions if not
absolutely homoeopathic, still sufficiently minute to keep on the safe
side, and witnessed its operation, laughable enough but very harmless.
The plant that hears these berries hardly attains in Kaseem the height
of six inches above the ground, but in Oman were seen bushes of it
three or four feet in growth, and wide-spreading. The stems are woody,
and of a yellow tinge when barked; the leaf of a dark green color, and
pinnated with about twenty leaflets on either side; the stalks smooth
and shining; the flowers are yellow, and grow in tufts, the anthers
numerous, the fruit is a capsule, stuffed with greenish padding, in
which lie imbedded two or three black seeds, in size and shape much
like French beans; their taste sweetish, but with a peculiar opiate
flavor; the smell heavy and almost sickly.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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