The use of this plant has been recommended as a preventive of scarlatina. An instance is recorded of a family consisting of eleven persons who took it for this purpose, in small quantities, twice a day. Five of these persons were domestics. On the fourth day, almost all of them became under the influence of the drug, two or three of them very slightly, simply complaining of having the vision disturbed by objects which they in vain attempted to remove, for they were fully persuaded that they existed. Two had singular fits of laughter which nothing could control. All complained of being in an unusual state. The servants were all of them able to go through their work, but all seemed to act mechanically, each independent of the other. Of this the most ludicrous example was in the course of the fourth evening. A carriage arrived at the street door, and the street bell was rung with considerable violence. They all immediately left their business, quietly walked up stairs as if they had not the slightest idea that they were all upon the same errand. They went to the door; two of them, however, only opened it; one of these walked away without waiting to know what was the reason of the ringing, and the other seemed not disposed to trouble himself with anything beyond the opening and shutting of the door. On the discontinuance of the medicine, they all soon returned to their usual state, and two of them had scarlatina, though only in a mild form. From this descriptive account of the action of belladonna, and its singular effects upon the mind, approaching to a form of insanity, it will appear strange that this drug should be recommended by Hahnemann and his followers for the cure of insanity. But this is the very principle upon which that school operates.[36] That drug which produces, in its effects the worst forms of mania, is the best adapted for its cure. We are not, however, either apologists, exponents, or opponents of homœopathy, and will leave its supporters to champion their own cause.