MEDICINAL PART. The leaves.
    Description. -- This is a fetid, narcotic, bushy herb, with a fibrous root, and an erect, branching, thornless stem, one or two feet high. Leaves are ovate, dentated, smooth, and the margins have the appearance as if gnawed by insects. Flowers white or pale violet; fruit, a berry.
    History. -- This plant is also called Deadly Nightshade, but is not to be confounded with Belladonna. It is found growing along old walls, fences, and in gardens, in various parts of the United States, flowering in July and August.  The leaves yield their virtues to water and alcohol.
    Properties and Uses. -- It is a narcotic and sedative, producing, when given in large doses, sickness and vertigo. One to three grains of the leaves, infused in water, will produce a copious perspiration and purge on the day following. They have been freely used in cancer, scurvy, and scrofulous affections, in the form of an ointment. Very small doses are taken internally. These should always be prescribed, and their effects watched by a physician. It is better to use the plant only in the form of an ointment. The berries are poisonous, and will produce torpor, insensibility, and death.