Belladonna is given internally to allay pain and spasm in neuralgic affections, gastrodynia, colic, and spasms of the different sphincters, as of the uterus, bladder, and rectum; also in some nervous diseases, as chorea, epilepsy, and certain forms of hysteria, pertussis, asthma, and other nervous coughs. Externally, the preparations of belladonna or atropia are employed to dilate the pupil in ophthalmic cases; sometimes belladonna is used in the form of fomentation or ointment to painful parts, sometimes as an injection.

Dose. Of the extract, 1/6 gr. to 1 gr.; of the tincture, 5 min. to 30 min.

Atropine should not, as a rule, be given internally; the officinal solution, diluted or not, may be employed by the oculist. The extract or ointment of belladonna may be used for the same purpose, smeared round the eye.

Incompatibles. Caustic fixed alkalies, as soda and potash, when in contact with preparations of belladonna or atropine, destroy their activity by causing the decomposition of the atropine contained in them.

Stramonii Folia et Semina. [Folium et Semen. U. S.] The dried leaves and ripe seeds of Datura Stramonium, or Thorn Apple; Lin. Syst., Pentandria monogynia; an indigenous plant growing in waste places.

Description. The leaves are large, ovate, smooth, unequally sinuate, toothed, dark green, of a rank odour when fresh; they should be gathered when the plants are in flower. The seeds are brownish-black, reniform, and flattened.

Prop. & Comp. All parts of the plant contain an alkaloid named Daturia (C34 H23 No6), in white prisms; with properties like those of atropia, it is united perhaps with malic acid; probably daturia and atropia are identical.

Off. Prep. - Of Seeds. Extractum Stramonii. Extract of Stramonium. (Prepared from the seeds by percolation with proof spirit, and subsequent evaporation to the consistence of extract.)

[Extractum Stramonii. U. S. Made from the leaves by expressing the juice and evaporating at a temperature not exceeding 160°.

Extractum Stramonii Alcoholicum. U. S. Prepared by evaporating a tincture obtained by percolation.]

Tinctura Stramonii. Tincture of Stramonium. (Stramonium seeds, two ounces and a half; proof spirit, twenty fluid ounces. Prepared by maceration and percolation.)

Therapeutics. The action of stramonium appears to be exactly the same as that of belladonna; dryness of the throat, dilatation of the pupils, delirium, coma, and death ensue from poisonous doses of the drug. Stramonium has been supposed to influence especially the respiratory organs as an anti-spasmodic, and has been much used in asthma, chiefly in the form of smoke from the burning leaf employed in the same way as tobacco. The extract has also been used in convulsive coughs, as an antispasmodic and as an anodyne in gastrodynia and other painful affections.

Dose. Of leaves (powdered), 1 gr. upwards; of the extract, 1/4 gr. to 1 1/2 gr.; of the tincture, 10 min. to 30 min. When smoked, any dryness of the throat or dilatation of the pupils indicates the propriety of its discontinuance for a time.

Incompatilles. Caustic fixed alkalies, as soda and potash, when in contact with the preparations of stramonium, decompose their active principle, and render them inert. See Belladonna.

Hyoscyamus. Hyoscyamus. The fresh and dried leaf and young branches of Hyoscyamus niger, or Henbane; the second year's herb; Lin. Syst., Pentandria monogynia; indigenous, growing in waste places. [Hyosciami folium. Henbane leaf. The leaves of Hyosciamus niger. Hyosciami semen. Henbane seed. The seeds of Hyosciamus niger. U. S.]

Description. The leaves are green in colour when fresh, sessile, oblong, acutely sinuous, wooly or hairy, viscid and foetid. The seeds are very small and brown, not officinal, but sometimes employed medicinally.

Prop. & Comp. All parts of the plant contain Hyoscyamia, an alkaloid only once or twice obtained in a crystalline state; an acid, probably malic, and a volatile principle are also present.

Off. Prep. Extractum Hyoscyami. Extract of Hyoscyamus. (A green extract prepared from the juice of the fresh leaves and young branches, as the other green extracts.)

[Extractum Hyosciami Alcoholicum. Alcoholic Extract of Henbane. U. S. Prepared by evaporating a tincture obtained by percolation from the leaves.]

Tinctura Hyoscyami. Tincture of Hyoscyamus. (Dried hyoscyamus leaves, two and a half ounces; proof spirit, twenty fluid ounces. Prepared by maceration and percolation.)

Extract of Hyoscyamus is contained in Pilula Colocynthidis et Hyoscyami.

Therapeutics. Henbane appears to act as belladonna and stramonium, but is much milder, and is used chiefly as a sedative in certain excited conditions of the nervous system when opium is not advisable; it is also employed to diminish pain and allay irritation of the bladder, to prevent the griping of purgative medicines, ease cough, and diminish spasm in very many diseases. It, as well as stramonium, may be used to dilate the pupil in place of belladonna.

Dose. Of the extract, 5 gr. to 10 gr., or more [of the alcoholic extract, 1 gr. to 3 gr.]; of the tincture, 20 min. to 1 fl. drm. or upwards.

Incompatibles. Caustic fixed alkalies, as potash or soda, when in contact with the preparations of henbane, destroy their activity by causing the decomposition of the active principle contained in them.

Tabacum. Leaf Tobacco. The dried leaves of Nicotiana Tabacum. Virginian Tobacco; Lin. Syst., Pentandria mono-gynia: growing chiefly in tropical America.

Description. The leaves are large, ovate or oblong, lanceolate, acuminate, with numerous short glandular hairs; odour slight when fresh, hut becoming heavy or narcotic in drying; taste bitter and somewhat acrid; pale green when fresh, mottled-brown when dry. Officinal tobacco is not manufactured.

Prop. & Comp. Tobacco leaves when distilled with caustic potash yield a liquid alkaloid, Nicotia or Nicotina (C20 H14 N2); when pure, it occurs as a colourless oil, but becomes yellow by exposure; sp. gr. 1.027; volatilizes at 480° Fah. It is soluble in water, alcohol, and ether; it neutralizes acids, but the salts are difficult to crystallize; its solutions give rise to a precipitate with bichloride of platinum and tincture of galls. Nicotine is very poisonous and is contained in tobacco smoke. Virginian tobacco contains about 6 or 7 per cent. of the alkaloid. The acid of the plant is probably malic acid. A volatile oil, named Nicotianin, is also present.

Off. Prep. Enema Tabaci. Enema of Tobacco. [Not officinal in U. S. P.] (Tobacco, twenty grains; boiling water, eight fluid ounces.)

Therapeutics. Tobacco, when internally administered, acts as a powerful sedative, especially affecting the heart; it frequently causes diuresis, and has been used in dropsy. It is however seldom employed as an internal remedy, on account of the dangerous depression often induced. Enema Tabaci was occasionally prescribed (although seldom since the introduction of chloroform) in strangulated hernia, ileus, etc.; to produce great muscular relaxation. Externally, tobacco acts as a powerful irritant, and is occasionally ordered medicinally in the form of snuff, as an errhine in head affections, etc.; also in the form of smoke, as a sedative and expectorant in some varieties of asthma.

Dose. The Enema Tabaci contains about the quantity of the drug safe to administer at a time.

Capsicum. Capsicum. The dried ripe fruit of Capsicum fasti-giatum; Guinea Pepper, Pod Pepper, Chillies; Lin. Syst., Pentandria monogynia; imported from Guinea and the East and West Indies.

Pescription. A small oblong, cylindrical or conical membranous pod, of a bright scarlet or orange-red colour, shining on the surface, divided internally into two or three cells, containing some spongy pulp and numerous white, flat, reniform seeds. This fruit is from five to eight lines long, and about two lines broad.

Prop. & Comp. No odour, taste hot and acrid. It contains a volatile principle, capsicin, somewhat like a concrete volatile oil, which is soluble in alcohol, ether, essential oils, and slightly so in water; intensely hot in taste, and crystallizable when pure; it possesses basic properties and forms crystallizable salts with some vegetable and mineral acids. The pod also contains a red extractive or colouring matter of which little is known.

Off. Prep. Tinctura Capsici. Tincture of Capsicum. (Capsicum, three quarters of an ounce; rectified spirits, twenty fluid ounces. Prepared by maceration and percolation.) [U. S. Two pints of tincture are obtained from a troy ounce of capsicum, in powder, by percolation with diluted alcohol.]

Therapeutics. Capsicum acts as a powerful topical stimulant, and also on the general system; used chiefly as a condiment, sometimes in atonic dyspepsia; diarrhoea, and extreme prostration; as a gargle in cynanche maligna, and scarlatina; externally it can be used as a rubefacient.

Dose. Of powder, 1 gr. to 5 gr. in pills; of tincture, 5 min. to 10 min. As a gargle, 1/2 fl. drm. to 2 fl. drm. to 5 oz. of fluid.

Adulteration. The powdered capsicum (cayenne pepper) is extensively adulterated with red-lead and other like coloured substances.