Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume II.djvu/521

 BELLADONNA BELLAMONT 501 the atriplex hortensis, amaryllis belladonna, and the atropa belladonna. The amaryllis is a lily of great beauty and blushing appearance. It grows wild at the Cape of Good Hope, and is well known in cultivated gardens in England and France. The name is also in common use for the medicinal extract of the atropa, and in the pharmacopoeias for the root and leaves of that plant, from which the extract is ob- tained. This is a plant of the tolanaceas fam- ily, known by the common name of deadly nightshade. In England, Germany, and north- ern France it is met with in shady places along the sides of the walls, flowering in June and July, and ripening its fruit in September. In America it is successfully cultivated in gardens. It grows from three to four feet in height, with straight and strong stems. The leaves, of oval shape and pointed, are in pairs of unequal size ; the flowers are large, bell-shaped, and of a dull violet-brown color. The fruit resembles a cherry, for which it is sometimes mistaken by children, with fatal consequences ; it contains nume- rous seeds, and yields a violet-col- ored juice of sweet- ish taste. All parts of the plant are highly poisonous. The leaves are most usually employed for the extraction of the alkaloid prin- ciple, though the root and berries also yield it to al- cohol and water. (SeeATEOPiA.) Ex- tracts and tinctures of belladonna are used in medicine, as well as the alka- loid. The latter should be used with great caution, on account of its extreme activity; but it is preferable to the other preparations (which vary materially in strength), on account of the greater precision with which the dose may be determined. It is very rapidly absorbed either from the stomach or when administered subcutaneously. It is eliminated by the urine. One of the most characteristic effects of atropia is the dilatation of the pupil, which may take place from -^ of a grain or a corresponding amount of extract of belladonna. The accom- modation of the eye is also paralyzed by it. An eye under its influence is able to see at a distance with perfect distinctness, but near vision, like reading, for instance, is difficult or impossible. A peculiar dryness of the fauces and tongue, and a marked acceleration of the pulse, result from moderate doses, -fa to -fa gr. When larger doses arc taken, delirium, usually of a cheerful or whimsical character, and some- times drowsiness, are added. A certain amount Belladonna. of diuresis, masked by a temporary retention of urine, moisture of the skin, and in rare cases a scarlet efflorescence, are further symptoms. When a poisonous dose has been given, these symptoms increase, and death takes place, with feeble pulse, subsultus, coma or delirium, and sometimes convulsions. It'is somewhat remark- able that rabbits are hardly at all susceptible to the action of belladonna. It is sometimes used medicinally in some spasmodic nervous affections, as epilepsy and chorea; for the relief of pain either of the visceral or cutaneous nerves; in cases of habitual constipation and of incontinence of urine ; and to check certain secretions, especially of the mammary glands, and to prevent suppuration. Its power for the latter purpose cannot be regarded as fully proved. As an anodyne it is inferior to opium. The claims made in its behalf as a preventive of scarlet fever have not been sustained by proof. In ophthalmic surgery it finds, when locally applied, extensive use in dilating the pupil. In poisoning by belladonna, after empty- ing the stomach, tannic acid, or iodine dissolved in water with iodide of potassium, may be used to render comparatively inert any remaining portion of the alkaloid. The caustic alkalies decompose atropia, but only after a few hours' interval ; so that, although they should not be prescribed with it, they cannot be relied upon as antidotes. The antagonism between the physiological effects of belladonna and opium exists only in regard to a portion of the symp- toms, and those not the most important ; but the question as to the efficacy of each as an antidote to the other in cases of poisoning can- not be regarded as definitely settled. In the- rapeutic doses belladonna may be used with opium to avoid some of the unpleasant after effects of the latter drug. BELLAMONT, or BeDomont, Richard Coote, earl of, royal governor of New York and Massachu- setts, born in 1636, died in New York, March 5, 1701. He was the second Baron Coote in the Irish peerage, was a member of parliament, and one of the first to espouse the cause of the prince of Orange. For this he was attainted in 1689, but was in the same year made earl of Bellamont in the Irish peerage by William III., and appointed treasurer and receiver gen- eral to Queen Mary. In May, 1695, he was appointed governor of New York, but did not arrive there till May, 1698, having meantime received a commission also as governor of Mas- sachusetts, to which New Hampshire was ad- joined in 1699. He went from New York to Boston in May, 1699, and was received by 20 companies of soldiers and a vast concourse of people. He took every means to ingratiate himself with the people, and obtained a larger salary than any of his predecessors had been able to get. Though but 14 months in the colony, the grants made to him were 1,875. His administration was occupied in the pursuit of the pirates who infested the coast, one of whom, the notorious Kidd, he secured and sent