Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VIII.djvu/635

 HELLE flELLE, in Greek legends, a daughter of Athamas, king of Thebes, by the goddess Ne- phele. When her brother Phrixus was about to be sacrificed, the mother rescued him, and lacing the two children on the back of the am with the golden fleece, which she had re- ceived from Mercury, fled with them to Asia ; but between Sigeum and the Chersonesus Helle fell into the sea, and thenceforward that part of it was called Hellespontus, the sea of Helle. HELLEBORE, in pharmacy, the roots of the arious species of the genus helleborus, of the atural order ranunculacece, and of the vera- um album and V. mride, natural order melan- acece, now considered a suborder of liliacece. HELLEBOEE 621 Black Hellebore (TIelleborus niger). The black hellebore, helleborus niger, is a plant growing wild in the mountainous parts of southern and central Europe, and culti- vated in gardens for the sake of its beautiful rose-like flowers, which bloom in midwinter and give to the plant the name of the Christ- mas rose. In the United States its time of blooming is very early in spring. The fibres of the roots are used for preparing the extract, decoction, or tincture. They are exceedingly acrid and burning to the taste, and when fresh produce inflammation and even vesication on being applied to the skin. They are irritant to all mucous membranes with which they may be brought in contact. The extract is a drastic purgative and emetic, but it is now seldom prescribed, except as an emmenagogue. Gradual paralysis and convulsions are among its poisonous eifects upon the human system. Until the discovery of the H. orientalis it was supposed to be the same that furnished the black hellebore or melampodium, a famous medicine with the ancient Greeks and Eo- mans, who used it in the belief that it gave clearness and activity to the mental faculties ; and the most celebrated philosophers are said to have drunk its infusion for this purpose. It was also employed in mania, dropsy, and va- ious other affections. H. fcetidus, or bear's ? oot, is a perennial European plant of extreme- ly acrid properties, a powerful emetic and ca- thartic, and long used in Great Britain as a do- mestic remedy for worms. It has even been known to cause the expulsion of the tapeworm. White hellebore is the rhizoma of veratrum album, an herbaceous plant indigenous to the Alps and Pyrenees, and imported from Ger- many. Its virtue resides in the alkaloid vera- tria, which however is usually obtained from the seeds of veratrum sabadilla, growing in Mexico. This alkaloid, which has the formula iHsaNaOie, is a powerful irritant when ap- plied externally, and when absorbed dimin- ishes the activity of the heart and the irritabil- ity of the nerves and muscles. It is also emetic and cathartic. It is seldom used in medicine except as an external application, in the form of an ointment, in gout, rheumatism, and neu- ralgia. It has of late become an important horticultural appliance, as it is found to be the most effective destroyer of the currant worm, abraxas ribearia, which in some localities defo- liates the plants and destroys the crop of fruit. The powdered white hellebore is sifted upon the leaves, or stirred with water and applied White Hellebore (Veratrum album). with a syringe. American hellebore is the rhi- zoma of V. viride, or Indian poke, a common plant in the swamps and meadows of the north- ern and middle states. It resembles the Euro- pean species in its violent action as an emetic, and also in stimulating the secretions. It acts powerfully upon the nervous system, producing vertigo and dimness of vision, arid dilating the pupils. The frequency and force of the pulse are diminished under its influence. By careful management it may be used for reducing the pulse in inflammatory diseases without the un- pleasant effects just mentioned. Its action is supposed to depend upon two alkaloids, vera- troidia, very similar to if not identical with