On the action of nitric acid on various vegetables : with a more particular examination of Spartium scoparium, Linn., or common broom / by John Stenhouse.

  • Stenhouse, John, 1809-1880.
Date:
1851
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the action of nitric acid on various vegetables : with a more particular examination of Spartium scoparium, Linn., or common broom / by John Stenhouse. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    20/22 (page 430)
    Calculated numbers. I. II. 15 C 1125-0 31*14 30-77 14 H 175-0 4-84 5-26 N 1752 4'87 Hg 1250-9 34'62 34-08 2 Cl 886-4 24-53 24 22 3612-5 The formula of this salt, therefore, is C15 H13 N, H Cl, Hg Cl. When hydrochlorate of sparteine is added to the solution of bichloride of gold, a double gold salt is produced. It is but slightly soluble either in water or spirits of wine, but it readily dissolves in hot hydrochloric acid, out of which it crystallizes in shining yellow scales. When sparteine is added to a solution of chloride of copper, a green coloured precipitate is produced, which contains sparteine, and is probably a double salt. Similar combinations are also formed with both neutral and basic acetate of lead. Sparteine possesses pretty powerful narcotic properties. When a single drop of it dissolved in acetic acid was administered to a rabbit, it immediately became exceed- ingly excited, and was thrown into a state resembling intoxication. This lasted five or six hours, and during a considerable portion of the time the rabbit remained in a profound sleep, from which it could with difficulty be roused. A similar dose produced the same effects upon a small dog. When four grains of the base were administered to a full-grown rabbit, violent excitement was at first produced; the animal, however, soon fell into a comatose state and expired in the course of three hours, but without exhibiting any violent convulsions. Sparteine appears therefore to be a tolerably strong narcotic poison, though certainly very inferior in this respect to either nicotine or coniine. Though the narcotic effects of broom are not noticed, so far as I am aware, by any medical writer, they have long been familiar to the peasantry. Thus shepherds have observed that, during snow storms, when their sheep were compelled to eat the tops of broom for subsistence, they were apt to become excited and stupified, so that they not unfrequently left their shelter, and, wandering over the snow, they soon fell asleep, and if neglected not unfrequently perished. Scoparine, as I already mentioned, acts as a powerful diuretic; the dose for a grown-up person being from five to six grains repeated three times successively at intervals of four hours. It begins to operate in about twelve hours, and the amount of the urine is considerably more than doubled*. It is plain therefore that in employ- ing a decoction of broom tops, as has hitherto been the practice, the patient is sub- jected to the narcotic influence of the sparteine as well as to the diuretic effects of the scoparine, a result which in general is not likely to be desirable. * I am indebted for the preceding experiments on the physiological effects of sparteine and scoparine, to my friend Dr. Arthur Mitchell of Glasgow, who kindly undertook them at my request.