Conium.

The leaves of Conium maculatum.—Europe.

Preparations.—Tincture of Conium. Extract of Conium.

Dose.—From the fraction of a drop to five drops of the tincture. Of the extract, gr. 1/8 to gr. 1/4.

Therapeutic Action.—Hemlock is narcotic, antispasmodic, sedative, alterative, and resolvent. It is a very powerful narcotic, and when administered in large or poisonous doses, it produces vertigo, dilated pupils, impaired vision, delirium, convulsions, coma, difficulty of speech, tremors, paralysis, and ultimately death. Its modus operandi is not exactly understood. On examinations made upon the bodies of those animals destroyed by hemlock, venous congestions, congestions of the cerebral vessels and a fluid condition of the blood, are appearances occasionally presented.

It is sometimes used as an anodyne and hypnotic in painful glandular enlargements, scirrhous and cancerous ulcers, nocturnal and syphilitic pains, rheumatism, neuralgia, etc., with evident advantage. Enlargement of the viscera, as the liver, spleen, pancreas, mesenteric glands, scrofulous tumors, carcinomatous affections of the breasts, testicles, uterus, and other internal organs, tertiary syphilis, foul and painful ulcers, indurations of glands, obstinate cutaneous diseases, as lepra, herpes, elephantiasis, chronic catarrh, phthisis, bronchocele, etc., are a few of the numerous diseases and cachectic and depraved states of the system in which the hemlock has and may be administered, with a view either to its palliative or curative action.

The American Eclectic Materia Medica and Therapeutics, 1898, was written by John M. Scudder, M.D.