Introduction - Uppsala Monitoring Centre

e equally evident that opiates must be commonly hurtful. An
acknowledgement of its constipating qualities (Cullen, 1789).
‘The New Family Herbal; or, domestic physician’ by William Meyrick,
surgeon, Birmingham.
Opium: ‘It promotes perspiration and sweat, but checks all other
evacuations…An overdose of opium occasions either immoderate
mirth or stupidity, redness of the face, swelling of the lips, relaxations
of the joints, giddiness of the head, deep sleep, accompanied with
turbulent dreams and convulsive starting, cold sweats and frequently
death.’
White Hellebore: ‘It operates both upwards and downwards with
great violence, and has sometimes brought on convulsions and other
alarming symptoms. It has been remarked to affect the upper part of
the throat, in a very peculiar manner, causing a kind of strangulation,
or suffocation, with extreme pain and anxiety.’
Henbane: ‘Madness, convulsions and death’.
1790 ‘Medical Botany’: by William Woodville containing systematic and
general descriptions, with plates of all the medicinal plants,
indigenous and exotic, comprehended in the catalogues of the
materia medica, as published by the Royal Colleges of Physicians of
London and Edinburgh. London: Printed and sold for the author, by
James Phillips ... 1790–1793 Published in three parts and a
supplement by the Cumberland physician William Woodville (1752–
1805) between 1790 and 1795.
Henbane: ‘Dr Patoullat… relates that nine persons, in
consequence of having eaten the roots of hyoscyamus, were seized
with most alarming symptoms: “some were speechless, and showed
no other signs of life than by convulsions, contortions of their limbs
and the risus sardonicus; all having their eyes starting out of their
heads, and their mouths drawn backwards on both sides; others had
all the symptoms alike; however five of them did now and then open
their mouths, but it was to utter howlings…. And what is remarkable..
that on their recovery, all objects appeared to them as red as scarlet,
for two or three days”… ‘ Henbane is poisonous to birds and dogs;
but horses, cows, goats and swine it does not affect.’
Hellebore: ‘a scruple of the extract brought on violent spasms and
convulsions.’ (Woodville, 1790).
1793 ‘An inquiry into the nature and properties of Opium wherein its
component principles, mode of operation, and use or abuse in
particular disease, are experimentally investigated, and the opinions