Note 565 — PART VI.—ALKALOIDS AND POISONOUS VEGETABLE PRINCIPLES SEPARATED FOR THE MOST PART BY ALCOHOLIC SOLVENTS. (continued 5)

Köhnhorn, Vierteljahrsschr. f. ger. Med., 1876, n. F. xxiv. p. 402.

[566] There is an interesting case on record, in which a woman died from the expressed juice of digitalis. She was twenty-seven years of age, and took a large unknown quantity of the freshly expressed juice for the purpose of relieving a swelling of the limbs. The symptoms came on almost immediately, she was very sick, and was attacked by a menorrhagia. These symptoms continued for several days with increasing severity, but it was not until the fifth day that she obtained medical assistance. She was then found semi-comatose, the face pale, pulse slow, epigastrium painful on pressure, diarrhœa, and hiccough were frequent. She died on the twelfth day. The post-mortem appearances showed nothing referable to digitalis save a few spots of inflammation on the stomach.—Caussé, Bull. de Thérapeutique, vol. lvi. p. 100; Brit. and For. Med. Chir. Review, vol. xxvi., 1860, p. 523.