A patient of mine had been suffering from hypertrophy of one breast with pain, for which I had ordered the external application of glycerinum belladonnae, 50 per cent. of which consists of ext. belladonnae. Some weeks later, suffering from a cough, she obtained a bottle of “Baxter’s Lung-preserver.” Unfortunately for the woman, the two solutions are somewhat similar in appearance, and were put up in bottles of similar size, though the former bore a poison-label. One night, to soothe her cough, she drank from one of the bottles, without measuring it, some of what she supposed was the cough-mixture, but which she immediately afterwards discovered was the poison. The amount of glycerine of belladonna which the patient drank is uncertain, but was probably between one drachm and four drachms. Her husband soon after administered an emetic of mustard and salt with warm water, which produced vomiting.

I arrived on the scene about half an hour after the dose was taken, and found the patient sitting up in bed flushed and excited, with moderately dilated pupils, “a mist before the eyes,” dry mouth, and a burning pain in the stomach, a symptom probably due to the mustard. Using an oesophageal tube and warm water, I washed out the stomach. The first washing was green in colour, and evidently contained the green extract of belladonna. No antidote was administered, and no fresh symptoms developed. On the second day afterwards the sight was normal and the patient in her usual health.