After the death of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s character Dimmesdale from the book the Scarlet Letter, there have been many theories about the cause of his death. Some literary analyzers claim that his guilt was the cause of his death. Others say that Roger Chillingworth, a physician, poisoned him with Atropine and Scopolamine. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s book The Scarlet Letter, Dimmesdale’s guilt appears to be the cause of his death, but his symptoms point towards Atropine and Scopolamine poisoning.
Atropa belladona: The Deadly Nightshade What might a person bothered with intense gas, or flatulence to be blunt, do in today's society? Perhaps they would visit a type of "health food store" for a type of common natural remedy. Often, the mangers at such stores recommend that comphrey tea be taken to relieve the problem. However, after taking just such a concoction of the tea powder and water, one man became light-headed, agitated, confused and had problems urinating. His pupils became dilated
History and Significance Atropine has been in use for centuries, however its medicinal capability has not always been known. Atropine is found naturally in a few plants most notably the infamous Atropa Belladonna, or deadly night shade. As its name implies, deadly night shade is a poisonous plant of which atropine is one of the main poisons. Atropine was first isolated from jimson weed, a more common plant than deadly nightshade, by Greiger and Hesse in 1833. Atropine is extracted commercially from
belonging to the Solanaceae family, commonly known as nightshades, may be encountered in the wild. The plant encyclopedia Den nordiska floran (lit. “the Nordic flora”) lists henbane (Hyoscyamus niger), Jimson weed (Datura stramonium) and belladona (Atropa belladonna). Hemp plants (Cannabaceae) are also part of the Swedish landscape, and even though it is rarely seen, Cannabis sativa may be found growing in railway yards, in harbours and in abandoned places. To what extent these mushrooms and plants have
stramonium, most common in North America. Datura belongs to the family Solanaceae, the nightshades, which Includes some 2,400 species in total (Siegel 1989:36). Other plants with narcotic properties in this family are mandrake (Mandrogora), belladonna (Atropa), henbane (Hyoscyamus), and tobacco (Nicotiana). Appropriately called the "paradoxical plants" by Heiser, this family also includes such common food plants as the tomato, potato, and eggplant (Safford 1922:539). There seems to be some disagreement
The legalization of marijuana is a smoldering topic that sparks a debate anytime someone brings up the controversial subject. It is listed on the top of the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) drug schedule listing as a controlled Schedule I substance. According to the DEA, “Schedule I drugs, substances, or chemicals are defined as drugs with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse. Schedule I drugs are the most dangerous drugs of all the drug schedules with
Since the birth of mankind there has been a close relationship between life, disease and plants. Ancient men started studying the diseases and treatments. There is no evidence till today that the prehistoric man had used synthetic drugs for their ailments, but proofs are there for the usage of things they could easily get for these kinds of problem. The common thing what they can procure easily for these ailments were from plants and animals. They found out that majority of flora were useful as