Hyperpyrexia in Datura Poisoning

Three adult patients, two of whom were brothers and the third their uncle, were brought to my dispensary. They said that they had taken together some home-made sattu (flour of fried wheat and gram made into paste with sugar) in the morning, and since then were feeling very dizzy. They had come to the dispensary within one hour after their breakfast of sattu. Although no foul play was suspected, they complained of gradual insensibility creeping over them. Zinc sulphate grs. xxx was promptly given to each of them by mouth and their stomachs were thoroughly and repeatedly washed out. Of the two brothers, the elder rapidly recovered except that he occasionally exhibited some nervousness. The remaining two patients, however, showed no signs of improvement and so the magistrate was called in to take their depositions but their speech had become quite incoherent by the time the magistrate arrived and hende he could not question them. Both of them gradually exhibited symptoms of datura poisoning, as described in a textbook. There was dryness of the throat and a very wide and equal dilatation of the pupils and congestion of the conjunctiva}. There was also the typical picking at the bed clothes and pulling of imaginary threads from the ends of the fingers. The speech became incoherent. This was followed by muttering delirium which deepened into coma. The