Berton Roueche in his book "The Medical Detectives" [Washington Square
Press 1982] wrote of a case from October 28, 1963 in Caney Valley
Tennessee where 5 people became weirdly ill after eating a tomato that
was grown on a tomato plant grated onto a Jimson weed. The grower was
trying to produce a late frost-resistant tomato. Which it was, but it
nearly killed him. Jimson weed, like tomatoes and Irish potatoes and
nightshade are all members of Solanaceae.

His book is derived from his columns "Annals of Medicine" in the New
Yorker, and the original column was from 1965.

Well done, Bill! I just happened to have the book on the shelf so I
could look it up, but you remembered the name of the column, the
periodical and nearly the right decade!

David.

Salmon Egg wrote:

On 1/27/06 3:35 PM, in article ,
"V_coerulea" wrote:


And as for grafting onto locoweed as mentionned elsewhere in this thread,
now that's crazy! Either he's pulling everyone's leg or he knows nothing
about grafting.


Loco weed also known as jimson weed is related to nightshade plants such as
tomatoes or tobacco. IIRC, it was done as a lark. Check out the Annals of
Medicine in the New Yorker of at least 30 years ago.

Bill

-- Ferme le Bush