Curtis Johnson wrote in a message to Wayne Chirnside:

 -=> Quoting Wayne Chirnside to Charles Angelich <=-

 WC> BTW, there is a legitimate use of atropine outside of nerve 
 WC> agents and that's interrum treatment of poisonous snake bite.
 WC> I'd forgotten about that one and that is odd as Florida has 
 WC> three of four poisonous snakes to be found in the U.S.
 WC> and I'm allergic to atropine.

 CJ>    Another legitimate use is for opthamologists to drop into the
 CJ> eyes to dilate the pupil.   The herb belladonna has a bit of
 CJ> atropine in it, so despite the dangers of dosage it was used 
 CJ> cosmetically to dilate the pupils, hence the name for the herb--
 CJ> "beautiful lady."

I didn't know that was what they used to do those checks (my optometrist
uses something of the sort,  and yes I know the difference between that and
an opthamologist :-).  We had an appointment a while back where my other
half got an exam and ended up with a new pair of glasses that she's happy
with,  and that dilation was a part of it.  Went out for dinner later that
night,  and in listening to her descriptions of some of the visual effects,
 I connected that with descriptions I'd heard of some of the effects of
hallucinogens.  Extreme pupil dilation being one of the
"symptoms" of the use of those drugs,  I'd never connected the
visual stuff with an actual effect caused by the dilation until then...

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