160 



roiaoNous honey op north amerIca. 



Symptoms pro- 

 duced by dele- 

 terious honey* 



induce the fame ftate of the body, when it is eaten in large 

 quantities, or when it meets with an irritable flate of the 

 bowels. 



The honey which I call deleterious or poifonous honey, pro- 

 duces, as far as I have learned, the following fy mptoms, or 

 effects : viz. in the beginning, a dimnefs of light or vertigo, 

 fucceeded by .a delirium # , which isfomelimes mild and plea- 

 fant, and fometimes ferocious; ebriety, pain in the ftomach 

 and inteflines, convulfions, profufe perfpiration, foaming at 

 the mouth, vomiting, and purging ; and, in a few inflances, 

 death. In fome perfons, a vomiting is the firfl effect of the 

 poifon. When this is the cafe, it is probable, that the per- 

 fons fuffer much lefs from the honey than when no vomiting 

 is induced. Sometimes, the honey has been obferved to pro- 

 duce a temporary palfy of the limbs ; an effect which I have 

 remarked, in animals that have eaten of one of thofe very ve- 

 getables f from whole flowers the bees obtain a pernicious 

 honey. 

 Tbey arc feldom Death is very feldom the confequence of the eating of this 

 kind of honey j. The violent impreffion which it makes upon 

 the flomach and inteflines often induces an early vomiting or 

 purging, which are both favourable to the fpeedy recovery of 

 the fufferer. The fever which it excites is frequently relieved, 

 In a fliort time, by the profufe perfpiration, and perhaps by 

 the foaming at the mouth. I may add, that as the human 

 ' conftitution refifts, to an aflonifhing degree, the effects of the 

 narcotick and other poifonous vegetables that are belt known 

 to us, fo we need not wonder, that it alfo refifts the effects 

 of the deleterious honey, which is procured from fuch vege- 

 tables. 



fatal 



* An intelligent friend of mine related to me the cafe of a perfon 

 who, for a thort time, was feverely afFecled from the eating of wild 

 honey, in Virginia. He imagined that a perfon feized him rudely 

 by one arm, and then by the other. After this, he fell into con- 

 vulfions, from which, however, he recovered, in about an hour. 

 It was imagined that this honey was obtained from a kind of poifon- 

 ous mufhroom. 



f The Kalmia latifolia. 



% We fliall afterwards fee, that not one of Xenophon's men died 

 from the deleterious honey which they had eaten, in large quantities, 

 on the mores of the Euxine-Sea. 



It 



