POISONOUS HONEY ©F NORTH AMERICA. J7[ 



will collect fo much of this honey as to prove injurious to thofe 



who eat of it. But, in particular places, where this plant has 



been permitted to increafe to a great degree, large quantities 



of honey may be collected from it : and I cannot help fuf- 



pecling that the ufe of this honey may prove injurious *. 



Some of the ancient writers of Greece and Rome have re- Ancient ac- 



lated innances of the deleterious properties of the honey oi counts °f 



_, , ,:. *. ;: r * ■ I- i noxious honer. 



certain countries. the botanift Diofcorides, ipeaking ot the 



rhododendron ponticum, a fpecies of the fame genus to which 

 our mountain laurel belongs, has the following words,: 

 " About Heraclea Poniica, at certain feafons of the year, 

 the honey occafions madnefs in thofe who eat of it j and this 

 is undoubtedly owing to the quality of the flowers from which 

 the honey is diitilled. This honey occafions an abundant 

 fweating, but the patients are eafed by giving them rue, falt- 

 meats, and metheglin, in proportion as they vomit. This 

 honey," continues the Greek botanift, " is very acid, and 

 caufes freezing. It takes away rednefs from the face, when 

 pounded with coftus. Mixed with fait or aloes, it difperfes 

 the black fpots which remain after bruifes. If dogs or fvvine 

 {"wallow the excrements of perfons who have eaten of this 

 honey, they fall into the fame accidents f. 



Pliny has alfo taken notice of this poifonous honey. " In 

 fome years," fays the Roman naturalift, ?' the honey is very 

 dangerous about Heraclea Pontica. It is known to authors 

 from what flowers the bees extract this honey. Here is what 

 we have learned of the matter. In thofe parts, there is a 

 plant called a:golethron, whofe flowers, in a wet fpring, ac- 

 quire a very dangerous quality, when they fade. The honey 

 which the bees make of them is more liquid than ufual, more 

 heavy, and redder. Its fmell caufes fneezing. Thofe who 

 have eaten of it fweat exceflively, lie upon the ground, and 

 call for nothing but cool drinks $". He then makes the very 

 remarks which I have quoted from Diofcorides, whofe words, 

 indeed, as Mr. Tournefort obferves, he feems to have merely 

 tranflated. The following remark, however, appears to be- 



* See the late Dr. Samuel Cooper's inaugural differtation on the 

 properties and effects of the Datura Stramonium, p. 33. Phi- 

 ladelphia, 1797. 



f Diofcorides, as quoted by Mr. Tournefort. 



I C. Plinii Secundi Natmalis Hiftorise, Lib. XXI. cap. xiii. 



long 



