AMERICAN 
MEDICAL BOTANY. 
—— 
CONTUM MACULATUM. 
Hemlock. 
PLATE XI. 
A puant bearing the name of Conium, zwveov, 
has been noted as a poison from remote antiquity. In 
consequence of the power which it possessed when 
given in suflicient quantities, of destroying life in 
a certain and almost immediate manner, it was 
used at Athens as a mode of execution for those 
condemned to death by the tribunal of Areopagus. 
Socrates and Phocion were among the distinguished 
ancients, who suffered death by the agency of this 
mortal poison. ‘The accounts which have been 
left respecting it would lead us to believe that its 
operation was speedy, and unattended with any 
violent or long protracted suffering. It was not 
only employed as an instrument of public execu-_ 
