CONIUM MACULATUM. 
leaves ; the taste is slightly bitter and nauseous. They are 
easily pulverized, and the powder should retain the beautiful 
green color of the leaves, The acrimony only of the fresh 
leaves is lost in drying, but the narcotic principle remains 
uninjured if the operation be well performed. The virtues of 
Conium MacuLatum are extracted by alcohol and sulphuric 
ether. To the ether it communicates a very deep green color, 
and when the tincture is evaporated on the surface of water 
a rich dark green resin remains, in which the narcotic princi- 
ple of the plant appears to reside; it contains the odor and 
taste in perfection, and half a grain produces headache and a 
slight vertigo. Dr. A. T. Thomson discovered this principle, 
to which Dr. Paris proposes to give the name of concin. Dr. 
Brandes has discovered a_ particular principle of alkaline 
nature, which he terms cicutine, of a green color, insoluble in 
=s and in doses of half a grain causing vertigo and head- 
ache. 
Hemlock is a powerful narcotic, and is used as such both 
internally and as an external application. It has long been 
employed as a medicine of great efficacy, and although we 
are indebted to Baron Stoerck, of Vienna, for bringing it into 
general notice, yet he rated its powers too high, and the 
multitude of discordant diseases to which he enumerated it 
as beneficial, led many sober men to doubt its efficacy alto- 
gether. Hemlock is nevertheless a useful narcotic, and is 
advantageously applied as a palliative in many complaints 
not curable by any other medicine. It is found serviceable 
in chronic rheumatism, in scrofulous, syphilitic, and other 
ill-conditioned ulcers and glandular tumors, in pertussic, and 
the protracted cough, which is very troublesome, and often 
remains after pneumonic inflammation. 
The leaves of this plant are strongly poisonous; many in- 
stances of their fatal effects which have occurred in this and 
other countries are on record. The root of hemlock, however, 
_ does not appear to possess any noxious power. Mr. Curtis, 
in the Flora Londinensis, expressly states that they have been 
eaten in the recent state, and also boiled in considerable 
quantities, without occasioning any inconvenience. An over- 
dose of hemlock produces sickness, vertigo, delirium, dilatation 
_ of the pupils, great anxiety, stupor, and convulsions. ‘The 
best antidote is vinegar, after the stomach has been evacu- 
ated and the cerebral excitement reduced by bleeding and 
purging. 
__ The best mode of exhibiting hemlock is the dried leaves in 
the form of powder; dose three grains, gradually increasing 
_ ‘it every day until a slight vertigo forbids its further increase. 
___ Its operation usually commences in less than half an hour, 
