r24 FLORA HISTORICA. 



\\ith the greatest caution into the garden, since we 

 find that some persons, only by taking in the effluvia 

 •of the herb in full flower by the nostrils, have been 

 seized with swooning fits, and have lost their sight 

 for two or three days. 



The root of plants in general is the most power- 

 ful part, and as some of the species of Aconitum 

 l^ave roots which resemble those of the horse-radish, 

 accidents of a terrible nature have occurred from 

 mistaking the one for the other, for a small por- 

 tion is sufficient to cause instant death. Matthiolus 

 relates that a criminal was put to death by taking 

 only one drachm of this root. Dodonaeus gives us 

 an instance which occured in his time, of five per- 

 sons at Antwerp, who ate of this root by mistake, 

 and all died. Dr. Turner also mentions that some 

 Trench men at the same place, eating the shoots of 

 this plant for jMasterwort, all died in the course of 

 two days, except two players, who were saved by 

 emetics. Gerard tells us of a surgeon named 

 Matthews, of Boston in Lincolnshire, who, hav- 

 ing found a root that had been grubbed up before 

 the leaves appeared, was induced to bite it, so as to 

 ascertain what it was, and it took such an instant 

 effect upon him as to deprive him of speech, even 

 before he could get a remedy, and that his life was 

 only saved by immediate apj)lication to powerful 

 medicines. We read in the Philosophical Trans- 



