IHK ALUMNI JOURNAL, 



3i3 



especially because its fleshy rhizomes 

 possess a dangerously attractive, sweetish 

 taste. This subject will be referred to 

 again in considering flowers. 



Veratrum viride Ait., Indian Poke or 

 Green Hellebore, is a well known medi- 

 cinal agent and has occasioned numerous 

 poisoning accidents when given in over- 

 doses for medicinal purposes. The 

 nature of the poisoning, as well as the 

 appearance of the plant, will be consider- 

 ed under herbs, but mention is here made 

 of its conspicuous, fleshy, vertical, ob- 

 ovoid rhizome and fleshy roots, which 

 might easily chance to be eaten for some- 

 thing else, or else under a misapprehen- 

 sion or in ignorance of their properties. 



The poisonous properties of the com- 

 mon Locust tree, Robinia Pseudacacia 

 L., and probably of other species of the 

 genus also, will be considered under 

 barks, but it is well to note here that its 

 small roots have a thick succulent bark 

 which has been made an article of con- 

 sumption by boys, with serious results 

 following. Dr. Johnson records the fact 

 that such cases have resulted fatally, with 

 symptoms very similar to those of Bella- 

 donna poisoning. 



We come now to consider by far the 

 most poisonous member of this class, the 

 Cicuta maculata L., a root which has not 

 only destroyed more lives than all the 

 other"* which I have named combined, 

 but which doubtless averages at least one 

 victim a year in some part of the ex- 

 tensive area over which it grows in this 

 country. It has moreover relatives 

 abroad and elsewhere in this country, 

 especially the C. virosa, which are 

 equally pernicious. These species to- 

 gether furnish a page in the history of 

 vegetable toxicology which is exceeded 

 in point of importance by very few plants. 

 It grows throughout the entire United 

 States, with C. virosa extending north- 

 ward and C. Californica upon the western 



coast. It occurs in swamps and other 

 wet places, but very rarely upon high 

 ground. During the early summer the 

 salt marshes in the vicinity of this city, 

 the swamps along the Hudson and upon 

 Long Island and Staten Island, and all 

 similar locations, are whitened with it. 

 It is commonly known as Water-parsnip 

 or Water-hemlock, and is also known as 

 Spotted Cow-bane, Musquash-root and 

 Beaver- poison. The important part of 

 the plant for our consideration is the root, 

 which is fascicled, fleshy-thickened and 

 fusiform. It looks like a miniature fas- 

 cicle of Dahlia roots and slightly like 

 those of the Helianthus tuberosus or 

 Jerusalem Artichoke. The individual 

 roots are generally only an inch or an 

 inch and a half in length and about half 

 an inch in diameter, though they are 

 sometimes double this size. Poisoning 

 bv it has almost always occurred in the 

 spring, when children have a greater ten- 

 dency than at other times to roam the 

 woods and swamps, are more readily at- 

 tracted to growing objects and, starved 

 by the winter's abstinence from succulent 

 foods, are ready to experiment upon any- 

 thing which looks inviting. A few cases 

 are here given in order to indicate the 

 characteristics attending poisoning by it. 



Dr. Richard Hazeltine.of Lynn, Mass.,. 

 has reported in the New England Jour- 

 nal of Medicine a case resulting in prompt 

 death, the root having been identified 

 by the celebrated botanist Dr. Bigelow. 

 The symptoms were tremors, violent 

 contractions and relaxations of the mus- 

 cles, widely dilated pupils, astonishing 

 mobility of the eye-ball and eye-lashes, 

 bloody frothing of the mouth and nose, 

 epilepsy, and after death a peculiar 

 greenish fluid in the stomach and exud- 

 ing from the mouth. 



Dr. S. J. Little, of Logan, 0-, recorded 

 in the Cincinnati Clinic, 1875, 49, the 

 case of three boys who ate of these roots. 



