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THE ALUMNI JOURNAL. 



Two who did not swallow the chewed 

 material ' 'suffered from a sore mouth for 

 a few days." The third swallowed a 

 piece as large as an almond and died in 

 convulsions in a few hours. The pulse 

 was 60, full and strong, the pupil dilated, 

 perspiration great, body cold, but head 

 hot. There was much vomiting. 



Dr. W. H. Matchett, Greenville, O., 

 reported in the Cincinnati La?icet and 

 Observer, of 1870, 462, a very instructive 

 case. A woman passing by a ditch 

 which had been dug that day through a 

 swamp, saw some roots projecting which 

 resembled a bunch of sweet potatoes. She 

 carried them home as a curiosity, and 

 after exhibiting them to her friends, 

 threw them into a wood-box behind the 

 kitchen stove. The next day she was 

 engaged in pickling Jerusalem artichokes, 

 and two boys who were running about 

 mistook the Cicuta roots in the wood- 

 box for artichokes and ate them. In less 

 than an hour they were seiztd with con- 

 vulsions and one of them died in two 

 hours. The other was saved by the 

 prompt use of zinc sulphate and decoction 

 of lobelia, but was insensible for three 

 days. In this case there was no sweat- 

 ing, but a cold contracted, pale surface, 

 dilated pupil, convulsions and some 

 diarrhoea. The vomited matter consisted 

 merely of water and foam. There was 

 very great muscular weakness. Reference 

 should here be made to the serious mis- 

 take made by this physician in adminis- 

 tering Lobelia, which is in some ways a 

 synergist to Cicuta. 



The last case of this kind which came 

 under my notice, was one which occurred 

 last spring in the City Hospital at New- 

 ark, New Jersey. Two boys were found 

 by the roadside in a state of partial 

 collapse. They still held in their 

 hands portions of the plant whose root 

 had been eaten in mistake for parsnip. 

 These were planted by the hospital 



physician, Dr. H. Grad, and after grow- 

 ing and flowering, were identified by 

 Prof. B. D. Halsted and myself as those 

 of Cicuta. A fatal result occurred in case 

 of the boy who ate three pieces, while he 

 who ate two pieces survived. 



The active constituent of Cicuta has 

 now been determined as coniine, the 

 well-known active constituent of Conium. 



Mention should be made at this point of 

 the serious confusion which has resulted 

 from the similar common names of several 

 so-called "parsnips. ' ' Thus, the term Water 

 parsnip has been applied to the Heracleum 

 lanatum or Cow-parsnip which has thus 

 become credited with powerfully poison- 

 ous properties, whereas in fact, it appears 

 tobe an excellent aromatic-stimulant, but 

 not at all poisonous. The common wild 

 parsnip, Pastinaca sativa, has in a similar 

 way come to be similarly regarded, but it 

 is probably not at all poisonous, unless it 

 may be through its local irritant proper- 

 ties. 



One more subject will conclude our 

 consideration of poisonous roots, that of 

 a plant the dangerous properties or which 

 have remained unrecognized, or, to say 

 the least, very obscure, to the present 

 time. I refer to the common black-elder 

 or Sambucus Canadensis L,., a plant 

 very common throughout the entire east- 

 ern and central United States, and repre- 

 sented by other species, apparently with 

 similar properties, upon the Pacific Coast 

 and in the old world. Of the last mention- 

 ed, Dr. Robert Christison reports in the 

 Edinburg Medical and Surgical Journal, 

 1830, page 73, as follows: "Two boys in 

 the vicinity of Edinburg encountered a 

 clump of the S. Ebulus, and one of them 

 ate freely of the flowers, the other of the 

 leaves. The boy who had eaten the 

 leaves was attacked with enteritis, the 

 abdomen at length becoming so sore that 

 it could scarcely be touched. There was 

 continuous vomiting, the matter contain- 



