FKITCTUS CONII. 200 



FRUCTUS CONII. 



Hemlock f nuts ; F. Fruits de Clyae; G. Schlaiiwjsfi'iacht. 



Botanical Ovigin—Conmni macidatiim L., an erect biennial 

 herbaceous plant, flourishing by the sides of fields and streams, and 

 in neglected spots of cultivated ground, throughout temperate Kuropo 

 and Asia. It occurs in Asia Minor and the Mediterranean islands, and 

 has been naturalized in North and South America. But the plant is 

 very unevenly distributed, and in many districts is entirely wanting. 

 It is found in most parts of Britain from Kent and Cornwall to the 

 Orkneys. 



History — ^wvecov, occurring as early as the fourth or fifth 

 century B.C. in the Greek literature, was the plant under notice, at 

 least in most cases. The fcimous hemlock potion of the Greeks by 

 which criminals were put to death^ w^as essentially composed of the 

 juice of this plant. The old Homan name of Conium was Cicaia; it 

 prevails in the mediseval Latin literature, but was applied, about 

 15-il, by Gesner (and probably before him by others) to Ciciifa vlrosa 

 L., another umbelliferous plant which is altogether wanting in Greece 

 and in Southern Europe generally, and does not contain any poisonous 

 alkaloid. To avoid the confusion arising from the same appellation 

 given to these widely different and quite dissimilar plants, Linnrcu.s, in 

 1737, restoring the classical Greek name, called it Conium maculatum.' 



Hemlock was used in Anglo-Saxon medicine. It is mentioned as 

 early as the 10th century in the vocabulary of Alfric, archl)ishop of 

 Canterbury, as " Glcwta, liemlic,'" and also in the Meddygon Myd<lfai. 

 Hemlock is derived from the Anglo-Saxon words " hem," border, shore, 

 and "leac" leek. Its use in modern medicine is due chiefly to the 

 reconmiendation of Storck of Vienna, since whose time (1700) the plant 

 bas been much employed. The extreme uncertainty and even inertness 



caused its rejection by many, have been recently investigated by 

 Harley.* The careful experiments of this physician show what are the 

 real powers of the drug, and by what method its active properties may 

 be utilized. 



Description— The fruit has the structure usual to the order; it is 

 broadly ovoid, somewhat compressed laterally, and constricted towards 

 the commissure, attenuated towards the apex, which is crowned ^vith a 

 depressed stylopodium. As met with in the shops, it consists ot the 

 separated mericarps which are about ^ of an inch long, ihe dorsal 

 surface of these has 5 prominent longitudinal ridges, the edges ot which 

 are marked with little protuberances giving them a jagged or crenate 

 outline, which is most conspicuous before the fruits arc fully ripe. 1 lie 

 furrows are glabrous but slightly wrinkled longitudinally; they are 



' See Iiubert-Gourbeyre, De la mart de first part) 155-203 and lii. (1877) first part, 



'I^^St, tSS,/JrKf e'S ''"«■-"«."». viii. (.SOT, 4C0.T.0 , i.. 



*"* <itu ral:,tes de Moscou, tome li. {1876. (18G8) 53. 



