222 FLORA HOMCOPATHICA. 
Phocion was poisoned by Kaveov (Plutarch’s Lives); but it 
appears that the Greeks were in the habit of calling poisons 
by this name, as we find the words mew xwvsiov, to drink poison 
(Lys. c. Eratosth.) ; xwvev wexauora, having drunk poison (Plato, 
Lys., 219). Dr. Adams (Append. Dunb. Gr. Lex.) says there 
can be no doubt that it was by a decoction of this plant that 
Socrates was put to death (see Macer, lib. i. c. 8). Haller 
considers it to be the extract of Cicuta virosa. It is also to 
be noticed that Plato, in his description of the poison, does 
not give any particular name, but uses the very general 
term ®aguaxov, which denotes a strong potion, either poi- 
sonous or medicinal. The Latins called the Hemlock Cicuta, 
a general term used for many umbelliferous poisonous plants ; 
and Lamarck censures Linneus for having changed the name 
to Conium, forgetting that Linnzus was only restoring the 
ancient term; the word Cicuta being entirely of Latin origin, 
and unknown to the Greeks. 
Many Latin authors refer to Cicuta in their writings; and 
Lucretius (lib. v. ver. 897) exemplifies our old English proverb, 
“what is one man’s meat is another man’s poison,” in the lines 
relating to this plant— 
**Pinguescere seepe Cicuta, 
Barbigeras pecudes, homini que est acre venenum.” 
It was employed for medicinal purposes in early times. Dios- 
corides used it as acollyrium mixed with wine, and as a cataplasm 
in herpes and erysipelas, and as an anaphrodisiac. Pliny (Nad. 
Hist., b. xxvi. c. 16) says the leaves keep down all tumours, 
appease pain, and cure watery eyes; and Anaxilaus states that 
the mamme, ‘anointed with the juice, never grow afterwards, 
“et incrementa mammarum et testium cohibere” (Areteus de 
— Morb. Acut., lib. ii. c. 2.) Avicenna praises it as a remedy 
for tumours of the breasts. He says (lib. ii. p. 662) it stops 
bleeding, congeals the blood, and induces lepra. Baron 
Stérek was the first person who introduced it to any extent as 
