140 Flint's natural histoet. [Book XXV. 



order to ensure insensibility to the pain.''^ Indeed, for this last 

 purpose, with some persons, the odour of it is quite sufficient 

 to induce sleep. The juice is taken also as a substitute for 

 hellebore, in doses of two oboli, in honied wine : hellebore, 

 however, is more efficacious as an emetic, and as an evacuant 

 of black bile. 



CHAP. 95. HEMLOCK 1 THIRTEEN EEMEDIES. 



Hemlock,'^ too, is a poisonous plant, rendered odious by the 

 use made of it by the Athenian people, as an instrument of 

 capital punishment: still, ''^ however, as it is employed for 

 many useful purposes, it must not be omitted. It is the seed 

 that is noxious, the stalk being eaten by many people, either 

 green, or cooked'^ in the saucepan. This stem is smooth, 

 jointed like a reed, of a swarthy hue, often as much as two 

 cubits^n height, and branchy at the top. The leaves are like 

 those of coriander, only softer, and possessed of a powerful 

 odour. The seed is more substantial than that of anise, and 

 the root is hollow and never used. The seed and leaves are 

 possessed of refrigerating properties ; indeed, it is owing to 

 these properties that it is so fatal, the cold chills with which it 

 is attended commencing at the extremities. The great remedy'® 

 for it, provided it has not reached the vitals, is wine, which is 

 naturally of a warming tendency ; but if it is taken in wine, 

 it is irremediably fatal. 



A juice is extracted from the leaves and flowers ; for it is 

 at the time of its blossoming that it is in its full vigour. The 

 seed is crushed, and the juice extracted from it is left to 

 thicken in the sun, and then divided into lozenges. This 



'2 In the same way that chloroform is now administered. 



"^3 "Cicuta." Identified with the Conium maculatum of Linn^us, 

 Common hemlock or Keghs. It grows in the vicinity of Athens, and pro- 

 bably formed the basis of the poisons with which that volatile people "re- 

 compensed," as Fee remarks, the virtues and exploits of their philosophers 

 and generals, Socrates, Phocion, and Philopoemen, are said to have been 

 poisoned with hemlock ; but in the case of Socrates, it was probably com- 

 bined with opium and other narcotics. See B. xiv. cc. 7, 28, andB. xxiii. 

 c. 23. 



''* He has more than once stated, that it is not his object to enter into 

 a description of poisons. 



■?* Fee doubts if it is possible to eat it, boiled even, with impunity. 



■Js See B. xiv. cc. 7, 28, and B. xxiii. c 23. 



