MONOCOTYLEDONS 1 67 



able odour, they are not spontaneously eaten by 

 animals ; and they have never been known to cause 

 death, as they quickly refuse them. Pigs which had 

 eaten the tubers suffered, but none died ; though 

 it acts as an irritant and purgative. 



In the case of little children who have died from 

 eating the fruit, cramps and convulsions preceded 

 death, with great internal pains and a sensation of 

 burning. Indeed death has followed from the 

 tenth to the twentieth hour after eating the 

 poisonous fruit, when medical interference has 

 been too late. The rhizome or tuber was formerly 

 used by medical practitioners as a purgative, but it 

 is now abandoned. 



Besides their actual poisonous properties, the 

 cells of the succulent fruit abound with needle-like 

 crystals of calcium oxalate, sufficient to irritate the 

 tongue when a broken berry is placed upon it. In 

 a case of three children who had eaten some of 

 the berries, their tongues became so swollen as 

 to render swallowing difficult, when convulsions 

 followed, and two died, but one recovered. 



Arum italicum, found in the Isle of Wight, is a 

 Mediterranean variety, and has the same poisonous 

 properties. 



Though the root is very acrid, yet its poisonous 

 properties are destroyed by heat, and it then forms 

 a nutritious food. In Dorsetshire, in the Isle of 

 Portland, the plant being particularly abundant, 



