6o On the poisonous HONEY 



II. The kalmia latifolia, known in the United States 

 by the names of laurel, great-laurel, wintergreen, fpoon- 

 haunch, fpoon-wood, &c. is alfo a poifon. Its leaves, 

 indeed, are eaten, with impunity, by the deer,* and by 

 the round-horned elk.f But they are poifonous to 

 iheep, to horned-cattle and to horfes. In the former of 

 thefe animals, they produce convulfions, foaming at the 

 mouth, and death. Many of General Bradock's horfes 

 were deftroyed by eating the leaves and the twigs of this 

 fhrub, in the month of June 1755, a few days before 

 this unfortunate General's defeat and death. Inthefevere 

 winter of the years 1790 and 1791, there appeared to 

 be fuch unequivocal reafons for believing that feveral 

 perfons, in Philadelphia, had died in confequence of 

 their eating our pheafant,J in whofe crops the leaves 

 and buds of the kalmia latifolia were found, that the 

 mayor of the city thought it prudent and his duty, to 

 warn the people againfl: the ufe of this bird, by a publick 

 proclamation. I know that by many perfons, efpecially 

 by fome lovers of pheafant-flefh, the circumftancc juft 

 mentioned, was fuppofed to be deftitute of foundation. 

 But the foundation was a folid one. This might be 

 fhown by feveral well-authenticated fadls. It is fufficient 

 for my prefent purpofe to obferve, that the colledtion of 

 a deleterious honey from the flowers of this fpecies of 

 kalmia gives fome countenance to the opinion, that the 

 flelli ofpheafants that had eaten of the leaves and buds 

 of this plant may have been impregnated with a per- 

 nicious quality.§ 



I have 



* Cervus Virginianus of Gmelin. 



•j- Cervus Wapiti, mihi. 



i Tetrao Cupido of Linnaeus. 



§ It is not a new fufpicion, that the flefli of animals that have eaten 

 of the leaves, &c. of deleterious vegetables is fometimes endued with a 

 poifonous property. Georg. H. Wehchius, a very learned German writer, 



quoted 



