VEGETABLE P O I S O 1^ S. 47 . 



of hemlock may be found in ihahy other au- 

 thors *. 



It is now generally underftood that the 

 Athenian poifon (cicuta -f ), of which So- 

 crates periflied, was certainly not the plant 

 we call hemlock. It muft either have been 

 the cicuta aquatica, or the oenanthc, fucco 

 virofo. 



Some have imagined, particularly Dr, 

 Mead, that the celebrated poifon of Athens, 

 with which condemned criminals were put 

 to death, was a compofition |, 



It is anciently recorded of the people of 

 Marfeilles, that they had a poiibn kept by 

 the public, in which cicuta was only an in- 

 gredient^ a dofe of which was allowed by 

 the magiftrates to any one who could fliew a 

 reafon why he (hould defire death. This 

 very Angular cuftom, Valerius Maximus ob- 

 ferves, came from Greece, particularly from 



* Matthiolus, Scaliger, fcircher, Boccone, &c. 



t Cicuta quoque venenum eft, publica Athenienfium 

 poena invifa. Plin. 26, 13. 



X Mead's Works, 4to Edit. p. in. 



the 



