VEGETABLE POISONS. 53 



pain. Hemlock, like opium, lelTens morbid 

 irritability in a very remarkable degree, but, 

 like opium, it does not occafion coftivenefs. 



FoNjANUs * aflures us, that a patient 

 recovering from the plague, and being un- 

 able to get any fleep, had recourfe to cicuta 

 with good efFedl. The remedy after fome 

 time was difcontinued, and in a fubfequent 

 illnefs, endeavours were ufed to procure reft 

 by repeated dofes of opium, which had no 

 operation ; and the ufe of cicuta was again 

 called in with the defired fuccefs. 



We frequently hear of people being fud- 

 denly taken ill after eating mufhrooms ; and 

 inftances are recorded of their fatal effects. 

 It is to be lamented, that upon thefe occa- 

 fions the particular fpecies of fungus is fel- 

 dom afcertained. Dr. Percival, in the laft 

 volume of his effays, page 267, relates the 

 cafe of a man who was poifoned by eating a 

 mufhroom, which Mr. Hudfon thinks was 

 the fungus parvus, pediculo oblongo, of Ray. 

 In the very numerous clafs of fungi, which 

 Great-Britain produces, the agaricus mufca- 

 rius, and the fungus piperatus, may be reck- 

 oned the moft poifonous. 

 * Nic. Fonunr Refponf. & Cutat. MeJIc. p. 162. 



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