O N 



CULINARY POISONS. 



I. The LAURO-CERASUS, or Common 

 LAUREL. 



THE water diftilled from the leaves of this 

 tree has been frequently mixed with bran- 

 dy, and other fpirituous liquors, in order to give 

 them the flavour of ratifia ; and the leaves are 

 often ufed in cookery, to communicate the 

 fame kind of tafte to cream, cuflards, pud- 

 dings, and fome forts of fweetmeatsj But, in the 

 year 1728, an account of two women dying fud- 

 denly in Dublin, after drinking fome of the com- 

 mon diftilled laurel water, gave rife to feveral ex- 

 periments, made upon dogs, with the diftilled 

 water, and with the infufion of the leaves of the 

 B lauro- 



