On Diseases and Accidents of Farmers, 243 



the attempt. Tiie process is, to take n close of epsom 

 salts, or castor oil; if fever be present, to lose twelve 

 ounces of blood, to lie in bed, drink freely of warm flax- 

 seed tea, sweetened with honey, and abstain from rtieat. 

 Lying in bed is essential to a speedy cnre, for a free per- 

 spiration, which mainly contributes to throw of the disease, 

 does not take place, when the person is clothed and sits 

 up, although in a warm room. The cough may be as- 

 suaged during the early stage of the disease, by liquorice 

 root, or lemon candy or molasses candy ; and after the 

 bowels have been well opened, by the addition of five or 

 ten drops of laudanum three times a day, and thirty or 

 forty drops at bed-time. At night the feet should be 

 bathed in warm water. By this simple treatment the pa- 

 tient will be cured, and enabled to return to business in 

 one week ; while others, who for fear of being made too 

 delicate, permit the disease to take its course, will con- 

 tinue to be distressed by it for weeks, probablv lose their 

 voice for some time, and finally, be forced to confine them- 

 selves, a much longer time, to be relieved of a more se- 

 rious complaint. Costiveness from the use of laudanum, 

 must be guarded against, by an occasional dose of cas- 

 tor oil. 



Vegetable Poisons. — Alarming illness and frequently 

 deaths have occurred from different v. ild vegetables being 

 eaten, either raw, or boiled as a substitute for others, 

 which every farmer ought to cultivate in his garden. 



Last year two melancholy cases were recorded. One 

 happened in one of the N. England states, and another 

 in Cumberland Co. Pennsylvania. In one case near Car- 

 lisle, where it abounds, that virulent poison the wild par- 

 snip, and in the other, some plant taken for wild cicely 

 were eaten. Every year cases of disease occur from 

 eating poisonous mushrooms. Beside these last (a nu- 

 merous tribe,) there are twenty-one native plants in Penn- 



