SHAKESPEARE'S 

 NATURAL HISTORY. 



Aconitum. 



Shall never leak though it do work as strong 

 As aconitum or rash gunpowder. 



ii. KING HENRY IV., iv. 4, 47-8. 



GERARD, in his "Herbal," says that the poison of the 

 broad -leafed and mountain wolf's-bane " is of such force 

 that, if a man especially, and then next any four-footed 

 beast, be wounded with an arrow or other instrument 

 dipped in the juice hereof, they die within half an hour 

 after, remediless"; but the winter wolf's-bane "is not with- 

 out his peculiar virtues. It is reported to prevail mightily 

 against the bitings of scorpions, and is of such force that, 

 if the scorpion pass by where it groweth, and touch the 

 same, presently he becometh dull, heavy and senseless ; and 

 if the same scorpion by chance touch the white hellebore, he 

 is presently delivered from his drowsiness." He enumerates 

 in all twelve varieties of Aconitum, or wolf's-bane, and in 

 addition " mithridate," or wholesome wolf's-bane (Anthora) 

 which is the Bezoar, or counter-poison to Aconite, Gerard 

 says further that, according to Avicenna, " the mouse 

 nourished and fed up with Napellus (Monk's -hood} is alto- 

 gether an enemy to the poisonsome nature thereof, and 

 delivereth him that hath taken it from all peril and danger/' 

 But Antonius Guanerius of Pavia " is of opinion that it is 

 not a mouse that Avicen speaks of, but a fly," which is 

 found on the leaves of wolf's-bane, and from which an 

 antidote is to be made with bay-berries, mithridate, honey, 

 and oil of olive. 



