DARNEL. ZOI 



to the tastCj and contain sufficient acid to redden the vegetable 

 blues. The seeds are reported to be eaten with impunity by 

 hogs, and though fatal to geese, to be useful food for fattening 

 chickens. According to Linnaeus, the herb is sometimes eaten 

 by sheep. 



Poisonous Properties. — Its poisonous effects on dogs are 

 thus noticed by Seeger. He gave three ounces of a decoction 

 of the flour to a dog, in five hours he was seized with a general 

 trembling, incapacity to walk, and difficulty of breathing : four 

 hours subsequently, he fell into a profovmd sleep and became 

 insensible, but the next day he was nearly recovered. In 

 other of these animals submitted to experiment, it caused 

 vomitings, convulsions, and an abundant excretion of urine, and 

 perspiration. It is said to prove fatal to horses. 



Theophrastus, Dioscorides, Aristotle, Pliny, and most of the 

 sages and poets of antiquity, were acquainted with the poisonous 

 effects of this plant on the human frame. The most prevalent 

 opinion was that it caused blindness : hence with the Romans 

 " lolio victitare," to live on darnel, was often applied to a dim- 

 sighted person ; and in Plautus when Paloestro enquires what 

 Sceledrus meant bv his living on darnel, he receives for answer 

 "Quia lusciosus es'' because you are purblind. Ovid .Tasti 

 i. Q92) thus adverts to it : 



" Et careant loKis oculos vitianribus agri 

 Nee sterilis culto sui^t avena solo." 



Gerard says •' toe new bread wherein darnell is, eaten hot 

 causeth drunkenesse ; " and Linnaeus referring to this property, 

 states that the greater part of its virulence is destroyed in stale 

 bread, but when fermented in beer it retains its stupifydng qua- 

 lities*. Seeger t relates that five persons having eaten about 

 five pounds cf oaten bread which contained darnel, were attacked 

 in two hours with frontal headache, vertigo, drowsiness, pain 

 in the stomach, and great trembling of the tongue ; deglutition 

 and pronunciation were also much impeded. There was also 

 vomiting attended with great effort, extreme lassitude, cold 

 sweats, and violent tremors over the whole body. In other 

 cases paralysis, delirium, and death itself have occurred. M. 



* It is to be feared that like other narcotics, it is sometimes used to 

 adtilterate beer in this countrx- ; else why is the plcuit cuitirated ? 

 t Orfila Toxicol. Gen. ii. p. 466. 



