398 WATER-DROPWORT. 



situation, speedily came to him, and immediately, as she said, conceived 

 the idea of his having eaten something, the effects of which were similar to 

 the poison administered to Sir T. Houghton." Some water was given him 

 to drink, and he vomited a considerable quantity of the root, but he con- 

 tinued to grow worse, and Dr. Houlston was sent for. He found him to- 

 tally insensible, strongly convulsed, the eyes starting from the sockets, the 

 pupils excessively dilated, and the tongue thrust out. Appropriate reme- 

 dies were tried, but they proved of no avail, and he died after more than 

 four hours' suffering. Above a handful of the root was found in the sto- 

 mach. The other boys who had partaken of the poisonous repast escaped, 

 through the prompt administration of emetics ; one of them, however, was 

 with difficulty made to vomit, though large doses of emetic tartar and 

 ipecacuanha were administered, and he was affected with giddiness, drow- 

 siness, and slight spasms for some hours. According to his own account, 

 he had eaten one root (tuber ?) and a half, and more than two hours elapsed 

 before he was sensibly affected *. 



Dr. Pulteney f mentions the case of a poor woman who took about half 

 a tea-cupful of the juice in mistake for that of Water-Parsnep ; she died 

 in little more than two hours, with symptoms similar to those above related. 

 Dr. Graves £ relates a similar fatal instance. M. Charles § was summoned to 

 attend a family who had eaten the roots. A sensation of burning heat 

 was present in the stomach, and small rose-coloured spots appeared succes- 

 sively in different parts of the body, and the abdomen in one case was 

 greatly swollen. Mr. Watson || informs us, that a Dutchman was poisoned 

 by the leaves boiled in pottage, and that Miller knew a whole family at 

 Battersea who were poisoned by this plant. A few years ago a gang of 

 convicts working on the embankments near Woolwich, dug up a quantity 

 of the CE. crocata, and as the roots are fleshy and sweetish, they were tempted 

 to eat of them. Four of the unfortunate men died, and the rest were 

 more or less disordered. 



Mr. Froysell % relates the case of a dairy-maid who ate a piece of the 

 root, about the size of a walnut. Finding no effect result from it, except a 

 slight degree of dizziness, in three hours she repeated the dose. An hour 

 and a half subsequently she was found upon the bed in a state of insensibility. 

 Mr. F. saw her a few minutes afterwards, when the pupil of the eye was con- 

 tracted to the size of a pin's head ; she was speechless, and had lost the power 

 of deglutition ; her pulse was 40, small and wiry, her skin cold and moist, 

 especially over the hands and forehead. She had rejected part of the poison- 

 ous substance by vomiting previous to the arrival of Mr. F., and he suc- 



* London Med. Journal, 1781, vol. ii. p. 40. 



f Ibid. 1784, vol. v. p. 192. 



+ Med. Facts and Obs. vii. p. 308. 



§ Annales Clin, de Montpellier, n. 154. 



|| Phil. Trans, vol. i. p. 856. 



f In Lancet, March 1st, 1834— (Vol. xiii., N.S,, p. 8G1.) 



