404 WATER-HEMLOCK. 



of an oily shining appearance may be observed on the surface 

 of the water. From the experiments of Gadd we also learn, 

 that by distillation it affords a volatile narcotic principle of an 

 unpleasant diffusive odour, affecting the head ; but the residue 

 is apparently inert, and was given to a bird without producing 

 any effect. It appears that both the narcotic and acrid prin- 

 ciples are of a volatile kind, so that even the roots in their dried 

 state have been given as food to cattle *. When cultivated in 

 a garden, it is reputed to lose its virulent qualities. 



Poisonous Properties. — The whole plant is poisonous to most 

 animals. According to Withering, cows often eat it in spring, and are killed 

 by it, but as the summer advances, and its scent becomes stronger, they care- 

 fully avoid it. Though a certain and fatal poison to cows, goats f devour 

 it greedily with impunity ; horses and sheep eat it with safety :£. Gmelin 

 asserts that it is innocuous to horses, but Gadd denies this. Of its poison- 

 ous effects upon cows there can he no question. Three oxen died from 

 eating the roots, which were thrown by the current in spring upon the 

 banks of a river near Roslagia, in Sweden § ; and Gadd || asserts that two 

 oxen were destroyed in Finland by drinking the oily substance already 

 mentioned, which floats on the surface of the water near which the plant 

 grows ; this writer, however, suspects that part of its deleterious effects 

 may be owing to an insect by which the plant is infested, as is known to 

 be the case with respect to CEnanthe Phellandrium. Linnaeus % found that 

 a disease which carried off a great number of cattle every spring at Tornea 

 in Westrobothnia, was occasioned by the Water-Hemlock. This dis- 

 covery was the more important, as the affection was of such a nature, that 

 in flaying the animals, although yet warm, wherever their blood came in 

 contact with the human body, it caused inflammation and gangrene, and 

 even the exhalations from the carcases had a similar effect. This illustrious 

 naturalist is of opinion, that the Water-Hemlock is more energetic than 

 the Spotted Hemlock, and less so than the Hemlock Water-drop wort. 

 The root appears to be most virulent in spring, and the foliage in summer. 

 Wepfer relates, that the root is poisonous to dogs, wolves, and eagles, 

 and the ltaves, though less powerful, have proved fatal to geese. He ob- 

 served that dogs began to stagger soon after swallowing the poison, and 



• Vet. Acad. Handl. I. c. Gunner Fl. Norweg. torn. i. 27. 

 f See Hemlock for the lines quoted from Lucretius, who probably refers 

 to this plant. 



$ Withering, Bot. Arrang. vol. ii. p. 382. 



§ Linn. Wastgb'ta resa, p. 98. 



M Loc. cit. p. 234. 



^J Flora Lapponica, ed. Smith, p. 76. 



