WATER-HEMLOCK. 405 



were dejected or agitated, and their heads trembled ; after which they ex- 

 perienced thirst, and frequent eructations, and a greenish foam flowed 

 from their mouth ; then followed vomiting, diarrhoea, enuresis, and con- 

 vulsions. 



The effects of this plant upon man are those of a powerful acrid nar- 

 cotic, having much affinity with the Water-dropwort already delineated, 

 although more decidedly narcotic than the latter, which Orfila therefore 

 places among the acrids, and the Water-Hemlock among the narcotico- 

 acrids. 



Wepfer tells us of eight children who ate of the root, mistaking it for 

 parsnep. One of them quickly experienced great pain at the pit of the 

 stomach, " et humi prostratus urinam magno impetu ad viri altitudinem 

 eminxit." He was then seized with convulsions and became insensible; 

 the jaws were locked, the eyes rolled, and blood issued from the ears ; he 

 had frequent hiccup and efforts to vomit, and during the convulsions the 

 head was bent backwards, and the spine so arched that a child might have 

 crept between the body and the bed beneath. He gradually became 

 weaker, and his death took place about half an hour from the first appear- 

 ance of the symptoms. After death the abdomen and face swelled, a slight 

 lividness was observed near the eyes, and a greenish froth issued from the 

 mouth. Another of the children died, and of the six who survived, a 

 little girl had tetanic fits, followed by complete coma, which lasted for 

 twenty-four hours. 



Boerhaave states, that a gardener employed in gathering the herb, was 

 attacked with vertigo. Schubarth* affirms, that an ounce of the juice of the 

 stem and leaves, collected after the flowers had begun to blow, produced no 

 effect upon the dog. 



Refen-ing to the cases given by Wepfer, Schwencke, and others, Guersent t 

 observes, that the following are the usual symptoms :— " Dimness of sight, 

 vertigo, acute headache, staggering, agitation, pain in the stomach, dryness 

 of the throat, great thirst, eructation, vomiting of greenish matter, respir- 

 ation frequent and interrupted, tetanic contraction of the jaws, lipothymia, 

 sometimes followed by a lethargic state ; at other times furious delirium, 

 or attacks resembling epilepsy, which generally terminate in death. The 

 most serious derangement of the nervous system takes place the more 

 rapidly in proportion to the quantity of the root swallowed, unless, 

 indeed, a portion has been promptly rejected by vomiting." Mertzdorff£ 

 has inspected three cases which proved speedily fatal with convulsions and 

 vomiting, but observed nothing remarkable, except extreme gorging of the 

 vessels of the brain. 



Treatment. — Cases of poisoning by Water-Hemlock are 

 happily rare, and we know of no instance in Britain. If any 



* Archiv. fur Medizin. Erfuhr. 1824. i. 84. 

 ■f* Article Cigu'e. Diction, des Sciences Med. 



$ Journal Complimentaire xvii. 361. See also Murray Appar. Med. 

 torn. i. p. 399. 



