184 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 16Q7 . 



parallel stories of two families in Montbelgard, during his abode there, who 

 were in like manner intoxicated by eating of roots, which they took to be 

 parsnips, and which he himself cured ; is of opinion, that they were the roots 

 of wild cicely, commonly called hereabouts cow weed, because kine in the 

 spring time willingly eat it, by Herbalists in Latin, cicutaria vulgaris, or myrrliis 

 sylvestris ; because the roots of it are more like to parsnips, than those of 

 cicuta or hemlock, and because this plant was abundantly more frequent in the 

 gardens there than hemlock. 2. Mr. James Petiver assured me, that being in 

 company with one Mr. Henley, a friend of his, he saw him eat 3 or 4 ounces 

 of hemlock-root, without the least harm, on which he himself was encouraged 

 to do the like, eating about half an ounce. Tliey tasted somewhat like the 

 root of celery, and he perceived no ill effect or inconvenience from the eating of 

 them. 3. The common people generally believe that the roots which cause 

 these symptoms, are no other than old parsnips, which have continued some 

 years in the ground, and therefore call them madnips. For my part, I am 

 not yet satisfied what roots they are, and should be glad to receive satisfaction 

 from others. 



The other observation I shall give you in his own words, without making 

 any reflections upon it. A gentlemen of my acquaintance, having a horse, 

 which he highly valued, troubled with that stubborn disease they call the farcy, 

 employed several usually efficacious medicines in vain. At length, one day 

 riding abroad on this horse to take the air, and being in discourse with a gen- 

 tlemen he met in a place where grew a great quantity of hemlock, he observed 

 that the horse began to feed on them, but checked him at present, and was 

 returning home; when calling to mind, that some animals are sometimes 

 directed by what they call instinct to proper remedies, he rode back to the 

 same place, where the horse again refused the grass, and fell on the hemlock, 

 greedily eating it up. On which within 3 or 4 days his sores dried up, and he 

 recovered very fast. From whence it appears that the leaves at least of 

 hemlock are not noxious to some animals, but rather salutary. The seeds also 

 some birds, as in our observations bustards, will greedily eat. 



The Properties of the Catenaria, or Curve Line, formed by a heavy and flexible 

 Chain, hanging freeli) from tivo Points of Suspension. Bij David Gregory, 

 M.D. Savilian Professor of Astronomy, and F.R.S. N'^ 231, p. 037. 

 Translated from the Latin. 



Proj). I. Prob. — In the catenarian curve, to find the relation between the 



fluxion of the axis and the fluxion of the ordinate. Let fad (fig. 4, pi. 4.) 



be a chain hanging by its ends p and d ; the lowest point, or vertex of the 



