268 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1738. 



no Other signs of life than by convulsions, contortions of their limbs, and the 

 risus sardonicus; all having their eyes starting out of their heads, and their 

 mouths drawn backwards on both sides; others had all the symptoms alike. 

 However, 5 of them now and then opened their mouths, but it was to utter 

 bowlings: and whenever they expressed articulated words, it seemed as if they 

 would prophesy. One, for example, said. In a month my neighbour will lose 

 a cow: another. In a little time you will see the crown pieces of 60 pence at 

 5 livres. Among these Q persons, there was a woman 5 months gone with 

 child, and a child of 2 years; 4 boys of Q, 12, 15 and 18; and 3 girls of 15, 

 17 and ig years of age, who had all 3 the misfortune of the green- sickness 

 upon them at that time. The madness of all these patients was so complete, 

 and their agitations so violent, that in order to give one of them the antidote, 

 he was forced to employ 6 strong men to hold him, while he was getting his 

 teeth asunder, to pour down the remedy : and as they could not all be watched 

 at once, one of the boys got away, and ran to a pond 100 paces from the 

 house, into which he leaped; but as he was seen, he was soon taken out. 



It was in vain to examine those wretches concerning the nature of the poison 

 they had taken, as they were quite senseless. Happily the father of the family, 

 by being absent, was free from this misfortune. Of him Dr. P. learned, that 

 digging his garden the preceding day, he had found several roots resembling 

 common parsnips ; and having carried them home for parsnips, they were 

 boiled in the soup ; and the unlucky mistake was not apprehended, till the 

 children were in this dreadful state. He described the plant, which he thought 

 he had taken for parsnips; on which Dr. P. went into the garden, to find what 

 it was; but as it had no leaves, he was obliged to derive the knowledge of it 

 from the roots; and soon knew it to be the henbane,* which is a very strong 

 poison; and so much the more dangerous, as the patients could give no account 

 of their ailments, nor of the quantity of the poison they had taken. 



To the boys Dr. P. gave the Tartar. Stibiat. in so large a dose, that the 

 oldest took 45 grains, and the others in proportion. 



For the woman, he had recourse to Theriaca in a triple dose; not thinking 

 it safe to give her the emetic, on account of her pregnancy. He gave the same 

 remedy to the child, by reason of its tenderness. 



To the girls, besides the Theriaca, which they took in very large doses, 

 having used 4 oz. of it, he gave warm milk, in which was dissolved salt of 

 rue. The next day he visited the patients, and found them in a quite different 

 condition; for they had all recovered the use of their reason, but remembered 



* Hyoscyamus niger. Linn. 



