TOL. XLIII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS; S^ 



cicuta aquatica of Gesner, and of Wepfer. Besides, many of the accidents, said 

 to have proceeded from cicuta or hemlock, have been occasioned by different 

 plants ; some of the accidents, probably, from the common one, but many more 

 from the cicuta aquatica beforementioned, and from the oenanthe succo viroso, 

 cicutae facie, of Lobel. This confusion appears manifestly in several authors, 

 and some of them of the greatest credit. Which of these plants, or whether 

 any of them, was the Athenian poison, nobody has determined. 



Though the eating of the roots, as abovementioned, was attended with no bad 

 consequences, a late melancholy accident has been sufficiently convincing of the 

 poisonous quality of the leaves of the cicuta major. 



On Sunday May 6, 1744, two of the Dutch soldiers lately arrived, who were 

 quartered at Waltham Abbey in Essex, collected, in the fields adjoining, a quan- 

 tity of herbs, sufficient for themselves and two others for dinner, when boiled 

 with bacon. These herbs were accordingly dressed, and the poor men first eat of 

 the broth with bread, and afterwards eat the herbs with the bacon. In a short 

 time after, they were all seized with violent vertigos ; they soon after were coma- 

 tose, and two of them were convulsed, and died in about 3 hours. 



The people of the town being exceedingly alarmed at this accident, a physician 

 (Dr. Barrowby, jun.) being there, immediately went, and ordered the other two, 

 at that time almost dead, large quantities of oil ; by which means they threw up 

 most of what they had eaten, and afterwards got better. In all of them the 

 effects were the same as those from a large dose of opium. 



The next day, being at the place, Mr. W. saw one of these men much reco- 

 vered, and only complaining of a heaviness in his head; but the other was so 

 well, as to be gone to perform exercise with the other soldiers. There was a 5th 

 soldier, whom he saw, who told him, he eat some of the bread out of the broth, 

 but felt scarcely any inconvenience from it. It so happened, that the 2 men, 

 who gathered the herbs, were both killed. 



As Mr. W. went down to the place to satisfy himself in this matter, a Dutch 

 officer went with him very courteously to an inn, where there were 2 other soldiers, 

 who had seen and knew the herbs which had been eaten : he was so kind also as 

 to attend him with these soldiers into the fields, to show him the plants growing. 

 They first gathered the cicutaria vulgaris of John Bauhin, or cow-weed; then, 

 the myrrhis sylvestris seminibus asperis of Caspar Bauhin, or small hemlock- 

 chervil. They then gave him some cicuta major, and, smelling it, immediately 

 said, that this was the herb that killed their comrades; which he then had no 

 reason to doubt of; as, of the two former plants, the first grows almost under 

 every hedge, and is eaten by the cows, and the other is frequently given to tame 

 rabbits for food ; whereas cattle constantly refuse to eat hemlock. 



