256 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO \TA6.- 



Critical Observations concerning the Oenanthe Aquatica,* succo viroso crocante 

 of Lobel; by Mr. W. fVatson, Apothecary, F. R. S. occasioned by an Extract 

 of a Letter from Mr. George Howell, Surgeon, at Haverfordwest, to the 

 Author, giving an Account of the Poisonous Effects of this Plant to some 

 French Prisoners at Pembroke. N''480, p. 227. 



Extract of Mr. Howell's Letter. — " Eleven French prisoners had the liberty 

 of walking in and about the town of Pembroke; 3 of them, being in the fields 

 a little before noon, found and dug up a large quantity of a plant with its roots, 

 which they took to be wild celery, to eat with their bread and butter for dinner. 

 After washing it, while yet in the fields, they all 3 ate, or rather tasted, of the 

 roots. 



" As they were entering the town, without any previous notice of sickness at 

 the stomach or disorder in the head, one of them was seized with convulsions. 

 The other 2 ran home, and sent a surgeon to him. The surgeon endeavoured 

 first to bleed, and then vomit him ; but those endeavours were fruitless, and he 

 died presently. 



" Ignorant yet of the cause of their comrade's death, and of their own 

 . danger, they gave of these roots to the other 8 prisoners, who all ate some of 

 them with their dinner. 



" A few minutes after, the remaining 2, who gathered the plants, were seized 

 in the same manner as the first ; of which one died : the other was bled, and a 

 vomit with great difficulty forced down, on account of his jaws being, as it were, 

 locked together. This operated, and he recovered ; but was some time much 

 affected with a dizziness in his head, though not sick, or in the least disordered 

 in his stomach. The other 8 being bled and vomited immediately, were 

 soon well. 



" There were in these men none of those comatose symptoms mentioned 

 to have happened to the Dutch soldiers, who were poisoned by eating the cicuta 

 major.-^ 



" After I had done examining, I ordered some of the herb and root to be 

 brought. I found it to be the oenanthe aquatica cicutae facie of Lobel, which 

 grows in great plenty all over this country, is called by the inhabitants five-fin- 

 gered root, and is much used by them in cataplasms for the fellon, or worst kind 

 of whitflow. The Frenchmen ate only the root, and none of the leaves or 

 stalk." 



The poisonous effects of this plant, in the instance beforementioned, exactly 

 square with those mentioned of the same plant, in N" 238 of the Phil. Trans.+ 



* Oenanthe crocata. Linn. f Philos. Trans. N" 473, Vol. ix. p. 38 of these Abridgtnenti. 



X Vol. iv. p. 242 of these Abridgments. 



