VOL. XLIV.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 257 



where 8 young lads, near Clonmel in Ireland, where this plant is called tahow, 

 mistook its roots for those of slum aquaticum, or water parsnip, and ate plenti- 

 fully of them. About 4 or 5 hours after, going home, the eldest, almost of 

 man's stature, without the least previous disorder or complaint, fell down back- 

 wards, and died convulsed. Four more died in the same manner before morning, 

 not one of them having spoken a word from the moment the venomous particles 

 had attacked the genus nervosum. Of the other 3, one ran stark mad, but 

 came to himself next morning. The hair and hails of another fell off. One of 

 them only escaped without any harm, who ran home above 2 miles, and drank 

 warm milk, which caused a diaphoresis. A Dutchman likewise was poisoned 

 with the leaves of this plant, boiled in his pottage; which he took for smallage, 

 and to which its leaves have great resemblance. 



Dr. Allen, in his Synopsis Medicinae, mentions an Instance of 4 children, 

 who ate of these roots. They indeed were in great agonies before they fell into 

 convulsions. In their fits they vomited, which was encouraged by large draughts 

 of oil and warm water; and by other proper care they all did well. He takes 

 notice likewise of a pig dying in convulsions, from eating some of these roots, 

 which it had grubbed up. 



Stalpart van der Wiel, in his observations, takes notice of the deadly effects 

 to 1 persons, who had eaten these roots, mistaking them for Macedonian parsley. 

 These men also, soon after eating these roots, were troubled with violent heats 

 in the throat and stomach, attended with a vertigo, sickness at the stomach, and 

 purging. One of them bled at the nose, the other was violently convulsed. 

 Both of them died, one in 1 hours, the other in 3. 



It is very remarkable, that neither the French prisoners, who were killed at 

 Pembroke, nor those before cited in the Phil. Trans, felt any heat or disorder in 

 their stomach, before the attack of the convulsive paroxysms; whereas those 

 mentioned by Dr. Allen, and Stalpart van der Wiel, were in great agonies, from 

 the violent heat in their stomach and throat, before they were attacked by con- 

 vulsions. 



The same variety of symptoms we meet with in Wepfer, with regard to those 

 people who were poisoned by the cicuta aquatica; where some of them, who had 

 eaten the roots of this plant at the same time, stood and assisted their friends, 

 till they died of convulsions, without feeling themselves anywise disordered, and 

 afterwards, in their turns, died in the same manner. Others were violently af- 

 fected by it, as soon almost as they had eaten it. Confer Wepfer's history with 

 the *German ephemerides. Linnaeus mentions, in the -^Flora Lapponica, the great 



• Ephemerid. Natur. Curiosor. Dec. 2. Ann. 6. Obs. Il6. — Orig. 

 + See Flor. Lappoii. p. 72. — Orig. 

 VOL. IX. L L 



