224 ON ANIMAL AND 



as in the former plant. A guarded use of the 

 belladona however, it appears, has been tried on 

 the continent with good effect in convulsive com- 

 plaints, palsy, mania, and in cancer ; though it 

 requires very judicious management in its appli- 

 cation. 



The Conium Maculatum, Cicuta Major, or 

 Greater Hemloc/c, is another of the vegetable poi- 

 sons which not unfrequently has led to accidents 

 from the mistaking it for some other vegetable ; 

 and which also has been usefully applied in 

 medicine for diseases of a similar kind to those 

 in which the belladona has been prescribed. 



The cicuta grows naturally on the banks and 

 sides of roads in this country, and has a large 

 taper root like a small parsnip. The stalk is 

 smooth, cylindrical, spotted with purple, and 

 covered at its inferior parts with black spots. It 

 rises from three to upwards of five feet high, 

 branching out towards the top into several smaller- 

 stalks, garnished with decomposed leaves, whose 

 lobes are cut at the lop into three parts. These 

 are of a lucid green, and have a disagreeable 

 smell. The stalks are terminated by umbels of 

 white flowers ; the seeds are small and channel- 

 led, and are similar to those of aniseed. It 

 flowers in June, and the seeds ripen in August. 



This plant, though it has been administered in 

 larger proportions for medicinal purposes than 

 belladona, is still a strong poison, and produces 



