226 ON ANIMAL AND 



tinguished the leaves of the water hemlock are 

 deeply divided quite to the pedicle, into three 

 long and narrow sharp pointed segments ; whereas 

 those of the srnallage are only slightly cut in three 

 roundish obtuse segments. In Norway, the water 

 hemlock has been considered so strong a poison to 

 man and brutes, that its use as a medicine has 

 been prohibited, and yet goats and swine eat it 

 with impunity, which exemplifies an observation 

 made in a former paper; namely, that we have in 

 reality no vegetable substances which are univer- 

 sally poisonous, This plant, when swallowed, 

 occasions convulsions, and rapid death, but pro- 

 duces no sickness, nor any affection of the sto- 

 mach and bowels. The smell of it, in a close 

 place, occasions giddiness and a head-ache. 



The Hyoscyamus, or Henbane, in small doses, 

 is a valuable medicine, possessing narcotic pow- 

 ers little inferior to opium, for which it is often 

 substituted. This plant has long tapering roots, 

 which strike deep into the ground. These send 

 out in the spring, erect; branched stems, about 

 three feet in height, with large soft leaves of a 

 sea green colour, deeply slashed in their edges. 

 The flowers, which appear in June and July, are 

 of a* straw colour, beautifully pencilled with a 

 net work of purple veins, terminating in globular 

 capsules closed with a convex, smooth lid ; the 

 capsules containing cells which are filled with 

 small irregular seeds. The whole of this plant has 



