ON ANIMAL AND 



poppy. Like other narcotics, a full dose brings 

 on vertigo or giddiness, dilatation of the pupil of 

 the eye, head-ache, drowsiness, difficulty of swal- 

 lowing, and when taken to excess, delirium, con- 

 vulsions, and death.* 



The Laura Cerasus,or Common Cherry Laurel t 

 must be too well known to render it necessary 

 to enter into an account of its natural history 

 and external character, since it forms one of the 

 leading ornaments of our domestic shrubberies, 

 and its leaves are in common use for culinary 

 purposes. But it is of great importance to be 

 acquainted with its deleterious qualities, and to 

 be upon our guard against a too free use of a 

 shrub, that, under certain processes, is capable of 

 being rendered the most active poison which this 

 country produces. The leaves of this shrub have 

 a bitter, styptic taste, accompanied with a flavour 

 resembling that of bitter almonds. Theflower also 

 manifests a similar flavour. The powdered leaves 

 applied to the nostrils, excite sneezing, though 

 not so strongly as produced by tobacco. The 

 kernel-like flavour, which these leaves impart, 

 from being generally esteemed grateful, have 

 occasioned their being employed for culinary 

 purposes in the making of custards, puddings, 

 and the like; and as the mucilaginous quality of 

 the other articles used, are calculated to coun- 

 teract their deleterious quality, arid as the pro- 



* For the treatment of this and the preceding narcotic 

 vegetable poisons, see the article opium. 



