VEGETABLE POISONS. 241 



conferred on mankind ; since there are few dis- 

 eases in which it does not afford some relief; many 

 very painful and dangerous maladies it rapidly 

 cures; and in lingering and hopeless cases, it 

 seldom fails to suspend the more violent symp- 

 toms, and to render the afflicted patient as easy 

 and as comfortable under his sufferings, as the 

 nature of his complaint will admit. 



When taken or administered as a poison, it 

 has usually been swallowed in its pure solid 

 state, or simply dissolved in wine or spirits under 

 the familiar name of laudanum ; and when suicide 

 is decided upon, this poison is often preferred, 

 from the mistaken notion that death will follow 

 without being preceded by pain or a conscious- 

 ness of its effects; or, in other words, by its pro- 

 ducing immediate and fatal sleep, from which the 

 individual can never again beroused. Owingtothe 

 resemblance of laudanum in its colour to tincture 

 of rhubarb, and to some other pharmaceutical 

 preparations, (particularly should the bottle in 

 which the article is contained be without a lable, 

 or have received an erroneous designation,) it is 

 also not unfrequently taken by mistake; and as 

 the medicines which it resembles, are generally 

 nauseous, the whole is commonly swallowed 

 before the error has been detected. 



In those countries in which opium is produced, 

 and where the prevailing religion prohibits the use 

 of wine, as in Turkey, in the Barbary States, in 



R 



