CORRESPONDENCE OF RAT. 313 



I intend to apply myself wholly to it, till I have finished 

 it, being desu'ous to get the work off my hands. For upon 

 this sad accident, and by reason of my growing infirmi- 

 ties, I am well mortified as to natural studies and in- 

 quiries, though I shall not, so long as life and strength last, 

 wholly desert them, but make them some part of my 

 parergon and diversion, as I should only have done before. 

 I should be glad to hear of your health and welfare : my 

 wife is full of grief, having not yet been able fully to con- 

 coct her passion : she tenders her humble service, and 

 thanks for all your favours, with whom joins, 



Sir, 

 Your afiectionate friend and humble servant, 



John Ray. 



For his honoured friend. Dr. Hans Sloane, at his 

 house at the comer of Southampton street, 

 towards Bloomsbury square, London. 



' Mr. Kat to Dr. Hans Sloane. 



B. N., March 16, 1697. 



Sir, — I shall now communicate to you a story or two 

 of the direful effects of (Erianthe aqiiatica, cicutcB facie 

 succo viroso of Lobel [ Q^nanthe crocata, Linn.] — which we 

 may English Hemlock Water- drop wort — upon several per- 

 sons that eat of the roots of it, sent me not long since in 

 a letter from Dr. Francis Vaughan, a learned physician in 

 Ireland, living at Clonmel, in the county of Tipperary. 

 This gentleman observing me, notwithstanding what 

 Dr. Johnson, in his ' Gerardus Emaculatus,' and Lobel, in 

 his ' Adversaria/ had written of the venerose quality of 

 this plant, to be somewhat doubtful of it in my ' Synopsis 

 Methodica Stirpium Britannicarum,' for my full satis- 

 faction and conviction, vn-ote the following abstract of a 



