550 



HISTORY OF THK VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 



banks of i-iyers and ditches, and flowers in June 

 and July. The root is perennial, the stalk chan- 

 neled, smooth, and of a yellowish red colour, and 

 two to three feet in height. The leaves are simply 

 and doubly pinnated; the larger pinnse three- 

 lobed; the flowers in a spreading globular umbel. 

 The root is not unpleasant to the taste, but is a 

 \'irulent poison. Mr Howell mentions, that 

 during the late war, eleven French prisoners had 

 the liberty of walking for a short distance around 

 the town of Pembroke. Three of these being 

 in the fields a little before noon, dug up a large 

 quantity of this plant, which they took to be 

 wild celery, to eat with their bread and butter 

 for dinner. After washing it they all three ate, 

 or rather tasted of the roots. As they were 

 entering the town, without any previous notice 

 of sickness at the stomach, or disorder in the 

 head, one of them was seized with convulsions, 

 the other two ran home and sent a surgeon to 

 him. The surgeon endeavoured first to bleed, 

 and then to vomit him; but those endeavours 

 were fruitless, and he died presently. Ignorant 

 of the cause of their comrade's death, and of 

 their own danger, the two men gave of these 

 roots to the other prisoners, who all ate some of 

 them with their dinner. A few minutes after- 

 wards, the remaining two who gathered the 

 plants were seized in the same manner as the 

 first, of which one died; the other was bled, and 

 an emetic with great difficulty forced down, on 

 account of his jaws being locked together. This 

 operated, and he recovered; but was sometime 

 affected with dizziness in his head, though not 

 sick, or the least disordered in his stomach. The 

 other eight being bled and vomited immediately, 

 recovered.* 



At Clonmel, in Ireland, eight bo3'3 mistaking 

 this plant for water parsnip, ate plentifully of 

 its roots. About four or five hours after, the 

 eldest boy became suddenly convulsed, and died; 

 and before the next morning, four of the other 

 boys died in a similar manner. Of the other 

 three, one was maniacal several hours; another 

 lost his hair and nails; but the third escaped 

 unhurt. In other cases where children ate the 

 root by mistake, burning heat in the stomach, 

 gTeat agony, sickness, vomiting, and convulsions 

 followed. 



The leaves and juice of the plant are equally 

 deleterious. Goats brouse on it with impunity, 

 but to most other animals it proves a poison. 

 Even the odour of the plant, if long inhaled, 

 causes nausea and giddiness. This plant is not 

 commonly used as a medicine, although, in some 

 cases, it has been taken with efi^eot in eruptive 

 diseases of the skin. It should be given at first 

 in small doses, gradually increased. 

 Hekbane (h'l/osciamus niger). Natural family 



* Pliilosojjh. Transact, vol. 44. 



solanem; pentandria, monogynia, of Linnaeus. 

 The black henbane is a biennial plant, which 

 grows wild in Britain, and is to be found com- 

 monly among rubbish, and on road sides. The 

 root is long, compact, and fibrous. The stalk 

 is round, woody, branched, and about two feet 

 high. The leaves are large, deeply divided into 

 irregular lobes, and of a sea-green colour, woolly, 

 and with their base embrace the stem. The 

 flowers grow in irregular clusters at the tops of 

 the branches. The corolla is funnel-shaped, con- 

 sisting of a short tube, with an expanded limb, 

 divided into five pbtuse segments; of a dingy 

 yellow colour, with many minute, purple veins. 

 The capsule is oval, two-celled, and contains 

 many small, irregular, brown seeds. The plant 

 flowers in June. The smell of the whole plant 

 is strong and peculiar. The bmised leaves emit 

 an odour somewhat like that of tobacco. This 

 odour is still stronger when the leaves are burnt, 

 and on ignition they sparkle with a crackling 

 noise, somewhat like the deflagration of nitre. 

 To the taste the leaves are mild and mucila- 

 ginous. 



All parts of the plant, the roots, seeds, and 

 leaves, when taken into the stomach in sufficient 

 quantity, prove a powerful narcotic poison. A 

 French physician relates that nine persons, 

 having eaten by mistake the roots of henbane, 

 were seized with most alarming symptoms. 

 Some were speechless, and showed no other signs 

 of life than by convulsions and contortions of 

 the limbs; others uttered terrible howlings, and 

 exhibited strong muscular convulsions : in all, 

 the ej'eballs stared from their sockets, and their 

 mouths were drawn backwards on both sides. 

 On recovering, all objects appeared for several 

 days of a red scarlet hue. "Four children," 

 says Sir Hans Sloane, "who ate the berries, 

 mistaking their capsules for filberts, were seized 

 with great thirst, swimmings of the head, dim- 

 ness of sight, ravings, and profound sleep, which 

 last, in one of the cases, continued for two days 

 and nights. 



Dr Stedman relates a case in which the leaves 

 were boiled by mistake in broth, which was 

 eaten by seven persons. "I saw them," says 

 he, "about three hours after, and then three of 

 the men were become quite insensible, did not 

 know their comrades, talked incoherently, and 

 were in as high a delirium as people in the rage 

 of a fever. All of them had low irregular pulses, 

 slavered, and frequently changed colour; their 

 eyes looked fiery, and they catched at whatever 

 lay next them, calling out that it was going to 

 fall." 



This plant proves also a poison to some ani- 

 mals, as to birds and dogs; while cows, horses, 

 goats, and pigs, eat it with impunity. 



In medicine this plant has been used from the 

 earliest records. Dioscorides employed it to pro- 



