340 MEDICAL BOTANY. 



ful when it is bruised or broken. During the spring the root contains a milky, 

 poisonous juice. The whole plant is eminently narcotic and virulent, but 

 varies in power according to its place of growth and the temperature. Thus 

 it is said to be most active when growing where it is exposed to the full power 

 of the sun, and it is well ascertained that the hemlock of the southern parts of 

 Europe is far more energetic than that of more northern countries. The part 

 used in medicine is the leaves ; 'these should be gathered when the plant is 

 just done flowering, and the fruit beginning to form. The leaves should be 

 deprived of their footstalks, and quickly dried, and then preserved in close 

 vessels, so as to exclude them as much as possible from the air and light ; or 

 else pulverized, and the powder kept in opaque and well-stopped bottles. 



The Hemlock was known to the ancients, and is supposed, on good grounds, 

 to have been the poison employed in Athens to destroy Socrates and Phocion. 

 This opinion is rendered probable from the fact that the plant grows abun- 

 dantly between Athens and Megara (Sibthorp, Prod. Fl. Gr. i. 187), and 

 also that no other vegetable of equally virulent qualities, is a native of Greece, 

 the Cicuta virosa and other lethal umbelliferse not being found there; and 

 that it belonged to this class, is shown by the description of it by DioscOrides. 

 It has been urged, on the other hand, that no mention being made by the Greek 

 writers of the purple spots on the stem, militates against this view of the 

 subject. Pliny, in noticing the plant under the name of Cicuta, uses the term 

 nigricans, which is thought, by Dr. Christison, not to be applicable to Conium ; 

 but specimens may be found in this country, some of which are almost desti- 

 tute of marks answering to the plant mentioned by the Greek writers, and 

 others having them of so dark a purple that they might be termed blackish 

 without impropriety. According to Theophrastus, the juice was mixed with 

 opium, when it was given to destroy criminals, to render it less liable to pro- 

 duce convulsions, hence the easy death of Socrates, by this poison, may be ac- 

 counted for. It was also employed as a remedial agent, and is noticed as such 

 by Hippocrates and Galen. Pliny speaks of it in high terms as a preven- 

 tive against drunkenness. 



It has been often analyzed ; the results of an examination of it by Brandes, 

 show it to contain a peculiar alkaloid [Conia or Conein), a Volatile oil, some 

 Resin, Albumen, &c. To the first of these it owes its peculiar properties, as 

 the volatile oil, although having the odour of the plant in a high degree, has 

 little or no poisonous action on the system. Conia exists in larger propor- 

 tions in the seeds than in the leaves. It is a colourless, oily fluid, which in 

 the plant is combined with an acid called the comic, and is obtained by dis- 

 tillation with an alkali. It is sparingly soluble in water, and more so in 

 alcohol. Some of its salts are crystallizable, and all of them evolve a' 

 vapour of conia on the addition of a caustic alkali. It forms insoluble com- 

 pounds with tannin, which precipitates it from ail its solutions. Its odour is 

 strong and penetrating. It is extremely poisonous, even in very small doses. 



Medical Uses. — Hemlock is a narcotic, but is neither stimulant nor 

 sedative. In moderate doses it sometimes also acts in increasing the secre- 

 tions, and when long continued, is apt to disorder the digestive and nervous 

 functions, and to occasion dryness of the throat, and a peculiar eruption on 

 the skin. The ancients thought that it acted specifically on the testicles and 

 breasts, and some cases seem to show that such is occasionally the fact. 

 When taken in large doses it causes vertigo, dimness of sight, nausea, faint- 

 ness, &c, and in an increased quantity, dilatation of the pupils, difficulty of 

 speech, delirium or stupor, tremors, paralysis, and finally convulsions and 

 death. 



