and its Alkaloid Conia. 401 



Latin coriandi'um, cannot be held to designate with any accuracy 

 the leaes of our conium ; and still less will the radix concava of 

 Pliny, the £<£a noiXri km £ (BuOsiu of Dioscorides, designate its 

 root, which is perfectly solid, and even at the present season 

 [December], when the plant is young, very commonly penetrates 

 twelve or fifteen inches into the soil. Of the poisonous Umbel- 

 liferse, our Cicuta virosa, or water-hemlock, comes nearer the an- 

 cient description than any other ; and, in reference to the use 

 alleged to have been made of the ancient Kuv&ov, it has the far- 

 ther advantage of being generally considered a much more active 

 poison than the common hemlock. 



It may be right to add, however, that the Conium maculatum 

 of modern botanists has been ascertained by Dr Sibthorpe to 

 grow abundantly in different parts of Greece. This eminent 

 authority states he found it " on rubbish-heaps near Constanti- 

 nople : not unfrequently in the Pelopponesus ; and most abun- 

 dantly between Athens and Megara."* It would have been very 

 extraordinary if this species had not been a common plant in 

 Greece, considering that it is abundant in every country in 

 Europe. But I do not see how such a circumstance should be 

 considered any proof that the ancient Kawov was our spotted hem- 

 lock, although some authors seem to look upon it as ample evi- 

 dence of their identity. j- It is not unworthy of remark, that the 

 ancient term has been apparently lost in the modern Greek lan- 

 guage, and that it bears no relation whatever to the modern 

 name figopoyogrov, now applied, according to Sibthorpe, to the spot- 

 ted hemlock. 



The ancient accounts of the properties of Kavsiov as a poison 



* In ruderatis prope Byzantium. In Pelopponeso haud infrequens. Copiosissime inter 

 Athenas et Megaram. — Sibthorpe Flora Graeca, i. 187. 



f Ce qui prouve que c'etait la cigue' dont les Atheniens se servaient pour faire perir 

 certains personnages, et dont Socrate mourut. II ne peut pas y avoir le moindre doute a. 

 ce sujet, car la cigue vireuse ne se trouve pas dans ce pays, non plus que, &c. Merat et 

 Delens. Diet, de Matiere Med. ii. 385. 



