and its Alkaloid Conia. 403 



ness, staggering, stifling, coldness of the limbs, and death by 

 asphyxia ; — a view of its effects which differs little from the mo- 

 dern notions of the poisonous action of the spotted hemlock. 

 But the poetical effusion of Nicander will apply equally well 

 to many narcotics, and among others to various umbelliferous 

 plants : It is a generic, though probably intended for a specific, 

 description. 



Nicander, who appears to have lived about 160 years before 

 Christ, or, according to some, a century later, has evidently been 

 followed by Dioscoribes, Pliny, and other subsequent authors, 

 in his description ; and where any deviation is observable, it has 

 been in favour of Plato's account of the effects of the Athenian 

 state-poison in the case of Socrates, — this being either tacitly or 

 expressly assumed to have been a preparation of Kuwov. It seems 

 needless, therefore, to prosecute the present branch of the in- 

 quiry by reference to other ancient narratives. 



The result at which we must arrive is, that the Greek ULumov, 

 so far as regards its effects, may be the modern Conium macula- 

 turn, but may be equally referred to various other plants ; and 

 that, if its botanical description by classical authors is to be al- 

 lowed any weight at all, or, which amounts to the same thing, if 

 we admit that the ancient naturalists did describe, and could de- 

 scribe, fromnature, it must have been a totally different vege- 

 table. 



Turning, in the last place, to the Athenian state-poison, we 

 find both historians and political authors who lived during the time 

 it was in frequent use, assuming very much, as a matter of course, 

 that this was the Greek K»mov ; and subsequent writers identify 

 it either with this plant, or with the Roman cicuta, which we 

 have already seen to be the same with the Kmstov. 



Thus Xenophon, who died forty years after Socrates, and 

 during whose lifetime the state-poison was the constant instru- 

 ment of judicial murder, speaking of the death of Theramenes, 

 condemned for his political acts by the thirty tyrants, says, " and 



VOL. XIII. PART II. 3 F 



