41 



and animals. The underground parts are the most poisonous, and are 

 especially dangerous, because they are often washed or frozen out of 

 the soil and thus exposed to view. Children mistake them for horse- 

 radish, parsnips, artichokes, sweet cicely, and other edible roots. 

 Cattle sometimes eat the tubers, and in marshes they are poisoned by 

 drinking water contaminated by the juice of roots which have been 

 crushed by being trampled upon. No estimate can be made of the 

 amount of damage done to live stock, but it is very considerable. The 

 human victims average a considerable number jier annum. In the 

 State of New Jersey alone, as earlier mentioned, two quadruple cases 

 were reported during the spring 

 of 1896, which resulted in the 

 death of two individuals. 



Symptoms and antidote. — The 

 prominent symptoms are vomit- 

 ing, colicky pains, staggering, 

 unconsciousness, and frightful 

 convulsions, ending in death. As 

 no chemical antidote is known, 

 the treatment must consist in a 

 thorough cleansing of the diges- 

 tive tract, and in combating the 

 symptoms as they arise by the 

 use of chloroform, chloral, and 

 such medicines as are indicated 

 during the progress of the malady. 

 Herbivorous animals generally 

 die from the effects of a sufficient 

 dose, but they are sometimes saved 

 by the administration of two or 

 three daily doses of melted lard. 



OREGON WATER HEMLOCK. 

 Cicuta vagans Greene. 



Other names: Water hemlock; 

 cicuta. (Fig. 22.) 



Description and habitat. — A 

 smooth perennial, with erect or 

 straggling stems 3 to 6 feet high, 

 glaucous, compound leaves which 

 spring directly from the ground, white flowers blossoming in July and 

 August, and a fleshy root which consists of two very distinct and charac- 

 teristic parts. The more conspicuous of these is the vertical rootstock, 

 which is from 1 to 6 inches long by 1 or 2 thick, and is curiously divided 

 into numerous chambers by horizontal partitions. Each of the latter 

 bears several tubes or ducts, from which a poisonous aromatic oil 



Fig. 22.— Oregon water heinlock (Cicuta vagans): 

 a, plant with leaves, one-sixth natural size; b 

 and &', rootstock and horizontal roots, showing 

 section, half size; c, terminal leaflets, one-sixth 

 natural size; d, flowering spray, full size. 



