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HARDWICKE 1 S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



therefore, be carefully used, as three drops have been 

 known to kill a child. All our other poppies have 

 juices similar in nature to that of the white species, 

 but far less powerful in effect. The odour of the 

 common red poppy, P. rhccas, has a well-known, 

 nauseous, stupefying effect. 



Chelidonium majtis. The celandine has a violently 

 acrid, orange-coloured juice. Its repulsive odour is, 

 perhaps, the cause that cases of persons being poisoned 

 by this plant are very rare. Still, three drams of its 

 extract will kill a dog in a few hours. The juice is 

 said to cure warts and corns. 



LeguminoSjE. — This order of plants, which gives 

 us our peas and beans, the clovers and vetches, 

 besides logwood, gum arabic, balsam of Tolu, and 

 many other useful products, also contains some very 

 poisonous plants. And although most of the 

 European species are devoid of any powerful pre- 

 judicial action, in some others the presence, in 

 greater or lesser quantity, of a principle called 

 cystine, renders them not only unwholesome, but, in 

 certain cases, decidedly poisonous. The seeds of the 

 beautiful {Labunitim) of our gardens, for instance, 

 are considered highly toxic, and those of our yellow 

 vetch, Lathyrus aphaca, are said to be unwholesome. 

 (Z. sativus) causes, if eaten, a strong rigidity of limbs, 

 and these, in some cases, become perfectly helpless. 

 It seems to have a similar effect on some animals. 

 The roots of the kidney-bean is also said to be 

 dangerously narcotic. Amongst the principal exotic 

 poisonous species of this order, may be mentioned 

 Physostigma venenosum, the seeds of which are 

 known as the Ordeal Beans of Old Calabar ; the 

 bark and red juice of Erythrophlaum Guineense are 

 also used as an ordeal in West Africa". The 

 seeds of Abrus p?vcatorius, a plant considerably 

 talked about lately on account of its supposed 

 meteorological propensities, are known as crabs'- 

 eyes. They are very poisonous ; half a seed (a whole 

 seed weighs about ij grs.) rubbed down with a little 

 water and injected into the thigh of a cat will pro- 

 duce fatal effects within twenty-four hours. The 

 roots, on the other hand, are known on the continent 

 as American liquorice. ; The plant is a common one 

 in the East and West Indies. Several species of 

 Derris in the East Indies, and a Piscidia of Jamaica, 

 are used to poison fish. No less than one hundred 

 and fifty species of flowering plants are poisonous to 

 fish, as Dr. Radlkofer has shown, and many of these 

 are actually used for fishing purposes. As an 

 illustration of this interesting action of the poisons of 

 some plants, I may here give Bates' description of 

 the way in which a poisonous liana, called Timbo is 

 used on the River Amazons. 



" It will act only in the still waters of creeks and 

 pools. A few rods, a yard in length, are mashed 

 and soaked in the water, which quickly becomes 

 discoloured with the milky, deleterious juice of the 



^nt. In about half an hour all the smaller fishes, 



over a rather wide space around the spot, rise to the 

 surface, floating on their sides, and with gills wide 

 open. The poison acts, evidently, by suffocating 

 the fishes. It spreads slowly in the water, and a very 

 slight mixture seems sufficient to stupefy them. I 

 was surprised on beating the water in places where 

 no fishes were visible in the clear depths, for many 

 yards around, to find sooner or later, sometimes 

 twenty-four hours afterwards, a considerable number 

 floating on the surface." Fish killed in this manner 

 form perfectly wholesome food. 



The Rosace/E, to which belong the useful trees that 

 yield our cherries, plums, almonds, peaches, straw- 

 berries, apples, and pears, yet likewise produce one 

 of the most deadly of narcotic poisons, i.e., hydro- 

 cyanic or prussic acid. It is present in most 

 members of the order, but principally in the almond- 

 tree, the laurel, in the kernels of all stone-fruit, and 

 in the leaves and flowers of the cherry, plum, peach,, 

 etc. The oil of bitter almonds is extremely poisonous,, 

 and even the exhalation of the leaves of the common 

 laurel is destructive to insect life, as all ento- 

 mologists know. Cases of children being poisoned) 

 through eating the kernels of cherries are on record. 

 Prusssic acid in its pure state kills almost instan- 

 taneously, be it inhaled or otherwise admitted into 

 the system. It acts as a powerful poison on all 

 animal organisms without exception, and proves, 

 almost as deadly to plants as to animals ; so toxic is 

 it, indeed, that its vapour will kill even plants that 

 contain it in solution in their own sap ! 



Cucurbitace.5. — Another large and important 

 order, which includes the melon, cucumber, gourd, 

 vegetable marrow, etc.- — Bryonia dioica, the white 

 bryony, is the only British representative of this 

 order. Its large rootstock has a nauseous, milky 

 juice of intensely acrid and cathartic properties. The 

 bitter substance, bryonin, derived from it, though 

 much used in medicine, can, when taken in large 

 doses, cause convulsions, stupor, and even death. 



{Ecballium elaterinm) of the south of Europe, etc., 

 produces an acrid juice in its fruit, from which is 

 prepared the substance known as elaterium. When 

 a fruit of this plant is ripe, it suddenly drops to the 

 ground, and through the hole left by the stalk, its 

 poisonous juice (which carries with it the seeds) is 

 squirted out with considerable force. This has 

 gained for the plant the name of spirting cucumber. 

 A case is said to be on record, " when a person was 

 taken dangerously ill from having merely carried a 

 specimen in his hat ! " 



Um belli fere^e. — Cotiium maculalicm. The 

 hemlock contains an active principle named conia 

 or coniin, which is highly 1oxic even in small 

 quantities. It speedily kills most animals, but it is 

 said that the plant is eaten by sheep with impunity, 

 conia acts on the nervous system and produces 

 paralysis of the extremities before death, and this has 

 been known to take place, in some instances, within 



