140 
FLINT'S KATTJRAL HISTORY. 
[Book XXV. 
order to ensure insensibility to the pain."^^ Indeed, for this last 
purpose, with some persons, the odour of it is quite sufficient 
to induce sleep. The juice is taken also as a substitute for 
hellebore, in doses of two oboli, in honied wine : hellebore, 
however, is more efficacious as an emetic, and as an evacuant 
of black bile. 
CHAP. 95. HEMLOCK 1 THIRTEEN REMEDIES. 
Hemlock, too, is a poisonous plant, rendered odious by the 
use made of it by the Athenian people, as an instrument of 
capital punishment: still, "^^ however, as it is employed for 
many useful purposes, it must not be omitted. It is the seed 
that is noxious, the stalk being eaten by many people, either 
green, or cooked^^ in the saucepan. This stem is smooth, 
jointed like a reed, of a swarthy hue, often as much as two 
cubits in height, and branchy at the top. The leaves are like 
those of coriander, only softer, and possessed of a powerful 
odour. The seed is more substantial than that of anise, and 
the root is hollow and never used. The seed and leaves are 
possessed of refrigerating properties ; indeed, it is owing to 
these properties that it is so fatal, the cold chills with which it 
is attended commencing at the extremities. The great remedy'^ 
for it, provided it has not reached the vitals, is wine, which is 
naturally of a warming tendency ; but if it is taken in wine, 
it is irremediably fatal. 
A juice is extracted from the leaves and flowers ; for it is \ 
at the time of its blossoming that it is in its full vigour. The : 
seed is crushed, and the juice extracted from it is left to I 
thicken in the sun, and then divided into lozenges. This i 
In the same way that chloroform is now administered. I 
" Gicuta.** Identified with the Conium maculatum of Linnseus, i 
Common hemlock or Keghs. It grows in the vicinity of Athens, and pro- 
bably formed the basis of the poisons with which that volatile people *' re- 
compensed," as Fee remarks, the virtues and exploits of their philosophers I 
and generals. Socrates, Phocion, and Philopoemen, are said to have been j 
poisoned with hemlock ; but in the case of Socrates, it was probably com- 
bined with opium and other narcotics. See B. xiv. cc. 7, 28, andB. xxiii. 
c. 23, 
He has more than once stated, that it is not his object to enter into 
a description of poisons. 
''^ Fee doubts if it is possible to eat it, boiled even, with impunity. 
^6 See B. xiv. cc. 7, 28, and B. xxiii. c. 23. 
