CICUTA, OR WATER HEMLOCK. 3 
in the neighborhood of towns, while Cicuta grows in wet places. 
So when Ray speaks of Cicutaria palustris, 1704, Lib. VIII, p. 257, 
we can be reasonably certain that he means Cicuta. If the symptoms 
of poisoning are given, as in Wepfer’s work, the identity of the plant 
is without question. 
During the seventeenth century Cicuta was mentioned by other 
authors, but little was written of it as a poisonous plant. 
In 1723 Helds, Weinmann, and Goritz described a case of three 
students near Regensburg who ate the root of Cicuta virosa with 
resulting illness and two fatalities. There are three independent 
accounts, one by each of the writers mentioned, and the symptoms 
and autopsy findings are described in some detail. Weinmann tells 
of the death of. seven persons near Nuremberg. Goritz grew the 
plant and gives a description of it. 
The next account of importance was by Schwencke in 1756. The 
original paper was in Dutch, but a German translation by Miller 
was published in 1776. After a description cf the plant he gives 
the details of the poisoning of four children near the village of 
Overschie. They were left to themselves in their home, and the 
mother on her return found them scattered about the floor “‘strug- 
gling with death.” Three of the four died. Autopsies weremade 
on two, and Schwencke gives the details of the autopsies and discusses 
the symptoms fully. 
Up to the nineteenth century there were many other references to 
Cicuta, some of which gave some little information in regard to its 
poisonous properties, but the foregoing account includes the more 
important papers. All of these accounts were concerned with the 
European species, Cicuta virosa. 
During the nineteenth century a large number of cases ial poisoning 
by Cicuta virosa were reported, the greater number being in Ger- 
many. ‘These reports bear a close resemblance to each other. Most 
of the cases were of children, and the descriptions of symptoms 
differ but little, except that in some cases greater detail is given. 
Much of this literature will be referred to in the further discussion of 
the subject. 
Apparently the first mention of Cicuta as a poisonous plant in 
America was by Schwencke, who speaks of it as the Virginian ‘‘ Wasser 
Schierling.” Schoepf, in his Materia Medica Americana, 1787, makes 
the following statement: “Ob affinitatem genericam cum Cicuta 
virosa partim, suspecta esse deberet; id quod testimonium Schwenku, 
de Cicuta aquatica, p. 28, confirmat, qui hanc plantam Cephalalgiam 
et vertiginem causare dicit.’’ 
In this connection it should perhaps be noted that the so-called 
Cicuta venenosa described in connection with a case of poisoning by 
Greenway, 1793, was not Cicuta. In the Kew index this name is 
