2 BULLETIN 69, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
plant. To Konrad Gesner is generally given the credit of first clearly 
distinguishing Cicuta from Conium. Im 1541, in his Historia Plan- 
tarum, he speaks of it as Sium, but later he calls it Cicuta aquatica. 
In his edition of Dioscorides, 1543, he says ‘‘ Recentiores faciunt duo 
genera, aquaticae frigentis naturae, terrestris calide: verum quonam 
nullum idoneum praeferunt autorem, vereor ne, ut feresolent, 
hallucinentur.”” By the first he probably means Cicuta, and by the 
second, Conium. In 1561, in ‘ Horti Germaniae,”’ f. 253, he says 
‘“Cicuta aquatica, herba venenosa, Bartzenkraut Saxonibus, G. Circa 
paludes & in paludum marginibus sponte oritur, ut ad lacum Felium 
agri Tigurini plantare si quis velit, in aqua aut loco palustri pangatur 
oportet.”’ 
In 1679 was published “‘Cicutae Aquaticae Historia et Noxae,” by 
J.J. Wepfer. This book of 336 pages is a rather elaborate work, 
based on a case of poisoning in which two boys and six girls were 
involved. In the first nine chapters, comprising about one-half the 
book, the plant is described and a detailed account of the cases of 
poisoning given; there is a discussion of the symptoms, of the 
physiology and pharmacology of the cases, and details of the autop- 
sies are given. In the tenth chapter is an account of some experi- 
mental work. In the chapters from the eleventh to the twenty-first, 
inclusive, other poisons are taken up and discussed. The twenty- 
second chapter is concerned with the uses of Cicuta, and the twenty- 
third and last with remedial measures in cases of poisoning. While 
written in a diffuse style, with much extraneous matter and con- 
talning Many errors, it is on the whole a very remarkable work. 
When treating of facts Wepfer’s statements are clear-cut and accu- 
rate. His description of the symptoms of the poisoned children is 
not only one of the best accounts of the symptoms of Cicuta poisoning 
ever written, but is handled in a graphic style that could hardly be 
excelled. (See pp. 17-18.) 
In 1687 Wepfer published a short paper giving details in regard 
to four cases of poisoning, one of them being fatal. While Gesner 
was the first to distinguish what is now known as Cicuta in his Cicuta 
aquatica, Wepter was the first to set forth clearly the peculiar poison- 
ous properties of Cicuta. | 
Wepfer attempts to give the synonomy of preceding authors; for 
example, he gives— 
Oenanthe cicutae facie succo viroso crocante Lobel, 1570, p. 326. 
Cicutaria palustris tenuifolia Bauhin, 1623. Lib. IV, Sec. V, p. 161. 
Cicuta aquatica Gesnerit Bauhin, 1651. Lib. X XVII, p. 175. 
In regard to these and other identifications, it may be said that the 
plant descriptions of that time were not complete enough to make 
identification certain from morphological characters. The habits of 
these two genera, Conium and Cicuta, however, sometimes show 
pretty clearly which is meant. Conium grows in fairly dry ground 
