C 447 ] 
fortune of the Green-ficknefs upon them at that 
Juncture of Time. The Madnefs of ail thefe Patients 
was fo complete* and their Agitations fo violent, 
that in order to give one of them the Antidote, I 
was forced to employ fix ftrong Men to hold him, 
while I was getting his Teeth afunder, to pour down 
the Remedy : And as they could not all be watch'd 
at once, one of the Boys got away, and ran to a 
Pond ioo Paces from the Houfe, into which he 
leaped ; but as he was feen, he was foon taken out. 
You muft be fenfible, Sir, what Confufion I was in 
at fo preffing a Jun&ure of Time. 
'Twas vain to examine thofe Wretches concerning 
the Nature of the Poifon they had taken, as they 
were quite fenfelefs. Happily the Father of the Fa- 
mily, by being abfent, was free from this Mif- 
fortune. Of him I learn'd, that digging his Garden 
the preceding Day, he had found feveral Roots refem- 
bling common ‘Parfnips ; and having carried^ them 
home for ‘Parfnips , they were boil'd in the Soap j 
and the unlucky Miftake was not apprehended, till 
the Children were in this dreadful State. He de- 
fcribed to me the Plant, which he thought he had 
taken for Tarfnips ; whereupon 1 went into the 
Garden, in order to find and know what it was; but 
as it had no Leaves, I was obliged to derive the 
Knowledge of it from the Roots j and foon knew it 
to be the Henbane , which is a very ftrong Poifon 5 
and fo much the more dangerous, as the Patients 
could give no Account of their Ailments, nor of 
the Quality of the Poifon they had taken. 
Mtnm 2 
To 
