TRANSLATIONS FROM THE CONTINENTAL JOURNALS. 463 
— was reddened, hot, and very painful, with infiltration into the 
cellular tissue. In other cases there was only a discoloration of 
the skin, attended, however, with swelling and great pain, 
with but few blisters. One person nearly escaped the effect 
altogether, by having taken the precaution of bathing the part 
during the day with whev. Another lessened the severity of 
the attack by frequent ablution in one of the ditches in the 
field. No part of the skin not having been in contact with 
the parsnip presented any alteration ; and workmen out of 
the field had not suffered. During twenty years it has been 
the custom to collect this herb, which grows wild in the 
district ; and similar effects have been observed. 
The author then cites several similar cases in other districts, 
in the years 1849, 54, and 56; — all occurring in the month of 
August, and in foggy, dewy, close weather. In some instances 
he says it took fifty days to effect a cure. 
[Burnett, speaking of this plant, says, “ Hcracleam Sphon- 
dylium , the cow-parsnip, is another very nutritious plant. 
The Kamtschatdales and Russians eat the young shoots and 
leaf-stalks, after the rind, which is acrid, is peeled off. They 
collect large bundles of them, and during drying the peeled 
stalks become covered with a saccharine efflorescence, which 
is considered a great delicacy. In Poland and Lithuania a 
kind of beer is brewed from the stalks thus prepared ; and 
when mixed with bilberries and fermented, the Russians 
distil a spirit from them, which Gmelin says is preferable to 
that procured from corn. The young shoots, when boded, 
form a delicate vegetable resembling asparagus. Both the 
root and herb afford nutritious fodder for cattle. Cow r s, 
swine, and rabbits are very fond of it ; and horses will eat it, 
but it does not seem to be so agreeable to them/ 5 ] 
THE LAST WISH. 
Napoleon, in his dying moments, wished to be buried 
on the banks of the Seine. We wonder if an English hero, 
in the highest bound of his patriotism, would ever, as his 
last wish, express the desire to be buried on the banks of the 
Thames ! Considering the unsavoury nature of the resting- 
place, we should say it would be his last wish. — Punch . 
