Poisonous Effects. — The subjoined cases more fully illustrate the symptoms this violent poison 
produces — 
“Two ladies of Castle Donnington, Leicestershire, partook of some salad wherein JEthusa Cynapium 
had been put by mistake, with common parsley, for which it had been grown and was gathered. Symptoms 
of an alarming kind soon followed, indicative of the full operation of that pernicious vegetable. They were, 
a troublesome nausea, with occasional sickness; accompanied with oppressive headache and giddiness; also 
a strong propensity to slumber, at the same time that calm repose was wholly prevented by frequent startings 
and excessive agitations. The mouth, throat, and stomach, were impressed with the sensation of pungent 
heat, attended with great difficulty in swallowing. Increased thirst prevailed, with total loss of appetite 
for every kind of solid aliment. The extremities felt benumbed and were affected with tremors; and all the 
vital and animal functions were performed with unusual inactivity .” The ladies recovered, but no allusion 
is made to the treatment that was pursued. 
The following relation was communicated to Mr. Curtis, by Mr. Lowe, Surgeon, at Preston — 
“On Thursday, the 5th of June, Mr. Frekleton, a healthy, strong man, about 35 years of age, a 
publican, ate a handful of fool’s parsley with nearly the same quantity of young lettuce, about one o’clock 
at noon; in about ten minutes he was affected with a pain and hardness in his stomach and bowels, attended 
with a rumbling. He walked out into the fields, but was seized with such languor, weariness, and weakness, 
that it was with difficulty he supported himself till he got home; he was much troubled with giddiness in 
his head, his vision was confused, and sometimes objects appeared double; at seven o’clock he took an 
emetic, which brought up, he supposes, all the fool’s parsley he had eaten, but not any of the lettuce; this 
considerably relieved him from the uneasy sensations in the bowels, but the other symptoms continued, and 
he passed a restless night. Next day he had much pain in his head and eyes, which last were inflamed and 
bloodshot: he had different circumscribed swellings in his face, which were painful and inflamed, but they 
were transient and flew from place to place; this night he took a powder, which made him perspire pro- 
fusely. On Saturday his eyes were highly inflamed, painful, and entirely closed by the surrounding inflam- 
mation; this day he was bled, which gave him much ease in his head and eyest From this time until 
Monday he continued to get better, but had, even then, pain, heat and inflammation in his eyes, with 
cedematous swellings of his cheeks ; his remaining symptoms went off gradually, and he is now well. He 
had been told that the plant he had eaten was hemlock : to be satisfied, I accompanied him into the garden 
where he had gathered the plant, and found it to be JEthusa Cynapium , or fool’s parsley.” 
M. Yicat relates that a boy six years of age, having eaten this plant at four in the afternoon, which he 
mistook for parsley, began immediately to utter cries of anguish, and complained of cramps in the stomach : 
while he was going from the country to his father’s house, the whole of his body became excessively swelled, 
and assumed a livid appearance : his breathing became every moment more difficult, and short ; and he died 
towards midnight. Another child, aged four, was also poisoned by the same plant, and although the con- 
tents of his stomach were rejected, he went out of his senses, talked extravagantly, but eventually recovered, 
by suitable medical assistance. 
* That the root of this plant contains a most energetic poison and that it is capable of producing rapidly 
fatal effects, is proved by a case reported by Mr. Thomas, in which death took place in an hour. In May 
1845, a child aged five years, in good health, ate the bulbs of the ffithusa by mistake for young turnips. She 
was suddenly seized with pain in the abdomen, followed by sickness, but no vomiting. She complained of 
feeling very ill. On trying to eat, she could not swallow. She was incapable of answering questions, and 
her countenance bore a wild expression. The lower jaw became fixed, so as to prevent anything being 
introduced into the mouth. She then became insensible, and died in an hour from the commencement 
of the symptoms: so far as could be ascertained, there were no convulsions. No post-mortem examination 
was made. A second child, aged three years, shortly after eating the same substance, was attacked with pain 
in the epigastrium, sickness, vomiting, and profuse perspiration. She soon recovered, with the exception 
of suffering severe griping pains without purging, but these disappeared the following day. A third child, 
of the same age, suffered from similar symptoms. Recovery in the two last cases was due to the plant 
having been eaten on a full stomach, and to the effect of early and copious vomiting. (Medical Times, 
Aug. 23, 1845. 408.) Mr. Thomas injected about two ounces of the juice expressed from the recent bulbs 
into the stomach of a dog through an aperture in the oesophagus, which he afterwards secured by a ligature. 
There were violent spasms and urgent attempts to vomit. In most of the animals upon which this ex- 
periment was tried, death took place in from one to four hours. 
The poisonous properties of this plant are believed to be due to an alkaloid, the chemical characters of 
which are unknown. 
Morbid Appearances.— Riviere informs us, p. 255, that in a person who died after having taken 
this plant, “the tongue was black ; a brownish serosity was found in the stomach ; the liver was hard, and 
of a yellow colour; the spleen livid ; but the body was not at all emphysematous.” 
Treatment. — Emetics and purgatives should be administered, and as soon as the poison is evacuated, 
vinegar and the citric or other vegetable acids. Should stupor remain, apply cold affusions to the head, or 
bleed from the jugular vein: apply friction to the body, and sinapisms to the feet: and during the cure, 
give small doses of sulphate of magnesia, dissolved in almond emulsion. 
Poisons, by Mr A. S. Taylor. 
