IMPROVEMENT OF PHYSIC. 207 
difT. med. dnL Arch. Raeck. de medicam, 
domeft. 
4. 
An hafiy and imprudent judgment about poi* 
fons , and their difference from medicines which in 
reality differ only in degrees of ftrength . Hence 
our anceftors fcarcely ever dared to prefcribe 
the ufe of plants, which they imagined to be 
poifonous. 
The laurel is neither ufed in confumptions, 
nor venereal complaints, though an excel- 
lent remedy ; becaufe it is fufpedted to be 
poifonous. The pafque flower , whofe root 
is very efficacious in hyfteric complaints, 
is gone out of vogue *, becaufe Helvigius 
knew a perfon who dyed upon ufing a fy- 
rup made of it •, as if all inebriating drinks 
were to be difcarded, becaufe fome have 
loft their fenfes, and lives by an inordi- 
dinate ufe of them. The lignum colu- 
brinum % that is famous in venomous 
bites, and the quartan ague, is neglected 
for the fame reafon. Scarce any one dares 
' In vol. 2. Amaen. academ. there is a treatife on the lig- 
num colubrinum , in which the author undertakes to deter- 
mine From what plant this root is taken, and obferves that 
druggifts, For want oF a proper defcription, have conFound- 
ed it with two other plants, one oF which, and that gene- 
rally in the ihops, is oF a poiFonous nature. 
recom- 
