EXAMINATION OF THE ROOT OF THE HEMLOCK. 
53 
MINOR (registered as Assistants). 
Brooks, Thomas .Spalding. 
Cracknell, John Charles.Dartford. 
Davies, Thomas Morris .Ruabon. 
Holmes, Walter Murton .Ramsgate. 
Latter, Leonard .Westerham. 
Richardson, Richard Thomas.Conway. 
Silvester, Henry Thomas .Knutsford. 
Sims, Charles Redman Hindostan.Warminster. 
Smith, Mark.Nottingham. 
Young, Richard .Wellington. 
REGISTERED APPRENTICES AND STUDENTS. 
Name. Residing with Address. 
Blayney, Robert Boyer .Mr. Mills .Chester. 
Burrell, Samuel James .Mr. Smart.Thetford. 
Hart, Thomas .Mr. Hebb.Manchester. 
Parker, John Samuel .Messrs. Sturton .Peterborough. 
Somers, Robert Walter .Mr. Shepherd .Guildford. 
Woods, Richard .Mr. Mason .Cirencester. 
ORIGINAL AND EXTRACTED ARTICLES. 
A CHEMICAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL EXAMINATION OF THE 
ROOT OF THE HEMLOCK—CONIUM MACULATUM. 
BY JOHN HARLEY, M.D. LOND., F.L.S., 
ASSISTANT PHYSICIAN TO KING’S COLLEGE HOSPITAL, ETC. 
All that is known of the root of the hemlock is contained in the following :— 
(а) Theofrastos* * * § says that in the case of other roots the juice is weaker than 
the fruit, but that of <u>veiov is stronger, and rids a man of life easily and 
quickly when given as a potion in a very small quantity. 
(б) “Two priests ate hemlock roots by mistake ; they became raving mad, 
and mistaking themselves for geese plunged into the water. For three years 
they suffered with partial palsy and violent pain/’f 
(c) A vinedresser and his wife ate hemlock roots by mistake for parsneps, 
and went to bed. They awoke in the middle of the night quite mad, and took 
to running about the house in the dark, bruising themselves severely against the 
walls. They recovered under suitable treatment.:}: 
(t/) Storck makes the following extraordinary statement:—“ The fresh root, 
when it is cut in pieces, emits a milk which is acrid and bitter to the taste. On 
rubbiug a drop or two of it on the end of the tongue, it presently became stiff, 
swollen, and very painful, and soon afterwards 1 lost the power of speaking.” 
Again, “ If the powder of the root of hemlock be made into pills with a sufficient 
quantity of mucilage of gum tragacanth, a medicine is produced of great efficacy, 
but which requires great circumspection in the use of it.”§ 
(e) Gtnelin quotes an instance in which 4 ounces of the juice of the root 
were taken without injury. But the plant which furnished it does not appear 
to have been properly identified.)! 
* Hist. Plant. IV. viii. p. 298, ed. Schneider. 
f Kircher, Wiinber, ‘Wirkung der Arzneimittel und Gifte,’ lor. ii. 172. Pereira, Mat. 
Med., vol. ii. part ii. p. 201. 
X Petri A. Matthioli ‘ Commentarii in sex libros Dioscoridis,’ p. 736, ed. Venetiis, 1582. 
Gmelin’s ‘ Pflanzengit'te,’ p. 604. ('rfila, Toxicol. Gen., ii. p. 426, 4me edit. Christison, 
Trans. Roy. Sec. Edin., vol. xiii. p. 396. 
§ A. Storck, ‘ Essay on the Medicinal Use of Hemlock,’ pp. 8, 12. || Op. cit. sec. 605. 
