July 27, 1972.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
73 
(Enanthe crocatct. Our contemporary, however, speaks 
of the poison as having been afforded hy the roots of the 
common Hcmlocli, Coiiium mciculutnm. Those Tvho 
have seen a Celery bed in full seed,’ says the Telegraph, 
will know how difficult it is for any but a practised 
botanist to distinguish the deadly Conium maculatum 
from its harmless [?] sister Umbellifer, Apium gravcolcns. 
There is a little mistake here, as the writer would find 
if he indulged too freely in the 4 sister Umbellifer’m its 
wild state. A parallel is then drawn between the case of 
these poor hoys and that of Socrates, the symptoms aie 
agonizingly detailed, and their severity explained hy the 
fact, that ‘Hemlock, with scarce an exception, is the 
most deadly plant in our English flora [?]- an opinion 
hacked up hy a quotation from Gcrarde s 4 Herbal. Our 
contemporary probably means "Water Hemlock, though 
he distinctly says Conium maculatum , which is poisonous 
no doubt, hut not nearly so much so as the Cimta or the 
(Enanthe. To give further point to his remarks the 
leader writer in the Telegraph goes on to tell us of ladies 
mistaking wild Garlic for Lily of the A alley. and has a 
hit at 4 crass gardeners ’ for mistaking the root of deadly 
Monkshood' [Aconite] for Horse Radish, a mistake that 
has unfortunately too often been made, but not, we 
venture to assert, by any ‘gardener, for, contrary to our 
contemporary’s assertion that it would puzzle Gerarde 
himself to distinguish the two roots [ ! ! ], we venture to 
think that to any one at all accustomed to look at plants 
no two things can well be more dissimilar than the loot 
of Aconite and the root-stock of Horse Radish. Certainly 
no gardener properly so called would ever make so 
terrible a blunder. In the same strain our contempoiai} 
descants on other poisonous British plants, including the 
wood Hellebore, 4 Spring’s White Rose [! ! ], the sweet 
viscid pericarps of the A ew, and the black deadly wild 
cherries of the Atropos belladonna ’ [ ! ! j, etc. A disquisi¬ 
tion on the origin of evil follows, and the article ends 
with a passage with the spirit of which we thoroughly 
sympathize:— 
4 4 4 Surely, then, in addition to the sage old rule, which 
warns us to let all strange plants alone, we should do 
well to impress upon children, and especially upon school¬ 
boys, a little—a few simple truths—of the natural history 
of our indigenous plants. No pursuit is more fascinating 
than is botany, in spite of the hideous phraseology with 
which it is encumbered. AYe do not speak here of the 
botany which is to be learnt from books, and the chief use 
of which is to enable a candidate to gain a certain number 
of marks in an examination for the Indian Civil (Service, 
hut of that botany which is acquired face to face with 
Nature, and under the broad canopy of heaven. It needs 
no tall talk in barbarous dog-Latin to show a lad the 
umbrella-like structure of the Umbellifers, and to teach 
him the simple and practically true generalization that 
all Umbellifers are deadly [?]. It was for want of some 
such simple wisdom that George Dobson and Albert 
Kinsey perished. How long will it be before we recog¬ 
nize that a little knowledge of Nature and her ways is 
worth all the idle lore with which pedants, learned and 
unlearned, have encumbered the history of the Heptarchy 
and of the early Roman Kings ? ’ 
44 AYe have only further to remark, for the consolation 
of our contemporary, that he may safely eat ^Carrots and 
Parsnips, Carraway, Coriander, Aniseed, kennel, An¬ 
gelica, Chervil, Samphire, Umbellifers though they be; 
and to express a hope that before our contemporary 
parades his botanical lore again he may take the precau¬ 
tion of studying the books he affects to despise, and so 
save himself from falling into a tissue of blunders, the 
like of which we have rarely met with, even in 4 new s- 
paper science.’ ” 
Perhaps after this our readers will not he sur¬ 
prised to learn that the plant was neither the 
Cimta rirosa nor Conium maculatum hut the (Enan¬ 
the crocata. 
EXAMINATIONS IN LONDON. 
Julg 17 th, 19 th and 22ncl, 1872. 
Major. 
Seventeen candidates were examined; of these, eight 
failed. The following nine passed, and were declared 
qualified to be registered as Pharmaceutical Chemists : 
*Tilden, AYilliam Augustus ... .Barnsbury. 
*Hick, George .Bradford. 
* Parson, Henry James.Birmingham. 
AYalker, Joseph .Dresden. 
Mills, Robert .London. 
Badcock, Daniel .Barnard Castle. 
Powell, Thomas Henry ...... Hornsey Rise. 
Ashworth, Amos .London. 
Young, John Rymer . 
, AYarrington. 
*( 
Minor. 
Seventv-eight candidates were examined; of these 
thirty-eight failed. The following forty passed, and 
were declared qualified to be registed as Chemists and 
Druggists :— 
* Pickard, AYilliam.Yeoffil. 
/ * Baynes, James, jun.Sheffield. 
* Edwards, David... 
*Ekins, Arthur Edward.Cambridge. 
*McJannet, James .North AA alsham. 
- Oxley, Herbert Lister.Heeds. ^ 
* Russell, Charles Hamdge ... .Blackheath. 
Cooper, Herbert Hudson .... Birmingham. 
Margetts, Usher ..Hastv ood. 
•a (Frowd, Edward Francis ..London 
»I r t ed f h” Benjam "::: :S"4. 
1 j Slinett, Thomas'Samuel.East Grinstead. 
W ) Sykes Joseph Spencer .Sheffield. 
-a ( Ellison, John Clement.Ashton-under-L\ ne. 
I { Shapley, .. • 
{ .. :::: .. T ^ dril - 
Daves, William.Sheffield.' 
{ Pe“WffliSn' FrancisGreat Yarmouth, 
g ( Jackson, Alfred Hem-ick. 
? < pY Ed Utl Herb .' I:"'.',London. 
| { Plimmer, William Thomas 
Norton, ihomas . x? QQ a;no- 
:: j&oieSwa. 
| j Browm'John Ephraim .Grantham. 
| \ Smith, Charles Clapeott. 3 Helens 
I { Fletcher, Joseph ........... ;;? r 
M Timing, Edmund John Henry |^ r ‘ d gridge. 
Walton, Major Foulds .»oweio) 
Jameson, Walter George .... 
Eowcroft, Albert Edward .. • 'S™ 8 
| { Harsant, Frank Worsley ... -JP^. 
Norton. Charles .. outh . 
Hill, Ernest . J ., 
The above names are arranged m order 0 men • 
a 
0 
a* 
W 
& 
77 
O’ 
W 
* Passed with Honours. 
