IN SUFFICIENT QUANTITIES TO PROVE POISONOUS? 187 
I have ascertained that a quantity of sheep are every year washed in 
the stream, about two miles before it reaches the field ; but as it supplies 
the cattle throughout the locality in which it passes, I cannot think that 
this can have anything to do with the cause of the evil, as no cattle 
except those in the two fields have been similarly affected. 
Charles Wallis. 
Subsequently to this Mr. Wallis brought with him some 
of the plants which it was thought had been productive of 
the mischief, and which we believed to be the Ranunculus 
bulbosus of Linnaeus. Respecting it, Professor Lindley, in 
his e Flora Medica/ says : 
“ Exceedingly acrid, raising blisters and producing extensive inflam¬ 
mation, sometimes followed by deep ill-conditioned sloughing ulcers in 
certain constitutions, but not affecting all persons alike, in which 
respect it resembles the poisonous species of rhus and antiaris. 
“ Gilbert states that it vesicates with less pain than cantharides, and 
without affecting the urinary organs.” 
Sir Gilbert T. Burnett, in his e Outlines of Botany/ under 
the head Ranunculacecc , has the following: 
“ Nearly two hundred species of ranunculus are known, and these 
have been distributed into five or six sections, or sub-genera. The 
whole have a pretty, and some very showy blossoms. They are 
remarkable for their general acridity. Some are violent poisons, such 
as R. scututus, which was formerly employed by the Swiss hunters to 
envenom their darts with which they shot the wild beasts; and others, 
such as R. sceleratus and acris, are scarcely less virulent. They excoriate 
the skin, and form ulcers that are difficult to heal; and even carrying 
specimens for a short time will occasionally inflame the hand. The water 
crow-foot ( R. aquatiUs) is less acrid than any of the rest, and Dr. Pulteney 
extols it as a wholesome and nutritious fodder. In some parts of the 
country, as near Kingswood, on the banks of the Avon, the cottagers 
support their cows, and even their horses, almost wholly on this plant; 
and in wet situations where it abounds, it would become, were its pro¬ 
perties generally known, of considerable economical importance. Cattle 
will also eat the R. arvensis with avidity, but it is a dangerous food; 
and its juice is so poisonous that M. Bruvnon says three ounces killed 
a dog in four minutes, and sheep have been poisoned by feeding on it 
near Turin. The vulgar opinion, that the butter in spring owes its 
deeper colour and richness to the ranunculi, hence called butter-cups, 
is an error scarcely worthy of contradiction, for they are plants that 
the cattle rarely touch.” 
He adds further: 
“The Ranunculaceae are in general poisonous plants, as remarkable 
for the acridity of their juices and venomous properties as for the 
beauty of their flowers. The principle upon which their deleterious 
powers depends is, according to the observations of Krappen, of a very 
