92 C O N 
fixth conjugation or pair of nerves. Brown. —The a£l#cf 
uniting or compiling things together.—All the various 
mixtures and conjugations of atoms do beget nothing. 
Bentley. —The form of indenting verbs through their te- 
ries of terminations.—Have thole who have writ fo much 
about declenfions'-and conjugations, about concords and 
fyntaxes, loll their labour, and been learned to no pur- 
pole ? Locke. —Union affemblage.—The fupper of the 
Lord is the mod facred, mylterious, and ufeful, conjuga¬ 
tion of fecret and holy things and duties. Taylor. 
CPNI'UM,/! [from zona, cluft, according to Linnaeus; 
but Martin lays rather from Hcoyccu, to whirl about, on 
account of its inebriating poifonous quality.'] Hemlock. 
In, botany, a genus of the clals pentandria, order mpno- 
gynia, natural order of umbellatae, or umbelliferai. The 
generic characters are—Calyx : umbel univerfal, with 
jnany fpreading rays ; partial, fintilar; involucre univer- 
fal, many leaved, very fitort, unequal ; partial, halved, 
fhfee-leaved; perianthium proper, fcarcely obfervable. 
Corolla: univerfal, uniform; proper of five petals, in¬ 
dex heart-fliaped, unequal. Stamina: filaments-five, 
fnuple ; anthene roundilli. Piftillum: germ inferior ; 
ftyles two, reflex ; lligmas obtufe. Pericarpium: none ; 
fruit nearly globofe, five-ftreaked, the ftreaks notched, 
bipartile. Seeds: two, convex on one fide; almoft he- 
anifpherical, llriated ; flat on the other fide.— FJJhnial 
CharaEler. Partial involucre halved, three-leaved; fruit 
nearly globular, five-ftreaked, notched on each fide. 
Species, i. Comum maculatum, or common hemlock : 
feeds ftriated. Root biennial, refembling that of a final! 
pkrfnip ; ftem from four to fix feet in height and up¬ 
wards, hollow, round, Aiming, fmooth, covered with 
a bluifii powder, which eafily wipes off, fpotted and 
ftreaked with livid purple, towards the top branched 
and ftriated ; bottom leaves very large, even-two feet in 
length, of a dark green colour, but paler underneath; 
fruit ovate, gibbous, with compreffed ribs, waved before 
it is ripe, but becoming almolt ftraight: leeds brownifli, 
refembling thofe-of anifeed, with five notched elevated 
ridges, three on the back, and two on the fide. 
Hemlock is obvioufly. diftinguifhed. by its large and 
fpotted ftalk ; by the dark and finning green colour of 
its bottom leaves, and particularly by their difagreeable 
linell when bruited. It is frequent by road and hedge 
fides,,iii cultivated ground, among rubbifli,..and on dung¬ 
hills ; flowering in June and July. According to Lin¬ 
naeus, fhcep eat the leaves; hor.fes, cows,,and goats, re¬ 
fute them. Ray informs us, that the thrufh wall feed 
upon the feeds, even when corn is to be had. Mr. Curtis 
remarks, -that it appears to be eaten by very few or no 
infedts. The dried fiftulous • ftalks of this and feveral 
<. ther umbellate plants,, are called by the country people 
kakjies: Gerarde applies the name to this fpecies. 
This plant, which was fiigmatifed as one of the moft 
noxious of vegetable poifons, has of late years been con¬ 
sidered as a highly ufeful and powerful article of the 
Materia Mcdica ; and it has been proved by indifputable 
experiments, that, though highly deleterious when im¬ 
prudently ufed, yet in fmall doles it has been productive 
if confiderabls benefit in cafes which have refifted the 
i.ifual methods. It has-been particularly celebrated in 
cancerous cafes.- The. fir ft phyfician who endeavoured 
to bring hemlock into repute as a medicine was baron 
Stoerck of Vienna, who announced its extraordinary ef¬ 
fects in the year 1760. To enumerate all the difeafes in 
which he lets forth its powerful effects, would be to give 
a catalogue of moft of. the chronic disorders that atfefct 
mankind. To eftimate with precifion, however, the vir¬ 
tues of hemlock, feems no eafy tafk: had Dr. Stoerck’s 
publication contained fewer and lels extraordinary in. 
Ifimces of fuccefs,. its virtues might have been held in 
higher efleera than- they at prefent are ; while thole 
authors who have condemned it as entirely ufelefs and 
highly dangerous, teem to have done it equal injuftice : 
for, though in our own. country we cannot adduce in-,. 
1 
G O -K 
fiances, like thofe mentioned by Dr. Stoerck, of its curing 
inveterate cancers, ulcers, &c. we have fiill the teftimo- 
nies of eminent practitioners in favour of its good effects 
in fome cafes which had refifted the ufual applications^ 
and that even lorne cafes, which if not really cancerous, 
were at lealb f’ufpecied to be of a cancerous tendency, 
were greatly benefited by it. In chronic rheumatifms, 
alio, and in fome glandular fiVellings, as well as in va¬ 
rious periodical pains, the hemlock is frequently,.em¬ 
ployed. Externally the leaves have been applied with 
advantage to ulcers, indurated tumours, dec. &c. Much 
has been fn id refpecting the variable. nature.of.the plant; 
tiie time of collecting and -preparing it, &c, according ta 
which its^efficacy mufi undoubtedly be greater or lels, 
't he principal point, however, fltould feem. to.be t!ie 
due regulation of the dofe,. which requires tiie conduct 
of a fkilful practitioner, beginning with a few grains per¬ 
il. ips of the extract or powder, and gradually increaiing 
it till a flight tendency to vertigo or other fvmptoms mi- 
nifeft the- full fufficiency of the quantity. The extract 
from the feeds is find to produce giddinefs Jfoo her than' 
that from the leaves. According to Dr. Withering, the 
powder of the dried leaves feems to a£t with more cer- 
taintjr'than the extrait. He recommends- the following, 
method: Let the leaves be gathered about the end of 
June, when the plant is in flower; pick off the little 
leaves, and throw away the ftalks; dry the above-men¬ 
tioned little leaves in a hot funfhine, or in a tin dripping- 
pan or other convenicnt velfel before the fire ; preferve 
them, in bags of ftrong brown papery or powder them and 
keep them in glafs phials, and put them an a drawer, or 
any place where the light does not come y.for it is ob- 
ferved, that the light has the power not only:of taking 
away their fine green colour, but alio their virtue. From 
fifteen to., twenty grains of', this powder may be taken 
twice or thrice a-day. It is found" to be particularly fer- 
viceable in chronic rheumatifms. Di'. Stoerck’s method 
of making the extract of hemlock (cxtrattuni acuta, of the 
lhops) is to take the frefli juice, of the leaves, .and in- 
fpiffate it gently over the fire, till it has acquired the 
confidence of a thick extract : this is to be. mixed with 
fo much of the powdered leaves as will be fufficient fo 
making- the mafs into, pills. 
z: Conium rigens, or fine-leaved hemlock: feeds fome- 
what muricated; peduncles grooved ; leaflets channelled,, 
obtufe. Stem Ihrubby, flioft, (tiff; branches longer, 
fpreading very much, remote! Native of the Cape of 
Good Hope, on the coaft. It flowers in June. 
3. Conium Africanum, or rue-leaved hemlock: feeds, 
muricated ; petioles and peduncles gloffy. Leaflets flat- 
tilh, not channelled, fmelling like ffnallage or celery; 
many of the flowers barrfen ; feeds longer than in the 
common fort. Annual ; native of the Cape of Good 
Hope. Cultivated in 1759 by Mr. Miller, who received, 
the feeds from the famous Boerhaave. 
4. Conium Royeni -. feeds radiate-fpi'ny. David van. 
Royen received this from Egypt. Lamarck regards it 
rathef as a fpecies of caucalis. 
5. Coniynn tenuifolium :. root and firm leaves Ample,, 
linear. Stem herbaceous, .upright, a foot high, fcarcely 
branched,.(lender, round,, fmooth, ilightly ftreaked. Na¬ 
tive of the Cape of Good Hope. 
Propagation and .Culture. Common hemlock, growing 
wild in moft parts of England, is leldom allowed a place 
in gardens; It may however eafily be propagated from 
feeds; and if thefe be permitted to fcatter, .plants will, 
come up plentifully, and only require to be thinned for 
medical life. The feeds of the Cape forts fhould be fown 
in pots in.autumn, foon after they are ripe, and placed 
under a common frame in winter, where they may be ex- 
pofed to the open air at all times when the weather is 
mild, and only covered in bad weather. The plants will 
come up early in the fpring, and mult then be expofed 
to the open air co’nftantiy when the weather will permit, v 
otherwile they will draw up very weak. As they do- 
1101 
