484 POISONS : THEIR EFFECTS AND DETECTION. [§ 625 . 
of the plant ; its chemistry has yet to be worked out. M. Toulmouche 
(Gaz. Med., 1846) has recorded, as the expert employed in the case, 
an attempt to murder by using the (Enanthe as a poison ; a woman 
scraped the root into her husband’s soup with evil intent, but the taste 
was unpleasant, and led to the detection of the crime. The root has 
been mistaken several times for parsnip and other edible roots, and has 
thus led to poisonings. The case of 36 soldiers poisoned in this way, in 
1758, has been recorded by Orfila ; there was 1 death. In 1803 three 
soldiers were poisoned at Brest—1 died. In Woolwich, Bossey witnessed 
the poisoning of 21 convicts who ate the roots and leaves of the plant— 
6 died. In 1858 there were several sailors poisoned-in a similar way— 
2 died ; while there have been numerous cases in which the plant has 
been partaken of by children. 
§ 625. The effects of the poison may be gathered from a case of poison¬ 
ing 1 which occurred in 1882 at Plymouth ; a Greek sailor, aged 30, 
found on the coast what he considered “ wild celery.” and ate part of the 
root and some of the stem. Two hours after this he ate a good meal and 
felt perfectly well, but fifteen minutes later he suddenly and violently 
vomited ; the whole contents of the stomach were completely evacuated. 
In five minutes he became unconscious, and had muscular twitchings 
about the limbs and face. There was a copious flow of a thick, tena¬ 
cious mucus from the mouth which hung about the lips and clothing in 
viscid strings. Twenty-four hours after the poisoning he was admitted 
into the South Devon Hospital apparently semi-comatose ; his legs 
dragged, and he had only feeble control of them ; the extremities were 
cold, but there was general free sweating. He could be roused only with 
difficulty. There were no spasms, the pupils were dilated and sluggish, 
the respiration only 14 per minute. Twelve hours after admission he 
became warmer, and perspired freely ; he slept continuously, but could 
easily be roused. On the following day he was quite conscious, and made 
a good recovery. Two companions who had also eaten a smaller quantity 
of the hemlock dropwort, escaped with some numbing sensations and 
imperfect control over the extremities. In the Woolwich cases the 
symptoms seem to have been something similar ; in about twenty 
minutes, one man, without any apparent warning, fell down in strong 
convulsions, which soon ceased, although he looked wild ; a little while 
afterwards his face became bloated and livid, his breathing stertorous 
and convulsive, and he died in five minutes after the first symptoms had 
set in. A second died with similar symptoms in a quarter of an hour, 
a third died in about an hour, a fourth in a little more than an hour ; 
two other cases also proved fatal, one in nine days, the other in eleven. 
In the two last cases there were signs of intestinal irritation. The 
majority of the others fell down in a state of insensibility with con- 
1 Lancet, Dee. 18, 1882. 
