MISCELLANY. 
Decoction of Nut-Galls as an antidote for Cicuta Virosa, Hemlock.* 
By Dr. Meyer, of Creutzburg.— On the morning of the 19th of March, 
1841, four children, of three, five, and six years of age, found in the 
neighborhood of the village in which they lived, some roots of cicuta 
virosa, which had been carried there by the current of a rivulet, and, 
having mistaken them for parsneps, they ate the greater portion of them. 
The child aged three years was very soon attacked with colic, vomiting, 
and convulsions, and died at 1 P. M., without any treatment having 
been resorted to. 
The parents, who had learned this circumstance from the other three 
children who were affected in the same manner, and who had found in 
their hands another root of cicuta, made them drink milk in abundance, 
and at the same time sent for a surgeon, who immediately requested the 
assistance of Dr. Meyer. 
On the arrival of this physician, at about 2 o'clock, the three little 
patients had already taken ipecacuanha, but only a few and very scanty 
vomitings had resulted from it. The body of each of these children 
was cold, the countenance pale and wan, the pupils much dilated and 
fixed ; there were violent colics, and spasmodic motions throughout the 
body ; two of them had entirely lost consciousness, while the third re- 
gained his senses from time to time, and complained of singing in the 
ears and vertigo, after which he again fell into a comatose state. The 
respiration, in one of the children, w T as feeble and scarcely perceptible; 
but in the other two it was irregular, stertorous, and occasionally inter- 
rupted by sighs. The motions of the heart did not present their normal 
regularity; they were occasionally stopped for a longer or a shorter 
time, then they returned in a tumultuous manner; the arterial pulsa- 
tions, slow in general, presented nearly the same anomalies. 
Large doses of sulphate of zinc were immediately administered to the 
three patients, and several vomitings, accompanied with violent shocks, 
* Journal de Chimie Medicale ; from a German periodical not quoted. 
VOL. IX. NO. II. 14 
