BEST  PART  OF  CONIUM  MACULATUM  FOR  MEDICINE.  459 
AN  ATTEMPT  TO  ANSWER  THE  QUESTION:  WHICH  PART 
OF  THE  PLANT  CONIUM  MACULATUM  IS  THE  BEST  FOR 
MEDICINAL  USE? 
By  Wm.  Manlius  Smith,  M.D.,  Manlius,  N.  Y. 
[Note. — Last  year  we  published  the  statements  of  Dr.  Harley,  of  Lon- 
don, in  relation  to  the  Conium  of  England,  and  it  is  but  proper  to  give 
place  to  the  report  of  Dr.  Smith,  who  is  a  careful  and  qualified  experi- 
menter. It  is  to  be  regretted  that  a  remedy  so  much  used  should  be  so 
variable.  We  have  known  two-grain  pills  of  Tilden  k  Co.'s"  Ext.  Conii," 
U.S. P.,  to  be  returned  because  of  their  excessive  activity,  the  patient 
supposing  that  an  error  had  been  made  ;  and  formerly,  when  illustrating 
the  chemistry  of  Conium,  we  used  a  specimen  of  Thayer's  fluid  extract, 
as  being  particularly  good.  The  great  importance  of  uniformity  in 
the  strength  of  medicines  of  this  class  should  cause  manufacturers  to 
carefully  seek  out  all  causes  of  variation,  and  avoid  them.  Immature 
plants,  those  that  are  too  old,  and  those  that  have  become  altered  by  the 
fermentative  action  arising  from  the  green  plant  lying  in  heaps,  prepara- 
tory to  pressing  it.  It  is  well  known  that  most  of  the  Conium  used  by 
the  extract  makers  is  of  spontaneous  growth,  along  roadsides  and  near 
dwellings,  and  that  often  many  hours,  if  not  a  day  or  two,  elapses  between 
the  gathering  and  pressing.  Now  it  is  quite  probable  that  much  of  the 
conium  may  be  more  or  less  injured  by  this  fermentation,  according  to 
the  extent  it  has  advanced  ;  and  as  it  is  not  probable  that  the  injured 
plant  is  rejected,  it  is  to  be  feared  that  much  inferior  Conium  enters  the 
preparations  of  commerce.  Formerly,  when  alcohol  was  cheap,  we  be- 
lieve Tilden  &  Co.  used  to  sprinkle  the  recent  herbs  with  it,  with  a  view 
to  retard  decomposition.  They  formerly  added  alcohol  to  the  marc  before 
pressing,  for  similar  reasons,  and  to  favor  the  extraction  of  the  juice. 
We  do  not  know  what  the  present  custom  is.  So  long  as  the  business  of 
making  narcotic  and  other  extracts  from  green  plants  is  consigned  to 
these  large  operators,  it  is  very  needful  that  they  should  use  every  pre- 
caution to  guard  against  deteriorating  causes. — Editor  Am.  J.  Pharm.] 
If  we  place  any  confidence  in  the  maxim,  "  TJbi  virus,  ihi  vir- 
tus" we  should  expect  to  find  in  Conium  maculatum  a  valuable 
medicinal  agent ;  for,  since  the  days  of  Socrates,  it  has  been 
known  that  the  hemlock  in  efficient  quantities  is  capable  of  de- 
stroying life.  But  if  we  are  to  judge  of  its  value  by  the  degree 
of  use  commonly  made  of  it  by  medical  men,  we  can  assign  it 
only  an  inferior  rank  in  the  materia  medica. 
If  we  reflect,  however,  that  the  disuse  into  which  Conium  has 
fallen  may  have  arisen  from  the  circumstance  that  the  prepara- 
tions of  it  attainable  by  physicians  vary  more  in  quality  than 
