A family herbal: or, Familiar account of the medical properties of British and foreign plants, also their uses in dying, and the various arts, arranged according to the Linnaean system / [Robert John Thornton].

  • Thornton, Robert John, 1768?-1837.
Date:
1814
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A family herbal: or, Familiar account of the medical properties of British and foreign plants, also their uses in dying, and the various arts, arranged according to the Linnaean system / [Robert John Thornton]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    314 HEMLOCK WATER-DROPWORT. dren suffered greatly by eating this poison. In these cases great agony was experienced before the convulsions supervened; vo¬ mitings likewise came on, which were encouraged by large draughts of oil and warm water, to which their recovery is ascribed. The late sir William Watson, who refers to the instances here cited, also says that a Dutchman was poisoned by the leaves of the plant boiled in pottage. It appears from various authorities that most brute animals are not less affected by this poison than man; and Mr. Light- foot informs us, that a spoonful of the juice of this plant given to a dog, rendered him sick and stupid; but a goat was observed to eat the plant with impunity. The great virulence of this plant has not, however, prevented it from being taken medicinally. In a letter from Dr. Poultney to sir William Watson, we are told that a severe and inveterate cutaneous disorder was cured by the juice of the root, though not without exciting the most alarming symptoms. Taken in the dose of a spoonful, in two hours afterwards the head was affected in a very extraordinary manner, followed with violent sickness and vomiting, cold sweats and rigors; but this did not deter the patient from continuing the medicine, in somewhat less doses, till it effected a cure.