w stalks, powdered blue at the
bottom, whilst smooth and splashed about with spotty streaks of a
reddish purple. It possesses foliage resembling that of the garden
carrot, but feathery and more delicately divided.

The name has been got from _healm_, or _haulm_, straw, and _leac_,
a plant, because of the dry hollow stalks which remain after
flowering is done. In Kent and Essex, the Hemlock is called
Kecksies, and the stalks are spoken of as Hollow Kecksies.

Keckis, or Kickes, of Humblelockis are mentioned by our oldest
herbalists. In a book about herbs, of the fourteenth century, two
sorts of Hemlock are specified--one being the Grete Homeloc,
which is called "Kex," or "Wode Whistle," being of no use except
for poor men's fuel, and children's play.

Botanically, it bears the name of _Conium maculatum_ (spotted),
the first of these words coming from the Greek, _konos_, a top, and
having reference to the giddiness which the juice of hemlock causes
toxically in the [249] human brain. The unripe fruit of this plant
possesses its peculiar medicinal properties in a greater degree than
any other part, and the juice expressed therefrom is more reliably
medicinal than the tincture made with spirit of wine, from the whole
plant.

Soil, situation, and the time of year, materially affect the potency of
Hemlock. Being a biennial plant, it is not poisonous in this country
to cattle during the first year, if they eat its leaves.

The herb is always uncertain of action unless gathered of the true
"maculatum" sort, when beginning to flower. Its juice should be
thickened in a water bath, or the leaves carefully dried, and kept in a
well-stoppered bottle, not exposed to the light. Cole says, "if asses
chance to feed on Hemlock, they will fall so fast asleep that they
seem to be dead, insomuch that some, thinking them to be dead
indeed, have flayed off their skins; yet after the Hemlock had done
operating they had stirred and wakened out of their sleep."

The dried leaves of the plant, if put into a small bag, and steeped in
boiling water for a few minutes, and then applied hot to a gouty
part, will quickly relieve the pain; also, they will help to soften the
hard concretions which form about gouty joints. If the fresh juice of
the Hemlock is evaporated to a thick syrup, and mixed with lanoline
(the fat of sheep's wool), to make an ointment, it will afford
wonderful relief to severe itching within and around the fundament;
but it