names; yet we can get any poisonous
vegetables either in the common market, or of herb-dealers, which are
more likely to be abused in their application than other poisons which
are of not more dangerous tendencies.

The effects of Vegetable Poisons on the human frame vary according to
circumstances. The most usual are: that of disturbing the nervous
function, producing vertigo, faintness, delirium, madness, stupor, or
apoplexy, with a consequent loss of understanding, of speech, and of all
the senses; and, frequently, this dreadful scene ends in death in a
short period.

It is, however, fortunate that these dangerous plants, which either grow
wild, or are cultivated in this country, are few in number; and it is
not less so, that the most virulent often carry with them their own
antidote, as many of them, from their disagreeable taste, produce nausea
and sickness, by which their mischief is frequently removed; and when
this is not the case, it points out that the best and most effectual one
is the application of emetics: and it may be almost considered a divine
dispensation, that a plant, very common in all watery places, should be
ready at hand, which has from experience proved one of the most active
drugs of this nature, and this is the Ranunculus Flammula, Water-
Spearwort. The juice of this plant, in cases of such emergency, may be
given in the quantity of a table-spoonful, and repeated every three
minutes until it operates, which it usually will do before the third is
taken into the stomach.

After the vomiting is over, the effects often remain, by part of the
deleterious qualities being absorbed by the stomach; and as it often
happens, in such cases, that medical assistance may not be at hand, I
shall, under the head of each class, give their proper antidote, which
should be in all cases applied as soon as possible, even before medical
assistance is procured. And it should not be forgotten that, in dreadful
cases where the medicine cannot be forced down through the usual
channel, recourse should be had to the use of clysters.

Under each of the following heads I shall describe such cases as have
come under my notice; as they may be useful for comparison: and shall
put under each of the more dangerous the Plantae affines, describing as
accurately as possible the differences.

* * * * *

BITTER NAUSEOUS POISONS.

These are much altered by vegetable acids in general, and es