On the action of fool's parsley (Aethusa cynapium) / by John Harley.

  • Harley, John, 1833-1921.
Date:
[1873?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the action of fool's parsley (Aethusa cynapium) / by John Harley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    3/28 (page 3)
    unfortunate error tliat the great botanists, Haller and Trew, think that the accidents which are attributed to Hemlock, mistaken for parsley, ought almost always to be referred to the lesser hemlock; this conjecture is very probable” (p. 254). He then gives a list of the symptoms “ produced by the root, and still more by the herb,” which is not only longer but also much more terrible than any I have previously quoted. Another botanical author goes go so far as to state that “iEthusa is a very dangerous caustic,” even “ when applied externally.” A more modern writer (* Chambers's Cyclopaedia/ Ed. 5) remarks, the “ lesser hemlock is not less dangerous than the greater; it is even sup- posed to be more violent, as well as more hasty in its operation.” To-day the little plant is found in every work on toxicology associated with the apparent victims of its reputed deadly power; and as a history and critical examination of the cases in which it is thus associated form a necessary preface to my own observations, I will first give a brief account and analysis of them, and hope that this will not prove altogether uninteresting. I take them in chronological order :— 1. “Two boys, the one 6, and the other 4 years of age, residing in Ratisbon, ate the root of fool’s parsley in April, The elder was quickly seized with severe pain over the stomach. When he was brought home, the whole body was frightfully swollen and livid; the respiration was difficult and short, and he died about midnight. The younger boy vomited, and ex- hibited some confusion of speech, but was soon well.”1 These two cases are evidently those related by Yicat (see 3). 2. Riviere2 relates that a whole family fell ill from eating the plant. The father was taken the same day with headache and stupefaction, vomiting and diarrhoea, and small weak pulse. All the rest were more or less ill. The next day a daughter, aged 7 years, died first, and then the father, whose death was preceded by cold extremities and an imperceptible pulse. A blackish fluid was found in the stomach ; the liver was hard and yellow; the spleen livid ; the mouth black. A second 1 ‘Commcrcium literaricum noricum,’ Norimb., 1731. ‘ Sem. Prius. Spec.,’ 25, p. 178, quoted by ])r. Karl Wibmer, * Die Wirkung der Arzneimittel und Gifte ’ vol. i, p. 62. 2 ‘ Hist, de l’Acad. Roy. des Sciences a Montpellier,’ 1766, tome i, p. 170. 2