§ 601. Effects on Man.—F. A. Falck was able to collect thirty-one cases of poisoning by cicuta; of these 14 or 45·2 per cent. died. The symptoms are not dissimilar to those described in animals. There are pain and burning in the stomach, nausea, vomiting, headache, and then tetanic convulsions. These, in some cases, are very severe, and resemble those induced by strychnine; but in a few cases there is early coma without convulsions. There is also difficulty or absolute impossibility of swallowing. In fatal cases the respiration becomes stertorous, the pulse small, the pupils dilated, and the face cyanotic, and death occurs within some four hours, and in a few cases later. The fatal dose is unknown.
§ 602. Separation of Cicutoxin from the Body.—An attempt might be made to extract cicutoxin from the tissues on the same principles as those by which it has been separated from the plant, and identified by physiological experiments. In all recorded cases, identification has been neither by chemical nor physiological aids, but by the recognition of portions of the plant.
VI.—Æthusa Cynapium (Fool’s Parsley).
§ 603. This plant has long been considered poisonous, and a number of cases are on record in which it is alleged that death or illness resulted from its use. Dr. John Harley,[617] however, in an elaborate paper, has satisfactorily proved the innocence of this plant, and has analysed the cases on record. He has experimented on himself, on animals, and on men, with the expressed juice and with the tincture. The results were entirely negative: some of the published cases he refers to conium, and others to aconite.
[617] St. Thomas’ Hospital Reports, N.S., 1875.