CHARCOALS prepared from Vegetables, have a poisonous Quality; for, when kindled, they exhale a Vapour, which, if it be kept up, and confin’d to a close Place, proves fatal. ’Tis said, Charcoal made in Cornwal affords a manifest arsenical and sulphurous Smell beyond others; and yet Charcoal is a commodious Fuel.
Even when the sharp Points of Nettles pierce the Flesh, they instil a kind of venemous Juice into the Wound, which gives a painful Sensation. The Leaf of a Nettle has some relation to a Sting; ’tis covered with very sharp Prickles, whose Base, which is a Bladder of a flexible Substance, has a Hole in the middle, by which this venemous Liquor runs into the wounded Part, and excites Pain.
This may be easily perceived with a Microscope; if a Man press with the Finger, the End of those Prickles against its Base: for then, thro’ these Prickles which are transparent, this Liquor is manifestly seen to mount, and to descend, as the ingenious Mr. Hook assures us, he had often made the Experiment.
In Carmania Deserta, towards the Persian Gulph, they have two sorts of dangerous Shrubs, one called Gulbad-Samour, i. e. the Flower that poisons the Wind, where there are many of these Shrubs. The Wind that passes thro’ them, kills those who are near it. The other is Kerzehre, the Gall of Asses, because it kills those Creatures, and others that eat of it; yea, the Water that falls from it is poisonous. They say, that Part of its Root which spreads to the East is Poison: for which, that on the South-side is an Antidote[[37]].——N. B. Is not our Author mistaken? for can any Poison grow in the delicious Plains of the East, consecrated to the Service of the Altar and Knee?
[37]. Tavernier, in Atl. Geo. p. 349, and 396.
An Overdose of Opium, which is the condensed Juice of Poppies, is poisonous. The Turks take Opium, which they call Affion, without any Preparation, it being merely the Juice of black Poppy, dried in the Sun, without any purification. It is wonderful, that use should make that Liquid which is Poison to us, a Cordial to them[[38]].
[38]. Wheeler’s Voyages, p. 203.
The Vapour arising from vegetable Liquors during their Fermentation, ought not to be approached too near, because it is poisonous: We have Accounts in the French and German Transactions, of People who were immediately struck dead, by receiving at the Nose the Fumes that issued from large Vessels of Wine in the State of Fermentation[[39]].
[39]. Boerhaave, p. 120, 130.
“I think, says a learned Physician, that God made no Poison, but all things in the World were made for the Use of Man; their chiefest Deleterium is either in the Quantity, or some other Circumstance, as in Lettice, Leeks,—whose Integra are Aliments, the Juices mortiferous. Those things that are pernicious, by their external Form, as beaten Glass, Sponges, have not deserved the Brand of Poison; those that are really lethiferous, are but the Excrescences of Sin, and came in with the Thorns. The Serpent was rather destructive to the Soul than the Body.”