Poison Hemlock, Poison Fool's ()

This grows as a weed in Poison were used by the early Greeks as a waste places and marshy areas All parts of the plant contain regal means of dying. Socrates was throughout the United States and toxic . The highest con- probably the most famous person Europe. It is a biennial herb with centration of the coniine is to "gulp the cup of hemlock" 3 hairless purple-spotted or lined found in the roots and seeds. (399 B). hollow stems. By the second season Children making peashooters and Conium extracted from hemlock it can reach a height of 8 inches. whistles of the hollow stem are has proved fatal to humans in doses The taproot is long, solid, and often poisoned. By accident or ig- of 0.5 gm to 1 gm. Concentrations turnip-like. The leaflets are very norance the leaves are often mis- of 3 gm to 5 gm are lethal to cows minute. The flowers and fruits re- taken for parsley and the seeds and oxes. Therefore, hemlock is semble those of water hemlock. for anise.2 Extracts of this plant also called cowbane. Ingestion of

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Poison hemlock (Conium maculatum). Poison hemlock (Conium maculatum).

Vol 39, No. 4/5, April/May 1982 55 The picture shows Socrates, the Greek philosopher (469-399 BC), who was sentenced to drink the death cup containing the highly poisonous volatile alkaloid coniine, constituting the active principle of poison hemlock. (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York).

hemlock by pregnant cows has in- Treatment REFERENCES duced in calves a skeletal deforma- 0 Gastric lavage. 1. Hardin JW, Arena JM: Human tion that is indistinguishable from 0 If the patient is stuporous, a Poisoning from Native and Culti- crooked calf disease. The terato- cuffed endotracheal tube should be vated . Durham NC, Duke genic compound is the alkaloid placed before gastric lavage is done. University Press, 1974. coniine or conium.4 Artificial respiration may become 2. Ellis M, Robertson WO, Rumack necessary. B: Plant ingestion poisoning Symptoms of Intoxication · Rehydration and prevention of from A to Z. Patient Care 13: Vomiting, diarrhea, muscular shock. 86-140, 1979. weakness, dilation of the pupils, 0 Correction of electrolyte imbal- 3. Altmann H (ed): Giftpflanzen- weak pulse, convulsions, coma, and ance. Gifttiere. Munich, Bern, Vienna, death after progressive weakening · Anticonvulsive therapy. BLV Verlagsgesellschaft, 1979. of the skeletal musculature and the 4. James LF: Poisonous plants. respiratory muscles. Modem Vet Pract 61:895-904, 1980. 5. Schreiber W: Plant poisons in medieval warfare. Med Bull US Army Europe 38:23-29,1981. 0

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