OEM
in other water birds. Its breift and thighs are white. Its throat, back, and neck, of a mixture of reddifh brown and black, much like the colour of the curlew ; whence the Eng- lifh have very improperly called it the Jlane curlew. The un- der part of its tail is reddifh. It breeds very late, the young being often found callow at the latter end of October. It lives principally in watery places, and flies in the night, making at that time a very remarkable fhrill noife, Hay's Ornithol.
P" 22 7- - i 1 r
OENANTHF, water dropwort, in botany, the name of a genus of umbelliferous plants, the characters of which are thefe : the flower is of the rofaceous kind, compofed of feveral heart-fhaped petals, which are irregular in fize, and are difpofed in a cir- cular form, on a cup, which afterwards becomes a fruit com- pofed of two oblong gibbofe ftriated feeds, which are flatted and fmooth on their inner fide, and end in a fort of prickles, the middle one of which is longer and ftronger than the others. The fpecies of cenanthe enumerated by Mr. Tournefort, are thefe. 1. The pariley-leaved cenanthe. 2. The fea cenanthe, ■with blackifh- coloured, parfley-like leaves. 3. The Portugal cenanthe, with the leaf and the fmell of parfley. 4. The cher- vill like cenanthe, or po'ifonous, hemlock dropivort. 5. The itaphylinus-lcaved cenanthe. 6. The common water cenanthe. r. The rue-leaved, water cenanthe. 8. The proliferous, wa- ter cenanthe. 9. The cenanthe with black and long roots. And, 5 0. The Portugal cenanthe, with a thick globofe feed. Tourn. Inft p- 312-
One of the fpecies of this plant, diftinguifhed by its yellow juice, and by its growing near waters, is a very terrible poi- fon. Many accounts have been given of people dying by . it, but none which fets its terrible effects in fo juft: a light, as one which happened very lately to fome French prifeners with us ; and which is recorded in the Phdofophical Tr an factions. Ele- ven French prifoners had the liberty of walking in, and about, the town of Pembroke; three of them being in the fields a little before noon, found, and dug up, a large quantity of this fatal plant, with its roots, taking it to be wild celeri, in order to eat it with their bread and butter, after dinner ; and, when they had warned it, they all three tailed, or eat a fmall quan- tity of it, in the fields. As they were entering the town, one of them, without any previous notice of ficknefs at the ftomach, or diforder in the head, was immediately feized with convulfions ; the other two ran home, and fent a furgeon to him, who attempted to relieve him by bleeding, but in vain, for he died in a very little time. The other two prifoners, wholly ignorant of the caufe of their comrade's death, and of their own danger, gave the roots they had brought in to the other eight prifoners, who all eat more or lefs of them with their dinner. A little while after dinner, the two remaining perfons who had gathered the roots, were feized in the fame manner as the firft, and one of them died. but the other recovered, having been blooded, and a vomit having been, with great difficulty, forced down his throat, his jaws were, in a manner locked together. The other eight were all immediataly bled, and vomited, and all recovered. It is obfervable that none of thefe perfons had thofe comatofc fymptoms which are well known to attend thofe who have eaten the common cicuta, or hemlock.
This root is well known in all that part of England under the name of the Jive-fingered root, and is in frequent ufe ex- ternally with the common people, for the felon, or worft fort of whitloe. The Frenchmen eat only the root, and none of the leaves, or ftalk.
It is extremely neccflary that this dangerous plant fhould he well known, as it grows very plentifully with us all about the banks of the Thames; and Mr. Watfon has caufed a fine drawing, both of this, and of another poifonous plant which it is often confounded with, the cicuta aquatica, or water hem- lock of Wepfer, to be prefixed to that number of the tranfacli 1 ons where this account is given : and this feems the more ne- ceiiary, as the plant feems to have been miftaken in a manner fay all the world, not only the common people, but the m verfed in plants, having miftaken it at times for feveral very different things. The fame gentleman informs us from va- rious authors, that eight lads in Ireland had been poifoned by it, miftaking it for the root of the water parfnip; two men died by miftaking it for the Macedonian parfley; and Wepfer, who wrote an exprefs treatife on the poifonous nature of the water hemlock, has confounded this plant With it, faying, that Lobel had defcribed the water hemlock, under the name of this cenanthe, or dropivort; and the general ly accurate Hoffman, when treating of the vegetable poifons, makes no mention of the difference between thefe two plants.
Neither the roots of this cenanthe, or thofe of the cicuta aqua- tica, or water hemlock of Wepfer, have any difagreeabie fla- vour to deter thofe who tafte of them from eating, and they both occafion violent convulfions, and death, if nottime'y pre- vented. The intention of cure feems in both the fame ; firft by emptying the ftomach and inteftines as foort as poffible, and tnencaufing the patient to drink largely of oleaginous flu- ids ; there is great difficulty, however, of getting the patient to fwallow any thing, the jaws being fattened together by the ipaim ; after the ftomach has been freed from this pernicious buppL. Vol. II.
vegetable, the fymptoms have generally abated by degrees, and the patient has recovered.
Threlkeld mentions this plant as growing in Cumberland; where the people call it dead tongue, and ufe it as a pultice to the galled backs of their horfes. The German botanifts do not mention it as growing among them, nor Haller in hhEnu- meratio jlirpimn Helvetia:, whence it feems to be feldom met with, except in England, Holland, and fome parts of France. Phil.Tranf. N 4 8i. Cenanthe, or dropwort, in botany, is alfo a name originally given by the antient Greeks to the flowers of the wild vine. It was afterwards made to exprefs alfo the flowers of the common * manured vine, and the young grapes while fmall, and juft ap- pearing from the flowers. Thefe, with the tendrils, and fmall leaves of the vines, were fometimes ufed for the making war- lands, and ornamenting other things ; and after this, another plant of a very different nature became ufed on the fame oc- cafions, and called by the fame name.
Pliny fuppofes that the umbelliferous plant cenanthe, was fd called from its flowers having the fmell of grapes ; but we find this to be a mere imaginary notion, for 'Meander, and many other of the Greek writers, declare the flowers of the cenanthe to have no fmell at all ; but fuppofc that they, were called cenan- the from their growing in clufters like thofe of the vine. The herb cenanthe became famous in the ointments of the Greeks, which were intended to rub the body with, to give ftrength, and to take off laffitude, or wearinels. Many have doubted whether the cenanthe ufed in thefe compofitions was the flower of the vine, or the plant cenanthe ; but Theophraftus clearly decides this in favour of the plant, and fays, that not only the flowers, but the leaves of it, were ufed for this purpofe ; but then he diftinguifhes the plant into two kinds. His account is, that the Cyprian cenanthe was very fweet-fcented, and grew upon the mountains, and in other dry and barren places ;°and that the cenanihne ointment was made with its leaves and flowers, but that this could not be made with the Grecian cenanthe, becaufe that had no fmell. Diofcorides runs counter to this ; and fays, that the cenantk'tne ointment was made of the flowers of the wild vine, and that that was always ef- teemed the beft which fmelt moll ftrongly of the flowers of that fhrub. It appears therefore that there were two different ointments of this name in ufe among the Greeks. Pliny, that he may lofe nothing in his defcription of the cenan- the, copies both Theophraftus and Diofcorides in their accounts of this plant; and, in confequence, has put together a wholly confufed, and unintelligible relation of the nature and virtues of this plant.
oenanthe, in zoology, the name of a genus of birds of the fmaller fize, of which there are four fpecies : 1. The com- mon cenanthe, called the fallow-finch, or wheat ear. 2. The cenanthe caWcd anihus, and flerus ; and in Englim, the whinchat. 3. The cenanthe called rubetra, and in Engliih the Jiene-chatter} or moortitling. 4. The American cenanthe, or guirarhu nheen- geta. Ray's Ornithol. p. 169, 170. See the articles Wheat- ear, Whinchat, &c.
OENARIA,a name given by the antients to aibes prepared froni the leaves, tendrils, and young ftalks of the viue. They were accounted highly diuretic.
OENOGALA,a word ufed by Hippocrates, and other of the Greek authors to exprefs a mixture of milk and wine for immediate drinking. Others have ufed it to exprefs wine alone heated, fo as to be juft as warm as hew milk.
OENOMANTIA, Oinpoftw, in antiquity, a fpecies of divina- tion by wine, which is done by making coirectures from the colour, motion, noife, and other accidents of the wine of li- bations. Potter, Archasol. T. 1. p. 319.
OENOS, in zoology, the name ufed by authors for the flock- dove, or wood pigeon, called alfo by fome vinago, fpmewhat larger than the common pigeon, but of the fame ihape and general colour. Its neck is of a hue changeable hue, as dif- ferently oppofed to the light ; and its breaft, fhoulders, and wings are of a fine purplifh hue* or red wine colour, from whence it has its name vinago. Its legs are red, and feathered a little below the joint. Hay's Ornithol. p. 136,
OENOSTAGMA, a name given by fome of die chemical wri- ters to fpirit of wine.
OEPATA, in botany, a name by which fome authors have called the tree which produces the fruit called anacardinmori- entale, or the Malacca bean. Hort. Mai. Vol. 4. p. 95.
OESTROMANIA, a name given by fome authors to the ute- rine dtforders which fometimes affecf. young women, and is commonly called furor uterinus.
OESTRUM (Cycl.) — oestrum* in zoologv, the" name of ai fpecies of fly, called alfo fometimes the gad-Jh, breeze-fly, and afylum. It is a very troublefome creature to oxen, but is not fo common as fome fuppofe. It is never found, except in the neighbourhood of waters : the head is green; the body yeilovv- ifh ; the eyes are very large ; and the trunk long, and remark- ably ftrong. It flies very fwiftly, and without noife. Mouf- fet mentions, befide our Englifh kind, two others, the one from Virginia, the other from Mufcovy ; the. firft very large, having a great head, and a white ft'reak down the fhouiders ; the lat- - ter remarkable for having wings, of a filvery colour, reaching beyond the body.
I i OESTRUM
