( 2 ) of their fatal effcifts, particularly upon children, who are readily tempted to eat this fruit by its alluring appearance and fweet tafte. The number of thefe berries neceflary to produce deleterious effedts, may probably depend upon the ftate of maturity in which they are eaten : if not more than three or four be fwallowed, according to Haller’s account, no bad confequence enfues ; “ Baccae fapore fatuo “ dulci pofTunt abfque noxa edi fi numerus tres quatuorve non “ excefierit : plures etiam a ftudiofo medicinse Colonienfi nomine Simonis vidi deglutiri,” Hal. Stirp. Helv. No. 579. » Sennert. lib. vi. par. 7. cap. g. Lobel Stirplum Adverfa. p. 103. Matthiolus Oper. Omn. p. 754. Oetinger de Belladonna. Aug. Vindel. Strychnomania, &c. Bodaeus a Stapel Comment, in Theophraft. 586. Simon Pauli Quad. Botan. p. 488. Gerard’s Herbal, 341. Wepfer’s Cicut. Aquat. Hiftor. et Noxae, p. 228. Boulduc. Hiftoire de I’Acad. a. 1703. Rofli Plant. Venen. p. ii. Boerhaave’s Hift. Plant. Lugd at. Hort. p. 510. Journ. de Med. ann. 1759. Gent. Magaz. 1747 &c 1748. Hill’s Britifh Herbal, p. 329. Spielman’s DifT. Veget. Venen. p. 16. Mapp. PI. Alfat. p. 36. Murray’s Apparap Medicam. p. 431. Many other recent fa£ls of the fame kind might be adduced from various periodical publications. Ray found by applying the leaves of the Belladonna near the eye, a remarkable relaxation of the uvea was produced. Sauvages (Nofol.) fuppofes that the Belladonna was the plant which produced fuch ftrange and dreadful effedls upon the Roman foldiers, during their retreat (under the command of Anthony) from the Parthians ; they are faid to have “ fuffered great “ diftrefs for want of provifions, and were urged to eat unknown plants : among others “ they met with an herb that was mortal ; he that had eaten of it, loft his memory and “ his fenfes, and employed himfelf wholly in turning about all the ftones he could find, “ and after vomiting up bile, fell down dead.” Plutarch’s Life of Anthony. The Scotch hiftorian, Buchanan, relates that the Scots mixed a quantity of the juice of the Belladonna (Solanum Somniferum) with the bread and drink, which by their truce they were to fupply the Danes with, which fo intoxicated them, that the Scots killed the greateft part of Sweno’s army while afleep. Lib. vii. Ray relates a curious inftance of the effeefts of this plant in the following words. Hift. Plant, p. 680. Accidit, ni fallor, tempore Pontificis Maximi Urban! ultimi, ut quidam de famulitio Cardinalis magni nominis (ut mihi hie Auguftas retulit ejus hortulanus) infunderet in vino Malvatico herbam illam quani Bellam Donnam vocant, daturam alias per nodfem ut ejus herbae effedlus difeerent; infufum hoc propinarunt cuidam fratri mendicant! ex conventu S. Hieronymi, qui Patavii Frati'um ignorantiae dicitur, a primo breve delirium, cachinni, gefticulationes variae ; dein infania vera, poft ftupor mentis qualis eft ebriorum vigilantium. Cardinalis pro ebrio in carcere includit ; deinde a medico qui rem fubolfecerat innocens pronuntiatur, qui aceti cyatho propinato, a dementia quani Bella Donna caufavit eum liberat. Hachftellerus Decad, 7 Ob. And Shakefpeare in his Macbeth makes Banquo fay, Or have we eaten of the infane root That takes the reafon prifoner. ^ Hort, Florem. p. 62. But
