Domestic Encyclopædia (1802)/Dropwort
DROPWORT, or Oenanthe, L. a genus of perennial plants, consisting of seven species, five of which are indigenous; among these the following only deserve notice:
1. The fistulosa, or Common Water Dropwort, which thrives in meadows, ponds, and ditches; and flowers in July. Its naked stalk grows only 12 inches high. The plant is refused by cows and horses; though, from experiments made in this country, it does not appear to be noxious to the former. Bechstein, however, affirms that in Germany this species of the dropwort is a poisonous vegetable, and has been found to produce dangerous effects on man and dogs: its root, therefore, which spreads extensively in a swampy soil, ought to be carefully extirpated.
2. The crocata, or Hemlock Water-Dropwort, or Dead-tongue, which grows in watery places, on the banks of rivers, and in ditches. Its reddish thick stalk attains a height from 3 to 5 feet. According to Dr. Withering, the whole of this plant is deleterious; and Dr. Pulteney remarks, that the root is the most virulent of all the vegetable poisons that Great Britain produces; many instances of its fatal effects being recorded. Unless the contents of the stomach, after eating any small portion of this root (which is sometimes mistaken for wild celery, or parsnip) be immediately emptied by briskly operating emetics, there is no other chance of saving the patient's life; because it speedily produces convulsions, madness, and death.
As a medicine, however, an infusion of the leaves, or three tea-spoonfuls of the juice of the root, taken every morning, has in one instance cured a very obstinate cutaneous disease: though we advise such trials to be made only with animals.—According to Mr.Gough, the country people in Westmoreland apply a poultice of the herb to the ulcer, which is sometimes formed in the fore part of the cleft of the hoof in horned cattle, and is termed the foul.—The inhabitants of Pembrokeshire call this plant, the five-fingered root: it is much used by them in cataplasms for the felon, or the worst kind of whitlow.—Sheep eat the leaves of this vegetable, but they are refused by cows and horses.