MONKS-HOOD, or Wolf's-bane. See ACONITUM.
Since the time of Theophrastus, most of the species of monks-hood have been reckoned a deadly poison both to men and brutes. Dioscorides, however, recommends the external application of common monks-hood for pains of the eyes. The flowers of a great many species communicate their noxious quality by being smelled to; and those of the species called ma-pellus being placed on the head, occasion a violent megrim. Of the bad qualities of these plants we sometimes avail ourselves to get rid of vermin. A decoction of the roots destroys bugs; the same part being powdered and administered in bread or some other palatable vehicle, to rats and mice, corrodes and inflames their intestines, and soon proves mortal. The juice of the plant is used to poison flesh with, for the destruction of wolves, foxes, and other ravenous beasts. The best antidote to the poison of the different monks-hoods is said to be the root of a species of the same genus, hence termed healthful or wholesome monks-hood. It is the aconitum anthora of Linnæus. The same plant is regarded as efficacious against bites of serpents and other venomous creatures. The roots have a bitter acrid taste; the leaves are only bitter: the former are chiefly used in medicine; and, besides the excellent quality just mentioned, are stomachic, and promote perspiration. The peasants, who gather the plants on the Alps and Pyrenees, are said to use it with success against the biting of mad dogs, and to cure the colic. It is remarkable, that the monks-hoods with blue flowers are much more virulent than
the yellow or white-flowered kinds. Miller asserts that the hunters of the wolves and other wild beasts on the Alps, dip their arrows into the juice of those plants, which renders the wounds made by them deadly.