2.3 Poison hemlock (Conium maculatum) Conium maculatum is a tall, branched, biennial plant, usually 1–2.5m high, and thought to be one of the most toxic members of the family Apiaceae (formerly Umbelliferae) of plant kingdom. The stems are rigid, smooth, and hollow except at the nodes. The plant has a bitter taste and white flower. The leaves are large, triangular; fern like, and alternate on the erect stem. The plant usually grows in waste places where moisture may accumulate and protected from cultivation, damp ground, and banks of streams, rivers, road sides, woodland and pastures. Poison hemlock (Conium maculatum) has a worldwide distribution and reported as a very common weed in Europe, North and South America, North Africa, Australia …show more content…
The juice or the extract of Conium maculatum was allegedly administered to criminals or political prisoners in ancient Greece which the Greek philosopher Socrates was condemned to drink in 399 BC. The 70-year-old was found guilty of heresy in a trial in Athens. His sentence was death by hemlock, and he had to drink the poison by his own hand. Socrates drank up, then walked around until he noticed his legs were heavy (Holm, 1997; Scutchfield and Genovese, 1997). Symptoms described by Socrates were: a rapid loss of power of the lower extremities (muscular weakness), ataxia, staggering and trembling. As the effects ascended, there was loss of control of the upper extremities. Total paralysis of the legs and arms followed. There was loss of the power to chew and loss of sensation and the pupils became fixed. If ingested, conium will cause paralysis of various body systems. Finally, death was due to paralysis of respiration and asphyxia; but is aware of what is happening as the mind is unaffected until death is imminent the intellect was clear until death occurred (Panter and Keeler, …show more content…
The location of secretory structures and the presence of essential oils and alkaloids were investigated (Corsi and Biasci, 1998).The consumption of varying parts of the plants (leaves, fruits) can cause different degrees of clinical effects and there appears to be different susceptibility to toxicity between species. The primary time of year for poison hemlock is spring; often when there is insufficient forage available. At this time the plant may also be more palatable. The toxicity increases throughout the growing season and the roots become toxic only later in the year. Once dried, the toxicity is considered to be reduced but not eliminated. The plant causes different signs and lesions in different species of animals (Dougall and Maureen,
Bonnet, M., & Basson, P. W. (2004). the Toxicology of Claviceps purpurea: Ergot of Rye.
The animals in Yellow Wallpaper, Chrysanthemums, and Boys and Girls represents the characters and their characteristics. In Yellow Wallpaper John’s wife has postpartum depression. John is her physician but he doesn’t let her go out or do anything. She sits in a room that she hates and eventually escapes. Chrysanthemums is about a girl named Elisa and she loves to grow chrysanthemums. She meets this guy who is on the road all the time and he lives off of fixing broken pots and pans. Boys and Girls is about a family whose father takes the foxes fur and sells it for calendars. They get two horses named Mack and Flora who are going to potentially be used as horse meat. They don’t kill them instantly because at the time they had too much meat so they used them on the fields although Mack is lazy. They eventually kill both
Fomitopsis officinalis, most commonly known as Agarikon or Quinine Conk, is a fungus that grows mainly on coniferous hosts. This hefty and bracket mushroom has fruiting bodies that become longer as they grow. It can be found worldwide and it is known on different names, including Agarikon, Quinine Conk, Eburiko, Brown Trunk Rot and Larch Bracket Mushroom.
Incapacitating agents, in some form, have been experimented with since as early as 600BC when Greek King Solon ordered his troops to throw Hellebore roots into streams that provided water for his enemies. King Solon’s goal was to incapacitate the enemy with diarrhea. Then in 200BC an officer in Hannibal’s army, Maharbal, poisoned wine with Mandragora and left if for the uprising tribes in Africa he was facing. The tribe greedily drank the wine and the Maharbal either killed or captured the disabled enemy soldiers. In one incident in 1672 the Bishop of Muenster used grenades filled with Belladonna; however ...
This prompted a lot of study and investigations to uncover the mystery and to establish possible remedies. Among the many reasons for the causes of the CCD was the use of harmful and dangerous pesticides. Timbrell (2002) provides a solid foundation on the effects of toxins in the body of animals with an aim of providing a scientific solution towards the problem. This paper focuses its study on these pesticides with an aim of establishing the effects of the toxins found in the insecticides that could be affecting the bees. In CCD, honey bee colonies lose their workers under unclear circumstances (Cox-Foster et al., 2007, p. 283).
In chapter 8, this quote is used to foreshadow what might happen in the chapter named, “Microscopy”. The book “The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate”, has every chapter begin with a quote from Charles Darwin’s book, “On the Origin of Species”. These quotes are used to foreshadow or explain what might happen in the upcoming chapter. “The crust of the earth is a vast museum…” is a quote that goes along extremely well with the chapter, “Microscopy” because of the correlation with microscopic creatures living on the top layer of earth’s crust. Millions of miniscule organisms are currently living on earth’s crust, that's worms, bugs, and anything else that so small no one can see. In chapter 8, Calpurnia and her grandfather collect microscopic specimens
The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly has impacted my life more than any other book I have read. It is about a young teenage girl who lived at the end of the 1800s in Texas. Calpurnia (“Callie Vee”) is the only girl out of seven children, right in the middle, and doesn’t really have a good relationship with her mom. One summer, however, Callie makes a friendship with her old grandpa who is considered a bit of a weirdo. He is actually a member of the National Geographic society, and he and teaches Calpurnia everything he knows about science and the natural world. Through this all, our heroine is learning about the rest of the world around her, including what the high expectations for a girl in her time period are.
In the book “Phaedo,” Plato discusses the theory of forms with ideas that concern the morality of the form. There are four philosophers that are expressed which are Phaedo, Cebes, and Simmias regarding the execution of Socrates. Socrates is presented in “Phaedo” on the morning of his execution where he is being killed. He tells his disciples Simmias and Cebes that he is not afraid of dying because a true philosopher should welcome and look forward to death but not suicide. A man should never commit suicide. He says that we are possessions of the Gods and should not harm themselves. He provides the four arguments for his claim that the soul is immortal and that a philosopher spends his whole life preparing for death.
Socrates was an ancient Greek philosopher. He lived in Athens, where he taught and talked leading debates with accidental passers-by on the streets. Socrates thought that good and virtue are the most important value in life. In the 399 BC Meletus made an accusation against Socrates that he commit crimes because he do not believe in gods but create some new and also he corrupt the youth of Athens. Socrates had to stand trial. It is known from Apology of Socrates that he was found guilty and sentenced him to death penalty by poisoning. In my opinion it was not a good decision, I think Socrates was innocent. He was teaching and talking with people honestly and openly, he did not hide. He wanted to give some knowledge to others and he even did not get money from that. Maybe he is guilty due to irritating authority with awareness. But he did not deserve for such punishment. I will try to prove that Meletus was not right.
In 399 BC, Socrates, the great philosopher in ancient Greece, was put to death under the hands of his Athenian fellow-citizens to whom he had a strong attachment, after a final vote with over two-thirds of jurymen against him. We cannot experience the situation where Socrates gave his final argument in the court of law. From Plato’s Apology, we admire Socrates’ brilliant rhetoric and rigorous logic, while at the same time feel pity for him and indignant with those ruthless jurymen. However, the question of what exactly caused his death and why was Socrates, such a remarkable thinker sentenced to death in the very society that valued democracy the most is not easy and straightforward to answer. There are multiple elements involved that finally caused this tragedy in which “a person of high moral principle is confronted step by step with a situation from which there is no escape” (38). First of all, the moral principle and belief in divinity held by Socrates are inconsistent with those of the Athenian society, implying the very crimes charged upon Socrates were not completely groundless. Secondly, the imperfect juridical system of Athens played a role in causing this tragedy. What’s more, Socrates himself, could have offered better defense in the court, also had a hand in his own death by his stubbornness regarding to his own interpretation of wisdom and piety. His rebuttal, though brilliant and insightful, was not persuasive enough to move the fellow-citizens for his wrong approach and sophistry in his cross-examination on Meletus.
Yes, Socrates did not kill anyone, but he was an innocent man who was put to death. This brings up the topic about whether capital punishment is the right form of retaliation. Our justice system was originally supposed to be about rehabilitation, not retribution. In other words, non-violent criminals should not only spend time behind bars, but get reformed as well, so that when they do leave they can live a productive life free of crime. The same goes for people who are violent criminals, as long as it did not involve murder. Murderers on the other hand, should spend their entire life in jail but not on death row, primarily because it is not 100 percent guarantee that the person that has been convicted is guilty. According to a study “at least 4.1% of all defendants sentenced to death in the US in the modern era are innocent.” (Guardian) The results are shocking because it proves how flawed the criminal justice system can get. The death plenty was immoral then, when Socrates was alive, and it is immoral now due to the potential of having to come across the mistake of taking an innocence’s life
Living in a democracy, everyone is exposed through television and other various forms of media everyday to numerous trials by jury. Usually they are rarely given a second thought, but every once in a while along comes a specific trial which captures the attention of the entire country. This goes the same for trials throughout centuries in our past. Although they did not have the same forms of media as in this, modern era, there were still specific trials in which everyone knew about. One trial that stands out is the one against the great philosopher Socrates. Accused of corrupting the youth, being an atheist, and believing in other gods, Socrates faced trial by jury. The early forms of democracy were not as sophisticated and complex as they are now. The outcome of the trial was that Socrates was found guilty and sentenced to be put to death by hemlock poisoning. The question is whether Socrates was truly guilty or just another person fallen to the early form of democracy of a people who were possibly jealous and afraid of Socrates. However, by understanding Socrates intentions, it is clear that he was in fact innocent of the above charges, and was wrongly accused and executed.
In the short story “Marigolds” by Eugenia Collier, the narrator Lizabeth realizes that she is no longer a child but a grown up woman who renounces her innocence and begins her adulthood by developing a sense of compassion. She learns that the world is more than just the dusty shantytown and a squad of kids she plays with; there are also the complex realities of depression, indifference and poverty. The reason behind this realization is that Lizabeth, at an age of 14, overhears her parents’ conversation about the harsh economic situation that their family is facing. She is filled with anger and detests the unfairness that is given to her family. All these feelings encourage her towards an explosive, malicious act of destruction. She is especially
Socrates then asks himself, “Are you not ashamed, Socrates, to have followed the kind of occupation that has led to your being now in danger of death?” (28b).
SOCRATES Socrates was a Greek philosopher who lived between 470-399 B.C. He turned Greek attention toward questions of ethics and virtue and away from those of the heavenly bodies. Socrates spent much time in the Agora (marketplace) where he held conversations with townspeople. Socrates believed that real truth could be found out through thought and collaboration with others. He was known for exposing ignorance, hypocrisy, and conceit. Despite having many followers, Socrates was disliked by most Athenians. At the age of 70, he was convicted of atheism, treason and corruption of the young. He was originally ordered to leave Athens, but chose to drink poison instead. This great man valued the law over his life, and so he chose to drank hemlock over leaving. Socrates is best remembered for his courage and strong moral beliefs which manifested themselves in his lifestyle. Although Socrates did not dwell much on the heavenly bodies, his beliefs that searching could bring about understanding of the world and humans in it laid a foundation that is still very much a part of modern science. In the course of Western Civilization, there have been two trials ending in a sentence of death imposed upon two individuals later deemed grossly unfair and unjust by the verdict of history. One trial was that of Jesus Christ, the other that of Socrates it was Jesus' destiny, and It was Socrates' choice. Both philosophers and theologians, carry a political message, a message apt to rub the ruling power structure's nose in its own mess. Christ defined and built a new moral order. All Socrates ever accomplished was questioning and probing the democratic beliefs of his day. He refused to define proper behavior and what should be done by government. Socrates did not build anything or write nothing; instead he strove to destroy the legitimacy of free men ruling themselves, Both Christ and Socrates were killed at the orders of lesser men for what they said. The story of Jesus Christ and the world in which he lived are well known. Now let us look at Socrates, the world's first "intellectual" and the stage he acted upon. Socrates was the town character. While a member of the middle class, he was on good terms with Pericles, the ruling aristocrat voted the first strategos (general) for over 30 years. Socrates, the perfect snob, surrounded himself with the gilded aristocratic yo...