Episode 04: Victorian Dooting & Crappy Cocktails - Hemlock
Conium maculatum, or Hemlock is Native to certain parts of europe, the mediterannian, and south africa, but has been naturalized pretty much everywhere. It is an umbelifer in the Apiacea family. It grows between 3-5 feet tall, and has a white flower made up of tiny little blooms.Hemlock is a biannual, and can grow in pretty much any kind of soil…..if this is sounding familiar, its likely because it is…Hemlock is commonly mixed up with queen anne’s lace - which we talked about in episode 2. The way to tell them apart is that Hemlock doesnt have the purple center flower, it has a hairless stem with purple splotches, and it smells DISGUSTING when dug up- somewhere between mouse pee and a musty frat-house basement….yikes.
If you think that sounds bad, wait until we get in to how toxic it is.
See, all parts of hemlock are poisonous to humans, but the potency really depends on the season and the part of the plant in question. In early spring, the root is at it’s most toxic, but its leaves are actually safe for some cattle to eat. This is because like its cousin the carrot, it is sending all of its nutrients (and all the stuff that kills us) to it’s taproot for safe keeping in the winter. In summer the leaves become toxic, and by june its started getting its seeds ready for fall, when it will send those toxic little shits all over the place to start the cycle over again.
Just like Queen Anne’s Lace, in the fall it starts to fold up and form a little tumble weed full of hairy seeds that are just waiting to latch onto something and spread themselves out. And because they aren’t too picky about soil, and dont have a ton of bugs that really like them, Hemlock has no issues outcomepeting native species.
Hemlock is poisonous to humans, livestock, and most other mammals. It isn’t super tasty, but it IS easily confused with wild carrot, which means it mostly poisons animals who eat it expecting a tasty snack, but instead get a bitter bite of something terrible. One other common way people USED to accidentally poision themselves with the stuff was by making pan flutes out of the dried stalks- also because they misidentified it. But this was mostly happening to victorian era children, who apparently loved pan flutes and hated learning about plant identification.
While it isnt SUPER common today, we do still see cases of hemlock poisioning. The most common symptoms are Sweating, Vomiting, Dilated pupils, Excessive salivation, Dry mouth, Rapid heartbeat, High blood pressure, Restlessness or confusion, Muscle weakness or twitches, Tremors, and seizures.In more severe cases, hemlock poisoning can cause delayed complications such as: Slow heartbeat, Low blood pressure, Muscle paralysis, Muscle breakdown and muscle death, Kidney failure, Central nervous system depression.and eventually death.
The reason that Hemlock is so toxic to us is because it contains a chemical called Coniine, which sends mixed up signals to the muscles that control your breathing, basically telling them to stop and…well…, eventually killing you. One interesting thing about Coniine posioing, is that animals who ingest it and live are actually MORE LIKELY to eat it again…and this is especially bad news for any pregnant animals, who may not have many long term symptoms themselves, but pass on every distince genetic defects to their offspring.
The most famous death by hemlock posioning wa Socrates but his death wasnt an accident. In fact, it’s pretty much as far away from an accident as you can get…The story goes that socrates was put to death in ancient greece for “corrupting the minds of young men”. but because he was also still reguarded as a gentleman, they let him CHOOSE how we wanted to die, so he chose hemlock tea. It’s reported that his death was a peaceful one, where he was able to have coherent conversation with his followers until drifting off to sleep..but some historians doubt that knowing what we do today about how hemlock posioning usually goes down.
Another Death with some lore around Hemlock is actually the death of jesus christ It is said that as Christs blood rolled down onto the field below, some of it got onto hemlock- staining it and making it toxic for the rest of eternity.
Another interesting bit of lore from christianity actually comes from the belief that Hwmlock gets it’s purple marks as a symbol of cain, and the marks left upon his brow after his first murder….either way, some super interesting stories from a plant that is usually linked strictly to witchcraft.
The thing is though, this plant has NEVER just been linked to withcraft- in fact, there actually aren’t THAT many ties to early pagans or even ancient gods- its mostly been linked to witchraft becasue of old wives tales and hearsay,
One great example of a NON-witchy use for Hemlock comes to us from 17th century England, where doctors were using as an early anaesthetic called a Dwale. Making it kind of sounds like people were just rooting around in their pantries and mixing stuff together to see what worked, but I guess anything had to be better than being AWAKE while people sawed your arm off.
Here is how one medieval scholar described the process: “How to make a drink that men call dwale to make a man sleep whilst men cut him: take three spoonfuls of the gall [bile] of a barrow swine [boar] for a man, and for a woman of a gilt [sow], three spoonfuls of hemlock juice, three spoonfuls of wild neep [bryony], three spoonfuls of lettuce, three spoonfuls of pape [opium], three spoonfuls of henbane, and three spoonfuls of eysyl [vinegar], and mix them all together and boil them a little and put them in a glass vessel well stopped and put thereof three spoonfuls into a potel of good wine and mix it well together.
Basically you mix equal parts stomach acid from a pig, hemlock juice, rutabaga (other name for wild neep), lettuce, opium, henbane, and vinegar, boil them, and then mix a little in with a glass of wine to knock someone out cold before you ripped out their spleen or did whatever else we were trying back then…I kinda feel like the wine and opium would have been enough, but what would i know- I’m not a doctor.
Today, we arent doing anything nearly as exciting (or risky) with the stuff. In fact, the vast majority of people are honestly told to avoid Hemlock, as it is so toxic and tricky to work with.
There are a few exceptions though- the most stereotypical of them being witchcraft- While it isn’t a SUPER common part of spellwork for most witches, Hemlock is still sometimes part of ceremonies and rituals. Often Hemlock is used as a hexing agent in spells that could otherwise be intended for good (for example you might add a little hemlock to a spell more commonly used to encourage good fortune to DENY that good fortune to someone who has wronged you.) It can also be used to strengthen protection spells and anoint tools of protection. The idea there is that if you are already in possession of the thing that is meant to hurt you, you stop it from causing any further harm.
Due to how risky it is to work with Hemlock, it’s no surprise that there aren’t a ton of modern day medical uses. While in some practices and cultures Hemlock is still used in a treatment for whooping cough and bronchitius (because of the way is tells the muscles you use to breathe and cough to chill out), there isnt a ton of evidence to support that it is worth the risk associated with it.
That’s it for this week! I hope you enjoyed learning a bit more about a plant most of us have heard of, and likely even seen, but probably never knew much about! Next time you see a field of white, lace-y looking flowers, I encourage you to take a closer look. You might be surprised at how common Posion Hemlock is, and how frequently you’ve looked an ancient killer in the eye without even knowing it.
As a not so gentle reminder, snacking on ANYTHING you forage for can come with risks. Before you ingest anything you find in the wild, please do your research and make sure you KNOW what your eating before you eat it. If you aren’t sure it’s safe, Don’t take the chance.
As always, thank you so much for listening, and for allowing me to share these stories with you. I have been delighted and surprised by how many of you are really enjoying the show, and can’t wait to keep sending more cursed history facts your way.
SOURCES:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conium_maculatum
https://www.whitedragon.org.uk/articles/hemlock.htm
https://www.motherearthliving.com/gardening/plant-profile/magical-uses-of-hemlock-ze0z1102zdeb/
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/24122-poison-hemlock
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10340826/
https://www.bayouwitchincense.com/oils/oils-witches-bane/hemlock-oil
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/~ucgajpd/medicina%20antiqua/sa_hemlock.html
https://slate.com/technology/2014/08/poisonous-plants-socrates-drank-hemlock-tea-as-his-preferred-mode-of-execution.html
