On Poisonous Plants

In the following sections, we shall endeavor to show how an unlearned person, lacking any systematic knowledge of plants, can easily and reliably recognize poisonous plants. This is possible through those few natural and simple aids with which every common person is equipped, and through those easily discovered characteristics with which the omnipotent Creator original: "omnipotens Creator" chose to mark poisonous plants so that they might be perceived by the senses of even the most casual observer.

§. 13.

Not a few physicians have attempted to extract the qualities of plants through chemical analysis original: "analyſin chemicam" so that, by investigating their constituent particles and their relative proportions, they might better judge their medicinal powers. However, science has made little progress by this path, since diverse plants, endowed with diverse types of powers, often closely resemble one another in their constituent parts. Even if this method were more profitable than it truly is, it could not be judged easy, nor can it be employed without great expense; therefore, this chemical examination of plants is by no means to be recommended to an unlearned person.

§. 14

It remains, therefore, that the poisonous nature of plants be investigated through those aids with which provident and nourishing nature original: "providens et alma natura" has equipped every human being—just as she has equipped all brute and wild animals, who, by these very means and no others, know very well and safely how to choose what is useful and avoid what is harmful.

These aids are our external senses, those excellent...