On Poisonous Plants

guardians, with which every kind of animal has been equipped, and which tend to excel more in one species and less in another.
The Sense of Sight in an unrefined man is of little or no value for investigating the qualities of plants, since he neither perceives nor understands the marks that indicate their nature. Therefore, the classification of plants can reveal nothing to that unlearned man, nor can the external appearance of the natural order; a three-seeded capsule original: "capsula tricocca"; a botanical term for a fruit divided into three cells, characteristic of the Euphorbia family signifies nothing to him; flowing milky sap does not always arouse a suspicion of poison in him, unless, taught by experience, he has tested its harmful character. Through Touch, he will hardly learn to avoid noxious plant species, other than those which, being either prickly or thorny, are able to strike fear into him with their dreadful and tearing weapons.

§. 15.

But beneficent Nature has given two indubitable and not easily deceptive senses, by whose aid it will be easy for anyone to investigate what is beneficial or harmful before it can pass through the throat to the stomach.

1st: The Nose, ingeniously constructed and equipped with many nerves dispersed through the Schneiderian membrane original: "tunicam Schneiderianam"; the mucous membrane lining the nasal cavity, named after the 17th-century anatomist Conrad Victor Schneider, very easily catches every scent floating through the air, whether it be pleasant or unpleasant. The power of this organ is found to be far stronger among wild nations and by far the strongest in wild animals, as the examples of dogs and others demonstrate. Since, therefore, heavy-smelling, ambrosial, fetid, and nauseating original: "graveolentia, ambrosiaca, foetida et nauseosa"; these terms refer to Linnaean categories of odors used to identify medicinal or toxic properties scents occur as greatly unpleasant to every animal, these easily arouse a suspicion of harmful poison and seriously warn about avoiding the danger. Therefore, by the aid of this sense, most easily...