With regard to poisonous insects, as the bee, the wasp, the hornet, &c. their stings are seldom attended with danger, unless when a person happens to be stung by a great number of them at the same time; in which case something should be done to abate the inflammation and swelling. Some, for this purpose, apply honey, others lay pounded parsley to the part. A mixture of vinegar and Venice treacle is likewise recommended; but I have always found rubbing the part with warm salad-oil succeed very well. Indeed, when the stings are so numerous as to endanger the patient’s life, which is sometimes the case, he must not only have oily poultices applied to the part, but should likewise be bled, and take some cooling medicines, as nitre, or cream of tartar, and should drink plentifully of diluting liquors. It is the happiness of this island to have very few poisonous animals, and those which we have are by no means of the most virulent kind. Nine-tenths of the effects attributed to poison or venom in this country, are really other diseases, and proceed from quite different causes. We cannot however make the same observation with regard to poisonous vegetables. These abound every where, and prove often fatal to the ignorant and unwary. This indeed is chiefly owing to carelessness. Children ought early to be cautioned against eating any kind of fruit, roots, or berries, which they do not know, and all poisonous plants to which they can have access, ought, as far as possible, to be destroyed. This would not be so difficult a task as some people imagine. Poisonous plants have no doubt their use, and they ought to be propagated in proper places; but, as they prove often destructive to cattle, they should be rooted out of all pasture-grounds. They ought likewise, for the safety of the human species, to be destroyed in the neighbourhood of all towns and villages; which, by the bye, are the places where they most commonly abound. I have seen the poisonous hemlock, henbane, wolfsbane, and deadly night-shade, all growing within the _environs_ of a small town, where, though several persons, within the memory of those living in it, had lost their lives by one or other of these plants; yet no method, that I could hear of, had ever been taken to root them out; though this might be done at a very trifling expence. Seldom a year passes but we have accounts of several persons poisoned by eating hemlock-roots instead of parsnips, or some kinds of fungus which they had gathered for mushrooms. These examples ought to put people upon their guard with respect to the former, and to put the latter entirely out of use. Mushrooms may be a delicate dish, but they are a dangerous one, as they are generally gathered by persons who do not know one kind of fungus from another, and take every thing for a mushroom which has that appearance.