Gerard writes, with regard to the use of the seed of Henbane by mountebanks, for obstinate toothache: "Drawers of teeth who run about the country and pretend they cause worms to come forth from the teeth by burning the seed in a chafing dish of coals, the party holding his mouth over the fume thereof, do have some crafty companions who convey small lute strings into the water, persuading the patient that those little creepers came out of his mouth, or other parts which it was intended to ease." Forestus says: "These pretended worms are no more than an appearance of worms which is always seen in the smoak of Henbane seed." "Sic dentes serva; porrorum collige grana: No careas thure; cum _hyoscyamo_ ure: Sic que per embotum fumun cape dente remotum." _Regimen sanitatis salernitanum_ (Translated 1607). "If in your teeth you happen to be tormented, By means some little worms therein do brede, Which pain (if need be tane) may be prevented By keeping cleane your teeth when as ye fead. Burn Frankonsence (a gum not evil scented), Put Henbane into this, and onyon seed, And with a tunnel to the tooth that's hollow, Convey the smoke thereof, and ease shall follow." [255] By older writers, the Henbane was called Henbell and Symphonica, as implying its resemblance to a ring of bells (_Symphonia_), which is struck with a hammer. It has also been named _Faba Jovis_ (Jupiter's bean). Only within recent times has the suffix "bell" given place to "bane," because the seeds are fatal to poultry and fish. In some districts horsedealers mix the seed of Henbane with their oats, in order to fatten the animals. An instance is narrated where the roots of Henbane were cooked by mistake at a monastery for the supper of its inmates, and produced most strange results. One monk would insist on ringing the large bell at midnight, to the alarm of the neighbourhood; whilst of those who came to prayers at the summons, several could not read at all, and others read anything but what was contained in their breviaries. Some authors suppose that this is the noxious herb intended by Shakespeare, in the play of _Hamlet_, when the ghost of the murdered king makes plaint, that: "Sleeping within mine orchard, My custom always of the afternoon, Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole, With juice of cursed _hebenon_ in a vial, And in the porches of mine ear did pour The leprous distilment." But others argue more correctly that the name used here is a varied form of that by which the yew is known in at least five of the Gothic languages, and which appears in Marlow and other Elizabethan writers, as "hebon." "This tree," says Lyte, "is altogether venomous and against man's nature; such as do but only sleepe under the shadow thereof, become sicke, and sometimes they die." [256] HONEY.