New Hampshire Statesman And State Journal

The ranunculus, or buttercup, with which our pasture lands are half filled, is one of the most destructive of the vegetable poisons: five ounces of the juice, extracted by triturating the leaves with two ounces of water, killed a stout dog in 12 hours when taken internally. Two ounces of the watery extract killed another in 12 hours when applied to a wound, by inducing the usual inflammation. Orfila states that two drops of the expressed juice was found to produce burning pain and spasms in the gullet, and griping. A single flower had the same effect. When the thickest and most esculent of the leaves were chewed, the salivary glands were strongly stimulated, the tongue was excoriated and cracked, the teeth smarted, and the gums became tender and bloody. There is no way of destroying these plants (which the cattle leave in the fields to run to seed, and which thus increase at a wonderful rate,) so effectually as trenching. If all the old pastures in which they abound were trenched it would give employment to a million persons.—London Times.