Note 165 — Chapter XII · THE GRAND COUNTERMOVE (1764-1766).

The ineffectiveness of medicines and applications to even alleviate the symptoms of such poisoning, after the malady is fully under way, is well known. Yet neither with nor without the use of medical means would death be expected to ensue in such a case. That there was an unsuspected complication in this instance, leading to sudden death, seems probable. To persons living in the country, as did the Rogerenes for the most part, an illness so common as poisoning by ivy or by alder (apparently the latter in this case) would not be regarded of a really dangerous character, however distressing. There have been persons greatly bloated and in great suffering by such poison, whose condition gave no serious alarm and who recovered in the usual period.