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always a matter of degree with which us Homo sapiens have difficulty.
An account of strange reactions to ingesting jimson weed in early Virginia history has come down in a book published in 1705. British troops were sent to put down a rebellion in 1676. Being short of food, they cooked the leaves of jimson weed. “They turn’d natural fools upon it for several days,” says the account and continues. “One would blow a feather up in the air; and another would dark straws at it with much fury; another stark naked was sitting up in a corner like a monkey, grinning.” They also spoke of an saw things that were not. there. After 11 days, they “..return’d to themselves again, not remembering any thing that had passed.” A contemporary author in describing this episode commented that had they not cooked the leaves all would have died.
Another account from Jamestown, supposedly reported in the diary of John Smith, is of a man who somehow ingested the plant, went mad and killed his wife and cooked and ate her! John Smith daily commented: “I know not whether wife is better broiled or boiled.” It is from these early Jamestown stories that the plant got its current
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