When one has drunk of the juice of the poppy drowsiness comes on, with coldness and intense itching, so that often when the medicine takes effect such an itching comes on that the person is roused from sleep thereby. The smell of the medicine too is emitted from the whole body. The remedies in such cases, after rejecting the substance taken by vomiting with oil, and evacuating downwards by a stimulant clyster, are oxymel drank with salts, or honey with warm rose-oil, and much undiluted wine with wormwood and cinnamon, and warm vinegar by itself, and natron with water, and marjoram with lye, the seed of rue and pepper given with castor, and oxymel, savory, or the decoction of marjoram with wine. We must also rouse by aromatics, put the person into a hot bath, and foment on account of the pruritus which supervenes; and after the bath we may use fat broths, with wine or must. Marrow also drunk with oil is useful.
Commentary. According to Nicander, the symptoms of poisoning by poppy-juice are coldness of the extremities, eyes fixed, heaviness of the eyelids, profuse and fetid perspiration, paleness, swelling of the lip, relaxation of the under jaw, slow respiration, cold breath, and the usual precursors of dissolution, namely, distortion of the nostrils, lividity of the nails, and hollow eyes. His remedies are emetics, such as the oil of iris or of roses, wine and honey; hot drink and rousing the patient by cries, striking his body in different places, and wrapping it in cloths smeared with oil and hot wine, and the hot bath as a restorative.
The symptoms mentioned by Dioscorides are lethargy, violent pruritus, and the perspiration smelling of opium. His remedies are the same as those of our author, namely, emetics at first, then clysters, and afterwards wine and vinegar, with various stimulant and strong-scented things; such as pepper, cinnamon, castor, marjoram, &c. The patient is to be roused as directed by Nicander; and baths and fomentations are to be used to relieve the pruritus.
Galen relates the case of a person reduced to the last stage of coldness, whom he saved by administering freely a strong, light-coloured, and fragrant wine. Yet, he remarks correctly, a small quantity of weak wine operates unfavorably by promoting the distribution of the poison over the system. He, in particular, recommends vomiting at first with wine and oil, and afterwards strong clysters.
Aëtius mentions, among the symptoms, violent pruritus and convulsions. None of the other Greek writers mention convulsions, but, among the Arabians, Avicenna, Rhases, and Alsaharavius, have mentioned them. Modern experience has determined that they are an occasional, but not a frequent symptom produced by the immoderate administration of opium.
Scribonius Largus directs us, after repeated vomiting, to apply embrocations of vinegar and roses to the head, to rub the feet, and to put sinapisms to them and the thighs. Simeon Seth strongly recommends vinegar.
Haly Abbas and Alsaharavius, and, in short, all the Arabians recommend nearly the same treatment; namely, emetics of oil and water, or oil and wine, hot clysters, acrid and strong-scented things, such as castor, assafœtida, savin, &c., and the warm bath, friction, sternutatories, and every means calculated to arouse, and to prevent sleep.
Serapion, Rhases, Avicenna, Haly Abbas, and Alsaharavius, agree in stating that the smallest dose of opium which will prove destructive to human life is two drachms. Modern authors are not agreed as to the smallest quantity which may prove fatal, but surely, as Dr. Christison remarks, Dr. Paris has fixed the minimum dose too low, when he affirms that four grains may be sufficient to produce this effect. On the other hand, we should think that a smaller dose than that mentioned by the Arabians might be sufficient to destroy life. Perhaps the ancient opium may have been weaker than that now in use.
It is worthy of remark, that most of the ancient authorities recommend vinegar in cases of poisoning by opium, but we are inclined to think that none of them administered it at the commencement, nor until the poison had been removed from the bowels. This practice agrees very well with the rule of treatment laid down by Orfila, Paris, and Christison, who state that vinegar is prejudicial, if given at first, by favouring the solution of the poison, but proves useful afterwards by acting as a restorative to the system.
None of the ancient authorities recommend venesection.
In another work we have thus explained the ancient theory of the action of opium upon the human frame. “In order to understand properly the ideas entertained by the ancients respecting the modus operandi of opium, it will be necessary to say a few words in explanation of their opinions upon certain points of physiology. Aristotle taught that the prime cause of all the operations of life is mind, and that the prime instrument by which it performs them is heat, which, therefore, he denominates the co-cause (συνάιτιον). He illustrates his meaning by comparing the mind to the artificer, and heat to the wimble or saw by which he performs his work. Having remarked, no doubt, that the heart is the warmest part of the body, he appears to have considered it as the spring which turns the whole machinery of the animal frame, the brain and nerves deriving their origin and influence from it. (I need scarcely mention how well these ideas accord with the ingenious hypothesis lately advanced by M. Serres.) Many facts, indeed, seem to point out the supreme importance of the heart. It is, as the ancients remarked, the primum movens et ultimum moriens; and, along with its accessory organ, the lungs, it is evidently the part which, in the higher classes of animals, renders them independent of the many variations of heat and cold to which they are subjected. It is this wonderful organ which, under the guidance of the principle of life, preserves the heat of the body unaltered in all the different gradations of temperature, from more than 100 degrees above the boiling, to as many below the freezing point of the thermometer. It seems, in fact, a real Prometheus that steals the fire from heaven. The connexion between heat and the vital actions is very apparent also in the inferior animals, who are not provided with such an apparatus for preserving an equability of temperature. Thus the zoophyta, insecta, et vermes, with the loss of heat, lose also sensibility and muscular energy, which they recover again when their heat is restored. In this case it is evident that heat is the cause (or at least the co-cause) of the vital actions, and not the vital actions of heat. It has always appeared to me a striking fact, illustrative of the great influence of heat over the vital actions, that the strength of all animals is, bulk to bulk, proportionate to the degree of their animal heat.
“This doctrine of the supreme authority of the heart, as being the focus of heat, thus maintained by Aristotle, was eagerly defended by the great Arabian commentator, Averrhoes, and by his countryman, Avenzoar, who keenly attacked Galen for having questioned its truth, and taught, as they represent, that the brain is the leading organ in the animal frame. After having, however, carefully ransacked every part of Galen’s works, in which I could suppose it likely to meet with any allusion to this doctrine, I am led to believe that these Arabians, in the heat of controversy, have misrepresented the real opinion of their master’s rival. Galen appears decidedly to have maintained with Hippocrates—‘that there is in the body no one beginning, but that all parts are alike, beginning and end: for a circle has no beginning.’ Agreeably to this idea, Galen remarks, that the brain cannot properly be said to derive its powers from the heart, since an animal will run, breathe, and cry after its heart has been taken out; nor can the heart be said properly to derive its powers from the brain, since it will palpitate and contract, after all communication with the brain is cut off, nay, after it has been removed from the body. In so far, then, the functions of the brain and the heart are independent of one another. But the brain is dependent upon the heart and its appendages for vital heat, without which it would be unable to continue its functions; and the heart, on the other hand, is dependent upon the brain for imparting nervous influence to the respiratory organs, without which it could not preserve its vital heat unaltered. Hence the mutual connexion and sympathy of important organs—a doctrine much insisted upon by ancient authors, and which bears some resemblance to the theory lately advanced by Mr. Morgan and Dr. Addison.
“We shall now have no difficulty in understanding the ideas of the ancients regarding the operation of opium. Galen and Avicenna believed that the poison exerts its primary influence upon the heart, and impairs its vital heat. Of course they considered its operation on the brain as secondary. They called the action of narcotics frigorific or congealing, no doubt because they remarked that it was attended with a diminution of vital heat, and to this they attributed the loss of sensibility and muscular energy. I leave it to the reader to judge whether this theory or the modification of it lately proposed by Messrs. Morgan and Addison be the more plausible.” (Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, No. 103.)
But although the ancient physiologists maintained that the prime organs of the animal frame suffer sympathetically in cases of poisoning, they did not hold, it will be remarked, that all poisons exert their primary action on the nervous system. This is the hypothesis lately advocated by Messrs. Morgan and Addison, but which is, in fact, only a revival of that maintained by Schulze in his ‘Toxicologia Veterum.’ He thus states his theory of the action of poisons,—“Omnia symptomata et lethales venenorum effectus hoc unum quam luculentissimè demonstrant, ab omnibus venenis nervos ipsos graviter affligi. Nervea igitur vis seu vitalis, a veneni stimulis commota, aut majori impetu agit, aut prævalente veneni vehementia prorsus silet, nexusque omnes sensorii communis cum reliquis nervis turbantur, vitâ animali aut graviter periclitante, aut prorsus interiturâ.” (Toxic. Vet. vii.) Dr. Mead also, in his last edition of his work on Poisons, advocates this hypothesis.
It appears to us, however, that this theory, although very simple and plausible, is somewhat too exclusive. And that there are other modes by which poisons operate than through the brain and nerves appears to be demonstrated by the fact now clearly established, that poisons act upon vegetables as well as upon animals. (V. Annales de Chimie, t. xxix.) Now as vegetables are possessed of neither sensibility nor motion, it seems preposterous to suppose that they have any nervous system.
Perhaps, then, we cannot do better than revert to the old doctrine delivered by Alsaharavius. Sometimes, he says, poisons act upon the heart, and thereby prove instantly fatal; sometimes upon the liver, producing jaundice and phthisis; sometimes upon the brain, when they occasion delirium; and sometimes their action is local, giving rise to corruption and lividity of the part. (Pract. xxx. 2, 18.)
That the primary action of narcotics is upon the heart appears to us, upon the whole, the most probable theory hitherto advanced upon the subject.
When the juice of carpesia is drunk it brings on heavy sleep and acute suffocation. These are relieved by the same remedies as those given to persons who have drunk hemlock.
Commentary. This section is taken, almost word for word, from Dioscorides. Matthiolus confesses that he was quite unable to determine what substance it was. (Comment. in Dioscor. vi, 13.) It is doubtful whether the καρπήσιον of Galen and the κάρπασον of Dioscorides be the same substance, and whether either be the same as the ὀποκάρπασον. Sprengel can arrive at no certain conclusion respecting it. Valerius Cordus supposed it to be the piper longum.
When mandragora has been drunk, stupor immediately comes on, with loss of strength, and a strong inclination to sleep, so that the affection differs in nothing from that which is called lethargy. Before any of these symptoms come on, vomiting will be proper in this case; and afterwards honied water, or natron and wormwood with must, or taken in a dulcified wine, embrocations to the head with rose-oil and vinegar, rousing by shaking the body, and by strong-smelling things, pepper, mustard, castor, and rue pounded with vinegar, liquid pitch, and the wicks of lamps lighted and extinguished, will be proper. When they are difficult to rouse we may also apply sternutatories, and have recourse to the general remedies in such cases.
Commentary. Our author, as usual, follows Dioscorides. Matthiolus, by the way, in his commentary, questions the propriety of applying rose-oil and vinegar to the head, as these things are of a cold nature, whereas stimulants and calefacients are indicated. Perhaps these things, when poured from a height upon the head, might prove restorative and stimulant. The other Greek authorities however, as, for example, Aëtius and Actuarius, approve of the practice. Alsaharavius recommends emetics, and also directs us to pour vinegar and rose-oil on the head, and to take vinegar in which hyssop and the like have been boiled.
Rhases recommends vomiting by means of water, honey, and fossil salt; after which sweet wine is to be given, and vinegar and rose-oil poured upon the head; castor, pepper, and rue are to be administered, along with sternutatories. He mentions, however, that he knew an old medical man who cured a young woman, who had fallen into a state of syncope, with flushing of the face, after swallowing the apples of mandragora, by the affusion of snow-water on her head. Avicenna properly directs everything to be done to prevent sleep.
Schulze is satisfied that it is the atropa mandragora of Linnæus. There seems no doubt, however, that the mandragora of Theophrastus is the atropa belladonna; while the mandragora mas of Dioscorides is the mandragora vernalis, Bertol.; and the M. femina of the same, the mandragora autumnalis.
Theophrastus, Dioscorides, Galen, Athenæus, Aëtius, Suidas, Hesychius, Apuleius, Pollux, and Frontinus, have made mention of the hypnotic property of mandragora. It is singular that it should now have fallen into neglect. It appears to have been used as a medicine in the days of Shakespeare. Iago says:
We will have occasion to treat of it in the Seventh Book.
Wolfsbane immediately after being drunk occasions a sensation of sweetness on the tongue, with a little astringency; vertigo supervenes, more especially when the person attempts to rise up, and it brings on a watering of the eyes; there is heaviness of the chest and abdomen, with eructation of much flatus. In these cases the medicine must be brought up by vomits, and the contents of the bowels evacuated by a clyster. We must also give draughts from marjoram and rue, or from horehound with wine, or from wormwood, or from rocket, or from southernwood, or mezereon, or ground-pine. Opobalsam, too, taken to the amount of one drachm, with wine, will likewise answer with them; also the rennet of a kid, or of a hare, or of a fawn, with vinegar, and the dross of iron, or iron itself, or gold, or silver, may be dissolved in wine, and the liquid taken, and lye with wine, and the broth of a boiled cock, or the broth of fat flesh taken with wine. The ground-pine, which is said to be a specific in Heraclea of Pontus, where wolfsbane grows, is called holocleron, but ionia in Athens, and sideritis in Eubœa.
Commentary. The symptoms, as described by Nicander, are astringency of the lips, palate, and gums, gnawing pains at the stomach, singultus, flatulence, running from the eyes, double vision, as from intoxication. His remedies seem to have been principally emetics and calefacients. Thus he recommends a handful of quicklime to be drunk with a hemina of wine, also southernwood, spurge, ground-pine, marjoram, opobalsam, the metallic preparations mentioned by our author, and the like. The accounts of the treatment given by Dioscorides, Aëtius, and Actuarius agree exactly with our author’s. Avicenna, Rhases, and Haly Abbas, in like manner, recommend emetics, clysters, and calefacient medicines internally.
Diogenes Laertius states, upon the authority of Eumelus the historian, that Aristotle the philosopher despatched himself with a draught of aconite. (Vita Aristot.) Pliny relates that this poison proves fatal when applied to the genital organs of women. (H. N. xxvii, 2.)
The ancients have described several varieties of aconite. See Theophrastus (H. P. ix, 19); Pliny (H. N. xxv, 75); Schulze (Toxicol, vet.); Schneider (in Nicand. Alexiphar.); and Sprengel (Rei. Herb. Hist.) These modern authors in general are disposed to think that it was the iris tuberosa. Sprengel, however, in the notes to his edition of Dioscorides, is decided that the second species of Dioscorides (Mat. Med. iv, 78) is the aconitum napellus; but respecting the first species, he is in great doubts. All agree that the aconitum of Theophrastus is different from the A. of Dioscorides and the other toxicologists. We may be permitted to add, that the symptoms of poisoning by aconitum, as given by Nicander, agree so well with those reported lately of cases of poisoning by the aconitum napellus, that we cannot doubt their identity.
Ixia, which is also called ulophonon, when drunk has some resemblance both in taste and smell to basil-royal. It brings on strong inflammation of the tongue, and disorder of the mind; it suppresses all the secretions, occasioning borborygmi and rumbling, with deliquium animi; but there are no alvine evacuations. After the greater part of the poison has been brought up by vomiting, or evacuated by the bowels, they will experience relief from drinking the decoction of wormwood, with much wine, vinegar, or oxymel, or the seed of wild rue, or the root of laserwort, and in the like manner the decoction of tragoriganum with some of the aforementioned, or with milk; or of turpentine, of nard, of castor, of laserwort, of each an obolus in wine. The fruit also of the walnut triturated with wine will be proper; or of rosin, of castor, and of rue, of each dr. j; and in like manner of mezereon, dr. ij; of the juice of thapsia, dr. ij, with honied water; and hot vinegar may be drunk by itself.
Commentary. Nicander’s description of the symptoms is very similar to that given by our author, and his treatment seems to have been conducted upon the same principles; namely, by administering emetics and purgatives at first, and, afterwards, discutient and detergent medicines, to overcome the viscid nature of the poison. Our author’s plan of treatment differs in no material respect from that recommended by Dioscorides, Aëtius, Actuarius, Avicenna, and Alsaharavius. Avicenna described it by the name of aldabach; Alsaharavius, by those of alfos, aldolia, i. e. arbor risi.
Apuleius make ixias, ulophonon, chamæleon, ocymoides, and various cardui synonymes (109.) The ixias, according to Gorræus, is a species of chamæleon, but what species cannot be determined. (See, also, Schneider’s note on Nicander.) Matthiolus calls it a glutinous substance, found in the root of the chamæleon, or carline thistle. Schulze is decided that it was a species of carlina (Toxicol. vet., 22.) See Harduin’s note on Pliny (H. N. xxii, 21.) After mature consideration, we have no difficulty in referring it to the carlina acaulis, or carline thistle.
When one swallows ephemeron (which some call colchicum, because it grows in Colchis, or bulbus silvestris), pruritus takes place over the whole body, as if stung by nettle or squill; there is a gnawing pain within, and great heat of the stomach, with considerable heaviness; but when the affection gains strength, blood is discharged from the bowels, mixed with the scrapings thereof. The same remedies are to be applied as to those who have drunk salamander, in vomits and clysters. But before the medicine gain ground we must give a decoction of oak-leaves, or of acorns, or of the rind of pomegranate, or of wild thyme with milk, or the juice of bloodwort, or of vine-tops, or of brambles, or of the medulla of fennel-giant, or of myrtle berries, with wine; and when levigated myrtles themselves are pounded and macerated in water, the liquor thereof may be taken with advantage. And, in like manner, the middle pellicle of the chesnuts, called Sardian, may be taken with the aforesaid juices, and marjoram may be drunk with lye. Those affected are manifestly relieved by drinking hot cow’s milk, and retaining it in the mouth, so that they who have plenty of it do not stand in need of any other remedy.
Commentary. Our author’s detail of the symptoms is taken entirely from Nicander, and his treatment also is mostly derived from the same source. They seem to have depended principally upon vegetable astringents, such as oak-bark, pomegranate-rind, and chesnuts, for checking the hypercatharsis. Pliny, like our author, strongly commends milk (H. N. xxvii, 33.) Dioscorides recommends emetics, clysters, vegetable astringents, and demulcents. Alsaharavius says, that hermodactylus occasions pruritus of the whole body, swelling of the palate, pains of the stomach, and the like. He recommends emetics, clysters, cows’ milk, and vegetable astringents, such as acorns with wine. This, it will be remarked, is similar to the account which the Greeks give of the symptoms and treatment of ephemeron, which is undoubtedly the colchicum autumnale; and this circumstance tends strongly to prove the identity of the ephemeron and the hermodactylus. We agree with Schulze, Prosper Alpinus, and Humelbergius, that they were unquestionably the same plant, notwithstanding that Sprengel, Matthiolus, and Dr. Murray are of a different opinion. Dr. Paris considers that there is no doubt of their identity. (See a learned dissertation on the Ephemeron in a note by Schneider, on Nicander’s Alexipharmics.) We shall only further add, in this place, that the learned Ardoyn, in his elaborate work on Poisons, contends, that there is no doubt of the identity of the colchicum and the hermodactylus. We, in fact, are surprised that this should have been ever questioned.
The tree called smilax is named thymium by some, and taxus by the Romans. When drunk it brings on coldness of the whole body, suffocation, and speedy death; the remedies for which are all those things which are given to those who have drunk of hemlock.
Commentary. The description of the symptoms and the plan of treatment are borrowed from Nicander, or, rather, copied direct from Dioscorides.
Different opinions have been entertained respecting the poisonous nature of the yew. Haller, Bulliard, and others, deny that it is poisonous; while Berkley, Ray, Matthiolus, and others, affirm that it is. Orfila holds it to be a narcotic poison (chap. iv, cl. 4.) We have known instances of its proving fatal to cattle. The newspapers lately contained a melancholy case of a boy poisoned by yew-berries at Winchester. Matthiolus is not pleased with Dioscorides for making it to be a frigorific medicine; but Orfila, it appears, gives it the same character; that is to say, he holds it to be narcotic. Virgil alludes to its poisonous qualities:
See, also, Theophrastus (H. P. i, 5, and iii, 9); and Schulze (Tox. vet. 17).
When one drinks of dorycnium, which some call strychnos furiosa, there follows a sensation, as it were, of milk to the taste; constant hiccough, watering of the tongue, and frequent ejection of blood; and there are mucous discharges by the bowels, as in dysenterical cases. They are to be remedied before any of these symptoms supervene, by those things which are taken for ephemeron, I mean emetics and clysters, and whatever else can evacuate the substance which had been taken. Honied water is a particularly good remedy; or the milk of asses or of goats and sweet wine, in a tepid state, may be drunk with a small quantity of anise. Bitter almonds also are proper, the boiled breasts of fowls, all the shell-fish eaten raw and boiled, crabs and crawfish, and the broth of them when drunk.
Commentary. Our author’s detail of symptoms is taken mostly from Nicander, or, perhaps, direct from Dioscorides. The poet’s plan of treatment seems to have been much the same as that of Paulus. He omits, indeed, to make mention of emetics and purgatives as being general remedies in all cases of poisoning; but he recommends milk, must, and the crustacea, such as the pinna, echinus, &c. The other authorities supply nothing additional. Avicenna treats of it under the name of uva vulpis stupefactiva mala; he copies from Dioscorides (iv, 6; i, 7.)
There is considerable difficulty about the nature of the dorycnium. Our author, Aëtius and Apuleius, make it to be the same as the strychnos furiosa, which is generally held to be either the solanum sodomeum, or the atropa belladonna. On this subject, see Galen (de Med. sec. loc. x, 3); Pliny (H. N. xxi, 105); Apuleius (de Herb., 22). Schulze affirms, that none of the ancient poisons is so little known as the dorycnium. He is undecided as to its nature, except that it belonged to the diadelphous or leguminous plants, and he is inclined to think that it was an astragalus. (Toxicol. Veterum, 2.) Sprengel inclines either to the convolvulus cneorus, L., or the con. dorycnium, L. But as far as we can see, the most probable conjecture that can be made regarding it is, that it was either the solanum sodomeum, or atropa belladonna.
The herb called the Sardonian is a species of ranunculus, when drunk, or eaten, it brings on disorder of the intellect, and convulsions with contraction of the lips, so as to exhibit the appearance of laughter. From this affection that ill-omened expression, the Sardonian laugh, took its rise. In these cases, therefore, after vomiting, it will be proper to give honied water and milk, with embrocations and lubrications of the whole body, by calefacient remedies; and to have recourse to hot-baths of hot oil and water, and to anoint properly and rub them after the baths; and, upon the whole, to conduct the treatment as for convulsions.
Commentary. Dioscorides and our author are perfectly agreed as to the symptoms and treatment. Aëtius recommends, likewise, castor with sweet wine. Solinus, like our author, says that it brings on contractions of the muscles, and the risus Sardonicus. Avicenna acknowledges his ignorance of the nature and proper treatment of this herb, but supposes that it belongs to the class of acute poisons. There seems, however, no reason to doubt that it was a species of ranunculus. Schulze makes it the ranunculus sceleratus, L., which bears the English name of celery-leaved crowfoot; and we are clearly of the same opinion, although Avicenna seems to make a distinction between the Sardonian herb and the kebekengi, or apium risus, which is the βατράχιον of Dioscorides. See Alsaharavius (Pract. xxx, i, 39.)
Seeing that the species of poppy called the horned, when eaten or drunk, brings on the same symptoms as the juice of poppy, it is to be treated by the same remedies.
Commentary. Miller says that the glaucium is called horned poppy because it is a species of poppy having husks resembling horns. See some account of it in Apuleius (53.) Schulze remarks that Dioscorides has described several varieties of the poppy. 1, Papaver hortense; 2, P. opiiferum; 3, P. agreste; 4, P. rhæas; 5, P. ceratites sive corniculatum; 6, Hypecoum. The fifth of these, or horned poppy, is the glaucium luteum, Scop. Dioscorides gives a distinct description, but treats of it as a medicine rather than as a poison. (M. M. iv, 66.) None of the Arabians treat of it separate from opium.
The substance called pharicum in taste completely resembles nard, and when drunk it brings on paralysis, with disorder of the mind and convulsion. After evacuation by vomiting, we must give the patient to drink, along with wine, some wormwood, cinnamon, myrrh, or Celtic nard (which some call saliunca), or of spikenard, dr. ij, or two oboli of myrrh mixed with must or iris, and the flower of saffron with wine. The head is to be shaven, and a cataplasm consisting of barley-flour, with levigated rue and vinegar, is to be applied.
Commentary. Nicander, like our author, compares its taste to that of spikenard, and says that it proves fatal in one day, inducing delirium. He recommends the same internal medicines, and also makes mention of applying a stimulant cataplasm to the head, evidently with a view of relieving the phrenitis. The other authorities recommend similar treatment.
There is great disagreement among the ancient writers on toxicology respecting the nature of the pharicum. (See the notes of Gorræus and Schneider on Nicander.) The former remarks that many suppose it a species of nard. Dioscorides (Præf. vi) and Galen (Antidot. ii) make it to be a herb. Scribonius Largus, and Hesychius consider it to have been a compound medicine. After balancing all the statements Schneider comes to the conclusion, that most probably it was a composition from agaric. Schulze is wholly undecided as to its nature. (Toxic. Vet. 21.) Sprengel, in like manner, can come to no certain conclusion respecting it. (Notæ in Dioscor. l. c.)
The toxicum seems to be so called because the barbarians anointed their darts (τοξεύματα) with it. When a person has drunk of it, inflammation of the lips and tongue comes on, also irrestrainable madness leading to various fantasies, so that in the treatment of them they are difficult to cure, and it is rare that any of those who have drunk of it can be saved. However, they are to be forcibly bound with ligatures, and compelled to drink sweet wine with rose-oil, and to vomit. Turnip seed, also, drunk with wine will be proper for them, and the root of cinquefoil, the blood of a he or she-goat when taken, oak bark, that of the beech or ilex triturated with milk; also quinces when eaten, or triturated with pennyroyal and drunk in water; and ammomum, and the fruit of balsam with wine. But if any escape the danger they remain for a long time confined to bed, and when they get out of it they spend the rest of their lives in a state of timidity.
Commentary. The symptoms detailed by Nicander are much the same as those enumerated by our author, namely, swelling of the mouth and throat, with violent internal pains. His remedies likewise are much the same, namely, forcing the patient, after he is well secured, to drink wine until he vomit, and making him take bruised apples, rose-oil, oil of iris, &c. He says, that certain savage nations upon the Euphrates poisoned their arrows with it, which rendered their wounds immedicable, occasioning lividity and putrefaction. Dioscorides, Aëtius, Actuarius, and, in short, all the ancient authorities, copy his account.
It is very difficult to determine the nature of the toxicum. Theophrastus describes a species of calamus by the name of toxicus. (H. P. iii, 12.) Avicenna, however, admits that he was wholly unacquainted with its nature. (iv, 6; i, 29.) Some have supposed, with considerable probability, that it was a preparation from the rhus toxicodendron. Schulze is only decided that it was a vegetable poison. (Tox. Vet. 19.) But it even seems doubtful whether it was a simple or compound medicine, and whether of an animal or vegetable nature. (See Schneider’s note on Nicander’s Alexiph. 248.) Sprengel inclines to the opinion that it was collected from the venom of serpents. (Notæ in Dioscor.) All, however, is mere conjecture on this subject.
Of mushrooms, some prove deleterious from their general nature, and some by the quantity taken. They all bring on suffocation resembling choking. The general remedy which is to be instantly applied is to compel the persons affected to vomit by means of oil. They are also wonderfully relieved by drinking of the lye from vine-shoots, or from the wood of the wild pear with oxycrate, salts, or natron. And wild pears or their leaves, if boiled with mushrooms, take away their suffocative quality, and if eaten they prove beneficial. Hen’s dung, drunk in oxycrate, proves beneficial to them; likewise a drachm of birthwort, or of wormwood with wine, and honey when licked or drunk with water; and baum with natron, or the root and fruit of all-heal with wine, the burnt lees of wine with water, and copperas with vinegar, radish, mustard, or cresses when eaten. And since certain mushrooms having been tasted of by venomous animals occasion not only suffocation but also ulceration of the intestines, we must give in such cases plenty of wormwood, and the decoction of figs, and of marjoram, and honied water. Emetics, the hot hip-bath, and raw barley-flour when applied to the hypochondria, will also be proper.
Commentary. Nicander mentions suffocation as the common effect of taking mushrooms. His remedies are radishes, rue, the flowers of copper, natron, mustard, lixivial ashes, &c. Our author copies from Aëtius. Simeon Seth recommends honey with tepid water, and a moderate quantity of natron. Ruffus (ap. Oribas. Med. Collect, viii, 24) recommends clysters of natron, wormwood, the juice of radish, and the decoction of rue. Dioscorides recommends emetics of oil, natron, &c., and afterwards vinegar and stimulant decoctions. Avicenna’s remedies are nearly the same as those of our author. Alsaharavius directs us to give at first emetics, and then calefacients, such as pepper, cumin, wine, and, if necessary, the theriac. Haly Abbas, in like manner, recommends emetics, and then wine with honey, the theriac, &c. The symptoms, he says, are cold sweats, faintings, and embarrassment of breathing. All the ancient authors affirm that mushrooms act upon the organs of respiration, and we remark that a sense of suffocation is generally mentioned in the cases reported by modern writers.
For a full report of fungi, or mushrooms, see Dioscor. (iv, 53); Pliny (H. N. xxii, 46); Schulze (Tox. Vet. 14); Sprengel (Comment. in Dioscor.); Schweighaeuser (in Athen. Deipnos. ii, 59); Schneider (ad Nicand. Alex. 521). Diphilus, as quoted by Athenæus, states that all mushrooms which are black, livid, and hard, or which grow hard after being boiled, are of a deleterious nature. He recommends us to give mulse, oxymel, natron, and vinegar, so as to produce vomiting.
Dioscorides gives the following characters of poisonous fungi: Such as grow near rusty nails, or putrid rags of cloth, or near the lodging-place of reptiles, or by trees which have bad fruits, are deleterious; such have a glutinous coagulum (membrane adhering to the cap?) and when gathered soon become putrid and melt away. (M. M. iv, 83). According to Sprengel, these characters are not universally applicable (l. c.); but considering the experience which the ancients had in the use of these articles, they are no doubt generally so. The amanita muscaria, the agaricus necator, and many other species, may be set down as belonging to the ancient list of poisonous mushrooms.—Schulze, who appears to have paid great attention to the subject, enumerates the poisonous mushrooms of the ancients as follows:—1, Agaricus muscarius; 2, Agaricus piperatus; 3, Agaricus emeticus; 4, Boletus versicolor; 5, Boletus laricis. (Toxic. Vet. xiii, 5.)
The blood of a newly-killed bull brings on dyspnœa and suffocation, obstructing the passages about the tonsils and the parts concerned in deglutition with violent spasms; the tongue, in such cases, is also found red; the teeth are stained, and there are clots between them. In this case we must avoid giving a vomit, because the grumous blood will be more firmly fastened in the stomach by being raised upwards with the contractions. We must give those things which are calculated to dissolve the coagulated blood and loosen the belly; green figs, therefore, are to be administered when filled with juice, along with oxycrate and natron. All kinds of rennet are also proper with vinegar, and the root of laserwort, with its juice in like manner; also cabbage seed, the lye of figs, and the leaves of fleabane with pepper, and the juice of bramble with vinegar. The bowels are also to be evacuated. Those who are going to recover have fetid and bloody discharges by the anus. Cataplasms, made of barley-flour with honey, are also to be applied to the regions of the stomach and bowels.
Commentary. Bulls’ blood being exceedingly viscid and indigestible might prove deleterious by becoming quickly coagulated in the stomach: we do not find any mention of it, however, in modern works on toxicology. Themistocles is said to have despatched himself with it. Nicander makes no mention of emetics, and Dioscorides, like our author, condemns the use of them. Nicander recommends almost the same identical remedies as our author. It will be remarked that they are all of a penetrating, attenuant, and solvent nature, such as wild figs, natron, laserwort, the rennets of certain animals, &c. Galen mentions the pernicious effects of coagulated blood in the stomach, and recommends hot vinegar for it. (De Al. boni et mali succi.) Ruffus (ap. Oribas. Med. Collect. viii, 24) recommends clysters composed of natron, vinegar, the decoction of cabbage, and of its seed, with vinegar.
The Arabians treat the case in a similar manner. Alsaharavius directs us to give vinegar, natron, wine, and the like, also diuretics, but he forbids the use of emetics.
Sprengel inclines to believe that bulls’ blood may prove deleterious, if allowed to remain long in the stomach, by evolving azotic gas. He therefore approves of the hot vinegar recommended by Galen. (Comment. in Dios. 25.) Ardoyn states that a large quantity of bulls’ blood taken into the stomach may produce suffocation by stopping the action of the diaphragm. (De Venen. iv, 23.)
Those who take a large draught of milk containing rennet, experience a great feeling of suffocation from its becoming coagulated. In treating them, we may give as an antidote rennet with vinegar, compelling them often to drink of it; also the dried leaves of calamint, and its juice in like manner, or the roots of laserwort, or its juice with oxycrate, thyme with wine, and the lye used by bonnet-makers; but nothing saltish must be given, for thereby the milk becomes more firmly coagulated and is converted into cheese. Neither must we make them vomit, for thereby the coagula being lodged in the stomach will produce suffocation.
Commentary. Gorræus, in his notes on Nicander, remarks that milk only proves prejudicial when taken in great quantity, immediately after the rennet has been added to it, and before it has curdled. See also Matthiolus and Ardoyn (de Venenis). Nicander recommends the same remedies as our author, namely, such as are of a cutting and attenuant nature, as rennet, vinegar, wine, lasewort, &c. Dioscorides forbids all saltish things. Ruffus (ap. Oribas. Med. Col. viii, 24) recommends a clyster of vinegar and natron, or asses’ milk with much salt. Celsus says, with his accustomed brevity, “Si lac intus coit, aut passum, aut coagulum, aut cum aceto laser.” See also Galen (l. c.) Haly Abbas, Rhases, Avicenna and Alsaharavius also recommend rennet with pepper, assafœtida, vinegar, &c. For bad milk which has spoiled on the stomach, all the Arabian authorities concur in recommending first an emetic of hydromel, and afterwards wine with pepper.
Sprengel accounts for the deleterious effects of curdled milk in the same manner as he does for those of bulls’ blood, and remarks, that the acid contained in the rennet of certain animals especially of hares, is well calculated for dissolving and evacuating the coagulum (Comment. in Dioscor. l. c.)
The Arabian authorities treat, among the deleterious substances, of flesh and fish which have been cooked and hung up in a wet place until they have become unwholesome. When eaten in this state, Rhases says they bring on violent vomiting and purging, and may prove fatal unless the proper remedies are applied. For these symptoms he recommends repeated emetics and then purgatives; after which wine and pepper is to be given; and, in the end, the remedies for poisonous mushrooms. (Ad Mansor. viii, 27, 28.) See also Alsaharavius (Pract. xxx, 2, 15); Haly Abbas (Pract. iv.) Haly Abbas recommends vomiting by means of tepid water, oxymel, and salt.
They treat, in like manner, of rancid fruits; which they state act as poisons when eaten in large quantity. For the cure of these they recommend emetics, the rob of bitter grapes, and medicines to whet the appetite. Rhases (ad Mansor. viii, 30); Avicenna (iv. 6; i, 30.)
Avenzoar relates, at considerable length, the history of a case in which delirium and other bad symptoms had been brought on and kept up by drinking out of a cup which had been poisoned with some putrid meat. (i, 9, 9.)
Those who eat or drink the honey formed in Heraclea, of Pontus, experience the same symptoms as they who have drunk of wolfsbane, and the same remedies will be applicable. They are readily relieved by drinking frequently of mulse, having the leaves of rue mixed with it.
Commentary. This section is taken from Dioscorides.
Avicenna makes mention of a poisonous kind of honey produced in Arabia, for which he applies much the same remedies as those recommended by our author. (iv, 6; i, 32.)
The effects of Pontic honey in occasioning madness is mentioned in the ‘Anabasis’ of Xenophon (iv, 8.) The same character of it is given by Aristotle, Pliny, Diodorus Siculus, and Ælian. Tournefort confirms the ancient accounts of its inebriating effects. See Sprengel (ad Dioscor. ii, 103.)
Gypsum, when drunk, produces suffocation, by being converted into stone; hence we must transfer the remedies applicable to those who have taken mushrooms, giving them in this case, and substituting the decoction of mallows for oil; for being of a fatty nature it lubricates the parts, and prevents them from being injured by the stony hardness of the gypsum. Oil, also, in honied water is proper; and the decoction of figs, and the lye of figs, or of the ashes of vine-shoots with much wine, and marjoram, or thyme with lye or vinegar. Clysters are also to be administered, consisting of must and the decoction of mallows.
Commentary. Our author copies closely from Dioscorides.
Rhases and Avicenna treat this case upon much the same principles as the Greeks, only they give scammony freely at first, and if dysentery supervene they recommend the remedies suitable for it. Aëtius, Dioscorides, and the other Greek authors, although they approve of clysters, say nothing about drastic purgatives. Avicenna says, gypsum in its action resembles ceruse, but is even more powerful than it in inducing strangulation. Haly Abbas says, gypsum occasions colic and ileus with dryness of the mouth, suffocation, difficulty of making urine, and so forth. He directs clysters at first, and afterwards an electuary of pepper and mustard to be given. Alsaharavius forbids emetics, recommends water mixed with honey, and olive-oil for drink, also emollient clysters, and sweet wine.
For an account of gypsum, see Pliny (H. N. xxxvi, 59) and Theophrastus (de Lapidibus.) Isidorus gives the following description of it:—“Gypsi plura genera: omnium autem optimum, lapis specularis: est enim signis ædificiorum, et coronis gratissimus.” (Orig. xvi, 3.) The gypsum speculare was evidently selenite, or crystallized sulphate of lime. See Matthiolus (Com. in Dioscor.)
Dr. Kidd gives the following account of the varieties of the ancient gypsum:—“It was, by the general description of it, an earthy compound of lime; but the ancient naturalists seem to apply it to sulphate of lime, the gypsum of the present day, and sometimes to a calcined carbonate of lime, or quicklime, which they called calx.” (Mineral. b. i, p. 70).
Sir John Hill gives a full account of the ancient gypsums in his notes on Theophrastus (de Lapidibus.) “Gypsum,” he says, “is nothing more than a selenite less elegant than the rhomboidal or plated kinds.” There can be no doubt that the γυψος διαφάνης of Philoponus (Com. in Aristot. de Anima. ii) was pure selenite. It is singular that our recent authorities on toxicology have not included gypsum in the list of poisonous substances which they treat of, although there is good reason to believe that the powder, if given in any great quantity, is highly deleterious. We know for certain that gypsum, or stucco, is often used for poisoning rats and mice. It is further deserving of remark that all the earlier modern authorities on medicine, down at least to the middle of the 16th century, treat of gypsum as an active poison. All the ancient authorities, it will be seen, represent it in this light. Pliny makes mention of a case of suicide committed by means of gypsum (H. N. xxxvi, 24.)
Ceruse, owing to its colour, cannot be mistaken, and when taken voluntarily it whitens the palate, tongue, and the intervals between the teeth. It also brings on hiccup and cough, dryness of the tongue, and coldness of the extremities, with disorder of the intellect and difficulty of moving. In this case it will be proper to give honied water or the decoction of figs, or of mallows, or hot milk, or sesame triturated with wine, or the lye of vine-shoots, or the oil of marjoram, or of iris; also the bones of peaches, with a decoction of barley or frankincense, or the gum of prunes, or the juice of the elm which is contained in its follicles, along with tepid water; but let them immediately vomit. The juice of thapsia will also be proper for them, or three oboli of the juice of scammony, when drunk with honied water.
Commentary. Nicander compares the colour of ceruse to frothy milk. The symptoms of poisoning by it are constriction of the palate and gums, asperity of the tongue, singultus, a dry cough, nausea, heaviness of the head, unnatural vision, and torpor. His remedies are emetics of oil, thin milk, decoctions of mallows, sesame triturated with wine, prunes or elms, which are to be given partly as emetics, and partly with the intention of their being digested; for which purpose the patient is to be put into the warm bath. See the Paraphrase of Eutecnius; also Dioscorides, Aëtius, Avicenna, and Rhases, who recommend similar treatment. Aëtius, like our author, directs us to give scammony, evidently to counteract its astringency. Alsaharavius recommends emetics of the decoction of figs with mead or common oil, the infusion of wormwood as a diuretic, scammony with hydromel, and hot milk. Rhases recommends emetics of the decoctions of figs and oil, with drastic purgatives and diuretics. (Ad Mansor. viii, and Contin. xx, 2.) Avicenna’s principles of treatment are quite similar, that is to say, he trusts to emetics, diuretics, and clysters, and prevents the patient from sleeping. (iv, 6, 1.) Haly Abbas recommends an emetic consisting of honey with hot water, vinegar and salt; he also gives diuretics, such as the infusion of parsley, fennel, anise, and southernwood. (Pract. iv.)
Dr. Alston says, “our white lead is certainly the ψιμύθιον of Dioscorides and the cerussa of Pliny.” It was prepared by exposing the carbonate of lead to the vapours of vinegar. See Milligan (Ad Cels. p. 112.)
Lime, sandarach, and arsenic, when taken in a draught, bring on pains of the stomach and bowels, with violent corrosion. Wherefore we must administer all things of a diluent and solvent nature, such things as will produce ready vomiting and lubricate the bowels, as the juice of the marsh or common mallows, and a decoction of linseed, or of spelt, or of rice, copious draughts of milk and honied water, broths which are fatty and contain wholesome juices.
Commentary. Nicander has not treated of poisoning by these substances. Dioscorides, Aëtius, and Actuarius give almost the same account of the symptoms and treatment as our author. Their remedies are emetics, lubricants, and laxatives. The Arabians copy their descriptions and follow their treatment. Thus Alsaharavius directs these cases to be treated by giving emetics of oily and fatty things, emollient clysters, and unctuous articles, to prevent ulceration of the intestines. Avicenna orders, in the first place, an emetic of warm water and oil, then emollient decoctions, such as those of linseed and mallows, and fat broths and milk. The cough is to be soothed by demulcents. (iv, 6, 1.) Rhases states that quicklime and arsenic occasion putrefaction of the intestines. (Cont. xxxvii. tr. 1.) Galen, however, has stated that arsenic is not, properly speaking, a septic, but a strong caustic. (De Simp. 1.)
However meagre this account of these important medicines may appear, it will be seen, upon reference to the standard works on toxicology, that the treatment at the present day scarcely differs, in any one point, from the ancient mode of practice. Emetics, demulcents, consisting of decoctions of emollient herbs, or copious draughts of milk, laxatives and clysters, form the present practice.
The ancient arsenicum, or auripigmentum, was orpiment; the sandarach was realgar, or the orange-red sulphuret. Our oxide of arsenic is a factitious substance, prepared by sublimation from cobalt: it is much more deleterious than auripigmentum or orpiment. Servitor and Avicenna have described the factitious arsenic, or oxide of arsenic of the moderns. The Arabian chemist Geber treats largely and ingeniously of orpiment, which he holds to be closely allied to sulphur. He also speaks of sublimed arsenic. (iii. 29.)
Litharge, when drunk, brings on heaviness of the stomach and bowels, with intense tormina; sometimes by its weight it wounds the intestines, occasions retention of urine and swelling of the body, which becomes of a leaden hue, and assumes an unseemly appearance. In such cases it will be proper, after vomiting, to give the seed of the wild clary (horminum) to drink with wine, three oboli of myrrh, wormwood, parsley-seed, pepper, the flower of privet with wine, and the dried dung of wild pigeons, with nard and wine.
Commentary. The symptoms which Nicander mentions as being superinduced by litharge are borborygmi, pains resembling those of ileus, retention of urine, and discoloration of the skin. His remedies are carminatives, warm stimulants, and diuretics, such as myrrh, clary, St. John’s-wort, hyssop, pepper, hedge mustard taken in wine, the green shoots of privet, and the fruit of pomegranate. Scribonius Largus recommends emetics and calefacient medicines, such as pepper, myrrh, parsley. The Arabians, namely, Rhases, Avicenna, and Alsaharavius, concur in recommending emetics, drastic purgatives, and calefacient medicines.
The ancient litharge was prepared like the modern. It is a semi-vitrified peroxide of lead.
When a person has drunk the shavings of lead or its soil, he experiences the same symptoms as those from litharge, and is to be treated in the same manner.
Commentary. We need scarcely say that litharge is now ascertained to be a preparation of lead. (See the preceding section.) Most of the ancient authorities state, like our author, that the symptoms and treatment of poisoning by lead and litharge are exactly the same. It appears singular that it should be asserted in some modern works on the materia medica that the ancients were unacquainted with the deleterious properties of lead. Galen even mentions that water conveyed in leaden pipes sometimes proves deleterious by occasioning dysentery. (Med. sec. loc. vii.) Aëtius makes the same observation. (xi, 45.) Palladius, the writer on agriculture, speaks of it in the following terms: “Ultima ratio est, plumbeis fistulis ducere, quæ aquas noxias reddunt; nam cerusa plumbo creatur attrito, quæ corporibus nocet humanis.” (ix, 11.) Vitruvius also mentions that water impregnated with lead is deleterious. (Arch. viii.) Pliny notices the deleterious effects of the exhalations from lead mines. (H. N. xxxiv, 50.)
The Greek writers on toxicology do not treat of copper as a poison; but the Arabians have done so in brief terms, all agreeing in recommending the same treatment as in cases of poisoning with arsenic. (See Avicenna, Rhases, Haly Abbas, and Alsaharavius.) These authorities, likewise, lay down in very succinct terms the treatment of poisoning by iron, which they direct to be conducted upon general principles. They in particular recommend laxative and demulcent medicines. (See Avicenna iv, 6, 18.) As a slight novelty in their practice we may mention that he recommends the affusion of vinegar with oil of roses, violets, &c., upon the head. Averrhoes recommends from ⅓ to 1 dr. of balsam. (Coll. v.)
Mercury, when swallowed, brings on the same symptoms as litharge, and the same remedies are to be used in this case. A copious draught of milk seems to be beneficial, and vomiting ought to be produced.
Commentary. Dioscorides, Galen, and Aëtius give the same imperfect account of this important medicine and poison as our author gives, and supply no additional information of any importance. The Arabians were better acquainted with its properties, having ascertained that it might be taken in its metallic state with impunity. Rhases says, “I do not think that any great harm will result from drinking mercury when it is pure, unless it be pains in the stomach and intestines. It afterwards passes out in its natural state, especially if the person who swallowed it moves about. I gave a draught of it to an ape, nor did I perceive any inconvenience arise from it, except, as I have mentioned, that it appeared to be pained in its belly, for it often bit it with its mouth, and grasped it with its hands.” (Ad Mansor. viii, 42.)
Haly Abbas gives a similar account. Mercury, he says, in its natural state, is not poisonous, and merely occasions some tormina in the belly; but when killed (oxydised?) it is deleterious, and is to be remedied by giving emetics of oil and dill, and afterwards oily clysters, &c. (Pract. iv, 53.) See a similar account in Avicenna (iv, 6, 1, 2.) Mercury that has been killed, or sublimed, that is to say attenuated, produces, he says, grave symptoms, such as pain of the bowels, a bloody flux, retention of urine, and so forth. He recommends, after vomiting, myrrh in wine, with honied water, &c.
Serapion mentions that fumigations with mercury are very prejudicial by superinducing nervous affections and paralysis. (De Simpl. 385.) Alsaharavius is, we believe, the only ancient author who has mentioned that rubbing the body with mercury occasions swelling of the mouth, tongue, and throat, with erosion of those parts. He directs us to wash or gargle with the decoction of dill, camomile, or mint. (Pract. xxx, 3.) Pliny mentions milk as a remedy against gypsum, ceruse, sulphur, and mercury. (H. N. xxviii.)
Not having access to the unpublished MSS. of the ancient ‘Scriptores Chemici,’ we cannot pretend to determine whether or not they had acquired any considerable skill in analysing and detecting poisonous substances. See an interesting account of these mss. in Fabricii ‘Bibliotheca Græca,’ xiii, p. 747. Consult also Vossius ‘De Naturâ Artium,’ v. 9; Sir William Drummond’s Papers in the ‘Classical Journal’ on the Literature of the Ancient Egyptians; and Doutens ‘Dec. de Modern.’ p. 176. The only original work on the chemistry of the ancients which we have read with any attention is the ‘Chemia’ of Geber, which contains much curious information regarding the metals, although nothing that suits our present purpose.
We must be guarded in the administration of certain medicinal substances, which often occasion as great danger as poisons themselves. Such are the following, namely, white hellebore, thapsia, elaterium, and the black agaric, for these bring on either suffocation or hypercatharsis, in which cases we may cure the suffocation in the way described for mushrooms, and such like substances, and stop the hypercatharsis by such things are as calculated to suppress immoderate discharges. Likewise certain substances which might seem not injurious to any considerable degree, will sometimes occasion dangerous symptoms, and should not be neglected. Such are the wild rue, gith, and the fresh poppy, which are the flowers of the thorn called cactos. In such cases the administration of a vomit alone relieves those who have taken them.
Commentary. This section is taken from Dioscorides. Of the pappus Actuarius says, like our author, that it is the flower of the thorn called cactos, and that vomiting relieves those who have taken it. (Meth. Med. v, 12.) See Avicenna (iv, 6, 1); and Rhases (ad Mansor. viii, 49.) Alsaharavius directs us in the case of hellebore to clear the stomach by emetics, and to apply cooling plasters of citrons, apples, and roses. For the wild rue he recommends emetics of oil, emollient clysters, and the ashes of vine tops taken with water and vinegar.
In the Seventh Book we shall have occasion to state the opinions which have been entertained respecting the helleborus albus of the ancients. Schulze is very undecided. (Toxic. vet. iv.) The thapsia he makes to be the same as the T. fœtida of Linnæus. Theophrastus has described it (H. P. ix, 23). Pliny says it occasions swelling of the body, with erysipelas. (N. H. xiii, 43.)
We shall treat of the elaterium also in the Seventh Book. Hippocrates uses the word as a general term for all drastic purgatives, but by Dioscorides, and the subsequent writers on the materia medica, it is applied to the fæcula of the momordica elaterium.
The agaricus muscarius is a well-known poisonous mushroom. Schulze properly remarks that its effects are narcotic; and Dr. Christison places it in the class of narcotico-acrid poisons. See sec. liv.
Schulze is much inclined to believe that the πήγανον ἄγριον here treated of is the peganum harmala of Linnæus, a plant intermediate between the ruta and melanthium. He is also disposed to think that the melanthium of the ancients was the nigella sativa, L. We are inclined to adopt this opinion from the text of Avicenna. (iv, 6, 1, 16.) Sprengel agrees with Anguillara and Dalechampius in opinion that the cactos was the cynara cardunculus, L., or cardoon artichoke, a variety of the C. scolymus. (Comment. in Dioscor.) Schweighaeuser inclines to the opinion of Villebrun, the French translator of Athenæus, who makes it to be the C. sylvestris latifolia, which he says grows commonly in Sicily at the present day. (In Deipnos. ii, 83.)
Under this head we may notice the treatment of poisoning by gum euphorbium, and the spurges, of which no mention is made by the Greek authorities on toxicology. For the Arabians, see Avicenna (iv, 6, 1, 4, 5); Rhases (Contin. xx, 2; ad Mansor. viii, 48); Alsaharavius (Pract. xxx, 1, 19.) The symptoms as given by them all are, violent pain and heat in the primæ viæ, with bloody discharges, and death, unless timely relief be given. Their remedies are immediate vomiting with hot water and oil, then administering demulcents, barley-water, and in the end, the theriac. Galen and Haly Abbas, in their treatises on the Theriac, recommend it in this case of poisoning.
The mezereon is not noticed by the Greeks or Romans either as a poison nor as a medicinal substance. The Arabians treat of it under both these heads. See Avicenna (iv, 6, 1); Rhases (ad Mansor. viii, 53.) The symptoms as given by them are violent vomiting and purging, for which they recommend sweet milk, butter, juleps, in the first place, and in extreme cases the theriac and sealed earth. The Arabian authorities confound their mezereon with the chamæleon of the Greeks, treated of in the thirty-seventh section of this book. The dende of Avicenna and Serapion was the strychnos colubrinus, according to Sprengel. (R. H. H. i, 250.)
Rhases classes the nux vomica along with the articles treated of in this section. He recommends us in all these cases to give warm water to promote the vomiting, and render it easier, and if violent convulsions come on, he directs the patient to be put into a warm bath, and anointed with hot oils. (Ad Mansor. viii, 49.) Serapion treats of it in his Materia Medica (163.) The Arabians also treat of the methel-nut.
We are unable to determine satisfactorily the nature of the condisi, which is treated of by the Arabians, under the present head. See Rhases (ad Mansor. viii, 49); Avicenna (iv, 6, 1, 16.) Alsaharavius calls it cundes. The symptoms, he says, are dryness of the nose, throat, and palate, sneezing, muttering delirium, pain of the stomach, and, unless speedy relief be brought, death. (Pract. xxx, 1, 24.) Ardoyn mentions that some referred it to the struthium; but the above characters do not at all apply to the soapwort (saponaria officinalis, L.), which is the στρόυθιον of Theophrastus and Dioscorides. See further Sprengel (Comment. in Dioscor. i, 192.)
The sow-bread (cyclamen Europæum) is also treated of by the Arabians under this head. See Avicenna (iv, 6, 1, 16); Rhases (ad Mansor. viii, 59); Alsaharavius (Pract. xxx, 1, 24.) The symptoms, according to Alsaharavius, are swelling of the throat, and strong pain of the bowels. The sow-bread is treated of as an article of the Materia Medica by Dioscorides (ii, 193.)
Dioscorides (M. M. iv, 82) does not reckon the oleander (nerium oleander, L.) destructive to man, but the Arabians rank it among the deleterious substances, of a heating and desiccant nature; and recommend for it emetics, with the decoction of fenugreek, figs with honey, and the like. See Avicenna (iv, 6, 18); Alsaharavius (Pract. xxx, 1, 27); Rhases (ad Mansor. viii, 36.)
The anacardium, or Malacca bean, is treated of as a poison by Rhases (Contin. xx, 2; ad Mansor. viii, 35); Avicenna (iv, 6, 1, 9); Alsaharavius (Pract. xxx, 1, 42); Haly Abbas (Pract. iv, 50.) They all describe it as an irritant poison, and recommend emetics of animal and vegetable oils, with demulcents, to obviate the bad effects of it.
The apocynum, although not treated of by the ancient authorities on toxicology, is described as a deleterious substance by Dioscorides (Mat. Med. iv, 81); by Galen (De Simpl.); and by Pliny (H. N. xxv, 83.) It appears to be the periploca Græca, L.
Dioscorides and Pliny likewise reckon saffron, or the crocus sativus, a deleterious plant. Its deleterious action is very weak.
The atramentum sutorium, which was a solution of vitriol, was used as a poison. See Cicero (ad Familiar. ix, 21.)
Cold water when drunk in a great quantity, and much undiluted sweet wine, more especially after the bath, running, or violent exercises, bring on suffocation and pains. In such cases, venesection quickly had recourse to, and evacuation by clysters, remove the impending danger.
Commentary. Galen says, “Some by taking an immoderate draught of cold water have been instantly seized with dyspnœa, convulsions, and tremors; in a word, their whole nervous system has become affected.” (Meth. Med. ix, 5.)
Dioscorides, Aëtius, and Actuarius concur in recommending the same mode of treatment as our author. The Arabians, however, treat those who have taken a draught of cold water unseasonably in a very different manner from the Greeks. Thus Rhases and Avicenna recommend undiluted wine internally, and the application of a plaster over the liver. The difference between the practice of the Greeks and Arabians may be thus accounted for. A large draught of cold drink may either threaten to prove fatal at once by producing a violent impression upon the nerves of the stomach, or it may superinduce symptoms resembling those of gastritis. In the former case the practice of the Arabians may seem most proper in order to support the heat and powers of the system, whereas that of the Greeks will be indicated when inflammatory symptoms have come on; and, indeed, even the Arabians bled under these circumstances. (Avicenna, iv, 61, 31.) For an immoderate draught of pure wine which has been taken unseasonably, the Arabian authorities concur with the Greek in recommending immediate evacuation of the stomach and venesection, to which they add cold water or whey, with troches of camphor. See in particular Avicenna (iv, 6, 1, 31.)