POISONS USED BY THE EGYPTIANS, GREEKS, ROMANS, HEBREWS, CHINESE AND
HINDUS IN ANCIENT TIMES
Many mysterious poisons are referred to in the legends and sagas that
have come down to us from the dim ages of the past.
The earliest deity associated with poisons is Gula, whose name was
revered by the Sumerians about 4500 B.C. She was known as “The Mistress
of Charms and Spells,” the “Terrible Goddess,” “Controller of noxious
poisons,” and was the deified form of the sorceress. Medical schools at
Borsippa and Sirpurra were under her protection. She is described on a
cuneiform tablet, said to have been written about 1400 B.C., as:—
“Gula, the woman, the mighty one, the prince of all women.
His seed with a poison not curable
Without issue; in his body may she place
All the days of his life,
Blood and pus like water may he pour forth.”
Ages ago a mysterious country in the far North was supposed to be ruled
and dominated by sorcerers and kindred beings, all of whom were said to
be children of the Sun. Here dwelt Æëtes, Perses, Hecate, Medea and
Circe. To Hecate is ascribed the foundation of sorcery and the discovery
of poisonous plants. Her knowledge of magic and spells was supposed to
be unequalled. She transmitted her power to Medea, whose wonderful
exploits are described in early Greek mythology, and who by her magic
arts subdued the dragon that guarded the golden fleece and assisted
Jason to perform his famous deeds. Hecate’s garden is described by the
poets as being enclosed in lofty walls with thrice-folding doors of
ebony, which were guarded by terrible forms, and only those who bore the
leavened rod of expiation and the concealed conciliatory offering could
enter. Towering above was the temple of the dread sorceress, where the
ghastly sacrifices were offered and all kinds of horrible spells worked.
According to tradition, after Medea’s adventures with Jason she returned
with him to Thessaly, and on their arrival they found Æson, the father
of Jason, and Pelias, his uncle, who had usurped the throne, both old
and decrepit. Medea was requested to exert her magical powers to make
the old man young again, an operation which she is said to have speedily
performed by infusing the juice of certain potent plants into his veins,
and thus foreshadowing a recent operation for rejuvenating the old by
means of injecting the solution of a certain gland.
Medea became the wife of Ægeus, king of Athens, whose son, Theseus, had
been brought up in exile and who resolved to return to Athens to claim
his rights. Medea, hearing of this, and for some reason greatly
resenting it, prepared a poisoned goblet and gave it to Ægeus at an
entertainment which he gave to Theseus, with the intent that he should
hand it to his son. At the critical moment the king cast his eyes on the
sword of Theseus, recognizing it as the weapon which he had given to his
son when a child, directing that it should be brought by him when a man
as a token of the mystery of his birth. The king at once threw the
goblet from him and embraced his son, and as tradition has it, Medea
fled from Athens in a chariot drawn by dragons.
Circe’s charms were more seductive and romantic. She is said to have
been endowed with exquisite beauty, which she employed to allure
travellers to her territory. On their landing she entreated and enticed
them to drink from her enchanted cup, but no sooner was the draught
swallowed than the unfortunate stranger was turned into a hog and driven
by the magician to her sty, where he still retained the consciousness of
what he had been and lived to repent his folly.
These mythological stories tend to show that some knowledge of poisonous
substances existed at a very remote period.
In ancient Egypt a certain crude scientific knowledge probably existed
from a period of great antiquity, and some of the earliest deities,
especially the god Thoth, are associated with the genesis of science,
arts and magic. Thoth is reputed to have been the author of six divine
works dealing with these subjects. He was identified by the Greeks with
Hermes Trismegistos, or the “Thrice Great,” to whom they attributed the
foundation of the science of chemistry. Menes, the earliest Egyptian
king of whom we have record, was said to have studied the properties of
plants, and other Egyptian rulers cultivated the art of medicine,
probably through the priests, who were the chief practitioners in the
art of healing in those early times. They apparently gathered knowledge
of certain poisonous bodies, both vegetable and mineral. They were
learned in the art of alchemy and initiated votaries into its mysteries
in their schools of science. The secrets taught were forbidden to be
revealed under penalty of death, and therefore, probably, many of the
discoveries they made were lost, but there is sufficient evidence to
prove that they were conversant with crude arsenic, opium, mandrake,
lead and other poisonous substances. This knowledge was probably handed
down by oral tradition as part of the priestcraft for centuries before
it was committed to writing.
The earliest known record of the actual preparation of a substance of a
lethal nature is mentioned in an Egyptian papyrus, now in the Louvre, in
which the following sentence, as translated by Duteuil, occurs:
“Pronounce not the name of I.A.O. under the penalty of the peach.”
The Egyptians were probably the first to practise distillation, and from
the stones of certain fruits they apparently discovered that they could
extract a powerful poison which we now know as prussic acid.
The Hebrews in ancient times were also acquainted with the use of
poisonous substances. Arsenic was known to them as “Sam,” aconite as
“Boschka,” and they are said to have known of the poisonous properties
of ergot which they called “Son.”
Coming to times of early culture in Greece, the knowledge of poisons had
made a considerable advance. The Greeks knew of arsenic in the form of
realgar and orpiment, antimony, mercury, gold, silver, copper and lead,
and they probably had a knowledge of their poisonous properties, as they
recommend hot oil as an antidote in a case of poisoning and mention
other means to promote vomiting and prevent a poison being absorbed into
the system.
Of the vegetable poisons known and used by the Greeks hemlock appears to
have been chiefly employed. They looked upon suicide under certain
conditions as a noble act, and sanctioned the use of the poison cup by
those who desired to terminate their existence on earth. They also
employed poison as a means of execution. The State Poison was chiefly
composed of a species of hemlock called cicuta, the seeds of which were
pounded in a mortar as the first step in preparation. Several of the
early historians, including Plato, describe the action of the plant
used, but its identification has long been a matter of dispute. From all
accounts the poison draught does not appear to have been either very
powerful or rapid in its action, as a second dose was often found to be
necessary before death ensued.
At the death of Phocion it is recorded that “having drunk all the
hemlock juice, the quantity was found insufficient and the executioner
refused to prepare more unless he was paid twelve drachmas.” When Seneca
also wished to end his life, a friend and physician, at his request,
procured for him some of the Athenian State Poison, but when he took it
the effect was inadequate.
The circumstances attending the death of Socrates, which happened in the
year 402 B.C., are thus recounted by Plato:
“When the fatal cup was brought he asked what it was necessary for him
to do. ‘Nothing more,’ replied the servant of the judges, ‘than as soon
as you have drunk of the draught, to walk about until you find your legs
become weary and afterwards lie down upon your bed.’
“He took the cup without any emotion or change in his countenance and,
looking at him in a steady and assured manner,
“‘Well!’ said he, ‘what say you of this drink?’
“‘May a libation be made out of it?’
“Upon being told that there was only enough for one dose, ‘At least,’
said he, ‘we may pray to the gods as is our duty and implore them to
make our exit from this world and our last stage happy, which is what I
most ardently beg of them.’
“Having spoken these words he remained silent for some time and then
drank off the whole draught.
“After reproving his friends for indulging in loud lamentations, he
continued to walk about as he had been directed until he found his legs
grow weary. Then he lay down upon his back and the person who had
administered the poison went up to him and examined for a little time
his feet and legs, and then squeezing his foot strongly, asked whether
he felt him? Socrates replied that he did not. He then did the same to
his legs, and proceeding upwards in this way, showed us that he was cold
and stiff, and he afterwards approached him and said to us that when the
effect of the poison reached the heart Socrates would depart. And now
the lower parts of his body were cold, when he uncovered himself and
said, which were his last words, ‘Crito, we owe Æsculapius a cock. Pay
the debt and do not forget it.’
“‘It shall be done,’ replied Crito. ‘But consider whether you have
anything else to say.’
“Socrates answered in the negative, but was in a short time convulsed.
The man then uncovered him; his eyes were fixed and when Crito observed
this he closed his eyelids and his mouth.”
The poison which is given the general name of φάρμακον by Plato, is
termed κώνειον by Xenophon in relating the execution of Theramenes,
whose death occurred but forty years after Socrates. The same word is
again used by Plutarch in describing the State Poison by which Phocion
fell a victim to the Athenians in the year B.C. 317.
Aristophanes, who was contemporary with Socrates, furnishes further
evidence that the State Poison was commonly known in Athens by the name
κώνειον, for in “The Frogs,” which was acted many years before his
death, the following allusion to the poison occurs:—
HERCULES: Then there is a short and beaten road—that by the mortar.
BACCHUS: Speakest thou of hemlock, then?
HERCULES: Most certainly.
BACCHUS: A journey cold and winterly forsooth, for it immediately
congeals the shins.
Pliny and the other Latin authors use the word cicuta when alluding to
the State Poison of the Greeks. Dioscorides (_circa_ A.D. 40) in his
work on Materia Medica, describing the cicuta, says it has a knotted
stem and likens it to fennel. “Its branches shoot with umbels at their
summits, while it bears a whitish flower with a heavy smell and a fruit
like that of anise, but whiter.” From this it was evidently an
umbelliferous plant. Pliny refers to the spots on the stem, which
further identifies the plant as the _Conium maculatum_, or hemlock.
According to Sibthorpe, _Conium maculatum_ grows in various parts of
Greece and in the vicinity of Athens, and no other poisonous
umbelliferous plant grows in that country. This seems conclusive
evidence that the cicuta of the Greeks was the plant we know as _Conium
maculatum_.
In addition to this, Pliny states that the cicuta (described by him as
the Athenian State Poison) grows in Attica and at Megara, and describes
the seeds and leaves as particularly fatal when drunk in wine, the
former producing the most deadly effects.
The clinical effects of the drug as graphically described by Plutarch
are identical with those produced by conium or hemlock. He mentions the
coldness of the extremities, concluding with its influence on the brain,
which would account for the strangeness of the last words of Socrates,
referring to a sacrifice to the deity who presided over the Medical Art.
It is probable that opium was sometimes combined with hemlock, judging
from the statement of Theophrastus, who was born only twenty-eight years
after the death of Socrates.
He says: “Thrasyas, the Mantinian, stated that by making use of the
juices of cicuta, the poppy and such other things, he had discovered a
substance which occasioned death easily and without pain, and so
portable and minute that the weight of a δραχμή (about sixty grains) was
sufficient and absolutely irremediable.” Further, that it was capable of
being preserved for any time without alteration. That a powerful
preparation and certain in effect was required at the time of the death
of Socrates, is evident from the caution of the executioner, who states
that none of the contents of the cup could be spared. Judging from all
accounts, and the evidence afforded by the description of its action,
there seems little doubt that the Athenian State Poison consisted of
hemlock, probably in the form of the concentrated juice of the leaves,
to which a proportion of poppy juice was added to render its action more
certain.
A curious custom prevailed among the inhabitants of the island of Ceos
in which poison played a part. When the old men found they were no
longer of service to the State and began to feel life a burden, they
assembled at a banquet of death and, with their heads crowned with
chaplets, cheerfully drained the poison cup. A relic of this ancient
custom was once practised at Marseilles, where a poison was kept by the
public authorities, of which hemlock was an ingredient. A dose of this
was allowed by the magistrates to anyone who could bring a sufficient
reason why he should deserve death. Valerius Maximus observes, “This
custom came from Greece, particularly from the island of Ceos, where I
saw an example of it in a woman of great quality who, having lived very
happy ninety years, obtained leave to die in this way, lest by living
longer she should happen to see a change of her good fortune.”
The reputed poisonous property of bull’s blood is recorded by various
ancient writers, and it is stated that Æson, Midas King of Phrygia,
Plutarch and Themistocles the Athenian leader employed it as a means of
suicide. It is probable that some strong poisonous vegetable substance
such as cicuta was mixed with it.
The symptoms and signs which were accepted in early times as evidence of
poisoning are sufficiently crude to inspire us with considerable doubt
as to the reliability of many of the cases narrated. That there were
certain post-mortem appearances which were generally considered as
evidence of death by poison is recorded by Cicero, Tacitus and other
early writers. In the account given by Suetonius of the death of
Germanicus, who was poisoned by Piso at the instance of Tiberius, they
are enumerated as “livid spots on the face and body, and foam at the
mouth.” It was further generally believed that worms could not generate
in the bodies of persons who had died from the effect of poison.
Dioscorides throws a further light on the poisons of antiquity in his
work on Materia Medica, which for fifteen centuries or more remained the
chief authority on that subject. He mentions cantharides, copper,
mercury, lead and arsenic. Among the animal poisons he includes toads,
salamanders, poisonous snakes, a peculiar kind of honey, and the blood
of the ox, probably after it had decomposed. The sea-hare is frequently
alluded to by the ancient Greeks, and was evidently regarded by them as
capable of producing a very powerful poison. Domitian is said to have
administered it to Titus. It is supposed to have been one of the genus
Aplysia, among the gasteropods, and is described by the old writers as a
dreadful object which was neither to be touched nor looked upon with
safety.
Among the poisonous plants enumerated by Dioscorides are the poppy,
black and white hellebore, henbane, mandragora, hemlock, elaterium, the
juices of a species of euphorbia, and apocynae. The black and white
hellebore were known to the Romans and used by them as an insecticide,
and Pliny states that the Gauls used a preparation of veratrum to poison
their arrows. Arsenic, in the form of the native realgar and orpiment,
was employed by the Greeks as a caustic and for removing hair from the
face; but no mention is made of it being used internally or as a poison.
Copper, mercury, and lead were also used in their medical treatment. The
study of poisons was forbidden for a long period, and Galen mentions the
fact that only a few philosophers dared treat the subjects in their
works.
Theophrastus states that the poison of most subtle operation of his time
was extracted from wolf’s bane (aconite); no antidote had been
discovered to this poison and it was a capital crime to have in one’s
possession the plant from which it was extracted. He tells us that in
Ethiopia “there grows a certain deadly root, with which the people smear
their arrows,” and “In Scythia there are others some of which kill at
once those who eat them, some after an interval shorter or longer, so
that in the latter case men have a lingering death.” He thus relates the
story of one Thrasyas of Mantineia, who had discovered
“a poison which produces an easy and painless end; he used the juices of
hemlock, poppy, and other such herbs, so compounded as to make a dose of
conveniently small size, weighing only somewhat less than a quarter of
an ounce. For the effects of this compound there is absolutely no cure,
and it will keep any length of time without losing its virtue at all. He
used to gather his hemlock, not just anywhere, but at Susa, or some
other cold and shady spot; and so too with the other ingredients. His
pupil Alexias was also clever and no less skilful than his master, being
also versed in the science of medicine generally.
“At last Eudemus, the vendor of drugs, who had a high reputation in his
business, after making a wager that he would experience no effect before
sunset, drank quite a moderate dose, and it proved too strong for his
power of resistance: while the Chian Eudemus took a draught of hellebore
and was not purged. And on one occasion he said that in a single day he
took two and twenty draughts in the market-place as he sat at his stall,
and did not leave the place till it was evening, and then he went home
and had a bath and dined, and was not sick. However, this man was able
to hold out because he had provided himself with an antidote; for he
said that after the seventh dose he took a draught of tart vinegar with
pumice-stone dust in it, and later on took a draught of the same in wine
in like manner; and that the virtue of the pumice-stone dust is so great
that if one puts it into a boiling pot of wine it causes it to cease to
boil, not merely for the moment, but altogether, clearly because it has
a drying effect and it catches the vapour and passes it off. It was by
this antidote that Eudemus was able to contain himself in spite of the
large quantity of hellebore which he took.”
Livy records that about 200 B.C. several persons of distinction died in
a mysterious way in Rome. At first it was thought that they had
succumbed to plague, but Quintus Fabius Maximus is said to have been
informed by a female slave, that the persons had been poisoned and that
she could reveal the names of the guilty. The matter was laid before the
consuls and the Senate. The stipulated pardon was granted, and, guided
by the slave, the officers of justice are said to have discovered the
poisoners, among whom were women belonging to the noblest families of
Rome. Twenty in all were seized; two of them, Cornelia and Serpi,
undertook to speak for the rest, and declared that the drugs they had
prepared were medicinal. They were told that to prove this, the
preparation they had made would be tried on themselves and to this test
they agreed. After drinking the draughts it is said they all died. One
hundred and seventy more of the noblest ladies of Rome were seized, on
similar information and condemned, and before that day, says Livy, there
was never an inquest on poisoning. To mark this memorable example of
what had never been done before, it was resolved to have a nail driven
into the temple of Jupiter. A dictator was appointed for that mystic
duty, a master of the horse, and he drove a nail into the temple of
Jupiter, after which a stop was put to poisoning for two or three
centuries.
Unfortunately, however, the method of taking life by poisons did not die
out, but apparently increased and became very common in Rome under the
early Emperors. Among these nefarious practitioners, mostly apparently
women, was Locusta, who lived in the time of Nero. She had been
condemned to death for a case proved against her, but her life was
spared, so that she might use her nefarious methods in the service of
the State. She was employed by Agrippina to poison the Emperor Claudius
and to her is attributed the death of Britannicus, whom Nero wished to
remove from his path. Britannicus was dining with his brother and the
Imperial family, and as was the custom of the Romans, hot water was
brought round by slaves to the table, the water being heated to varied
degrees to suit the taste of the drinker. The cup of water handed to
Britannicus proved to be too hot and he gave it back to the attendant
slave, who added cold water to it, which addition is supposed to have
contained the poison, for no sooner had he swallowed the draught than he
fell back, gasping for breath. His mother, Agrippina, and Octavia, his
sister, became terror-stricken, but Nero, unmoved, calmly remarked that
he often had such fits in his youth without danger, and the banquet
proceeded.
A curious tradition which has survived from early times, and still
entertained by the ignorant, is, that if a body after a sudden death
rapidly decomposes, it is to be attributed to the effects of poison,
thus when Britannicus died it is recorded that the Romans attempted to
conceal his discoloured face by the use of paint.
Locusta appears to have been appointed a kind of unofficial
poisoner-in-ordinary to the Emperor, one of her duties being to train
pupils so that her secrets should not be lost. She was encouraged to
experiment with her knowledge on slaves, who were liberally supplied for
the purpose.
The Persians in ancient times are said to have studied with care the art
of poisoning. Plutarch and Ctesias relate that Queen Parysatis, the
mother of Cyrus the younger, during the reign of Artaxerxes II (405–359
B.C.), poisoned her daughter-in-law Statira by means of a knife, one
side of the blade being smeared with venom. A bird was set before the
two queens at supper and was divided by the poisoned knife; Parysatis
ate her half with impunity, but Statira died. Such is the story, but
there is no evidence to corroborate it. The Carthaginians were
apparently also skilled in the art of poisons, and it is related that
they killed Regulus, the Roman general, by this means.
With reference to the use of poisons in Persia in early times the poet
Nizámi, in his _Treasury of Secrets_, relates a story of rivalry between
two court physicians which finally reached such a point that they
challenged one another to a duel or ordeal by poison. It was agreed that
each should take a poison supplied by his antagonist, of which he should
then endeavour to counteract the effects by a suitable antidote. The
first prepared a poisonous draught “the fierceness of which would have
melted black stone”; his rival drained the cup and at once took an
antidote which rendered it innocuous. It was now his turn, and he picked
a rose from the garden, breathed an incantation over it, and bade his
antagonist smell it, whereupon the latter at once fell down dead. That
his death was due simply to fear and not to any poisonous or magical
property of the rose is clearly indicated by the poet:
“Through this rose which the spell-breather had given him
Fear overmastered the foe and he gave up the ghost.
That one by treatment expelled the poison from his body,
While this one died of a rose from fear.”
An incident which happened to the army led by Mark Antony against the
Parthians, and described by Plutarch, is said to have been caused by
aconite. At one time during the expedition, the soldiers, being very
short of provisions, sought for roots and pot-herbs and met one that
brought on madness and death. “The eater immediately lost all memory and
would busy himself in turning over every stone he met with as if on some
important pursuit. The camp was full of unhappy men digging up and
removing stones, till at last they were carried off by bilious
vomiting.” Whole numbers, says Plutarch, perished, and the Parthians
still continued to harass them. Antony is said to have frequently
exclaimed: “Oh! the ten thousand!” alluding to the army which Xenophon
led in retreat both a longer way and through more numerous conflicts and
yet led in safety.
There is a story told of Alexander the Great that after crossing the
Cydenus, he was seized with a fever and was warned by Parmenio in a
letter not to take the medicine which his physician offered to him for
fear of poison. The physician’s name was Philip, and Alexander so
trusted him that he gave him the letter to read, scanning his face
meanwhile. The calm air of the physician satisfied the ailing conqueror
and assured him that he might safely drink the potion.
The death of Alexander the Great, like that of many other monarchs, is
ascribed by some historians to poison, but from Littré’s investigations
it would appear that the great Emperor, debilitated by his drinking
habits, contracted malarial fever in the marshes round Babylon and died
after an illness of eleven days.
In India and the Far East, poisons have been used from very early times,
not only for the destruction of human life, but also for destroying
animals; arsenic, aconite, opium and many other poisonous mineral and
vegetable substances being employed for the purpose.
The Hindus have many curious traditions concerning poisons, and like the
Western nations attribute to some the property of causing a lingering
death, which can be controlled by the will of the poisoner. The
knowledge of the substances employed is guarded with great secrecy and
even now they are not fully known. Blyth mentions a mysterious substance
known in India, called _Mucor phycomyces_, which is said to be a species
of fungus. When the spores are administered in warm water they are said
to attach themselves to the throat and speedily develop and grow, with
the result that in a few weeks the respiratory organs are attacked and
the victim is rapidly carried off as if by a fatal disease. Nine active
or virulent poisonous substances are mentioned by the ancient writers on
Hindu medicine. Some of them are at present still unidentified, while
others, there is little doubt, are varieties of aconite, also opium,
ganja (_Cannabis indica_), datura stramonium, the roots of _Nerium
odorum_, and _Gloriosa superba_, the milky juices of _Calatropis
gigantea_ and _Euphorbia neriifolia_, white arsenic, orpiment and the
poison venom from snakes.
Most of the early Sanscrit MSS. are written on paper prepared with
orpiment to preserve them from the ravages of insects. Three varieties
of datura yield atropine, a powerful poison. These plants were
frequently employed in India for putting a sudden end to domestic
quarrels, and to this practice may be traced the origin of the custom of
“Suttee,” or widow-burning, as the Brahmins found from experience that
by making a wife’s life co-terminous with the husband’s, the average
husband lived considerably longer. It is worthy of note that the diamond
was celebrated as a medicinal agent by the Hindus, who prepared it by
roasting it seven times and then reducing it to powder. It was given in
doses of one grain as a powerful tonic.
Both the Chinese and Japanese, from ancient times down to the present
day, have paid a great deal of attention to the study of poisons. From
an early period the Chinese are said to have used gold leaf for suicidal
purposes, and at the present time when a high official puts an end to
his life it is officially announced that he has “taken gold leaf.”
At the time of the death of the Emperor Kwang Su, the cause of which was
enveloped in mystery, it was rumoured that he did not die from natural
causes, but committed suicide by request. For some time previous to his
death, it is said that the Emperor had led a miserable existence and was
simply a ruler in name. The Dowager-Empress, Tzu Hsi, had resolved that
her nephew should precede her to the tomb. She therefore convoked the
Grand Council and as a result of this conclave it was announced that
Kwang Su was dangerously ill from heart disease, but the offers of the
foreign Legations to send their medical officers were firmly declined.
According to the story “at ten o’clock next morning the Chief Eunuch,
with two confidential attendants, entered the Little Palace where the
Emperor was confined, and after having ordered everybody out of the room
he declared to Kwang Su that the Empress was dying, and that it was
needful for him to predecease her.
“He then deposited on a table, pills of opium, a packet of gold leaf,
and some yellow silk plaited cord, promising to return in three hours’
time. If he found that neither the opium nor the gold leaf had been used
it would be his painful duty to call upon the two assistants to strangle
him with the silken cord. Meanwhile, the two executioners would watch
the door of the room. It should be explained that a piece of fine
gold-leaf is placed over the lips, and, the breath being deeply drawn,
it is inhaled and obstructs the glottis, causing immediate suffocation.”
When the Chief Eunuch returned at one o’clock, he found the opium pills
had disappeared and Kwang Su was stretched unconscious on his couch, but
still breathing. It was stated that he died at five o’clock, and the
three-year-old Pou Yi was at once brought to the Imperial Palace and
proclaimed Emperor.
The Japanese are said to import from China certain powerful poisons
prepared by the Chinese medicine-men, the secret of which is only known
to them. They are thought to be a mixture of both animal and mineral
substances which have a very deadly effect, though their exact
composition is yet undetermined.