INDUSTRY: OIL AND COLOUR MEN.—ITALIAN WAREHOUSES.—DRUGGISTS.—COLLECTORS
OF SIMPLES.
There was, moreover, produced in Greece, a number of articles, whether
of use or luxury, to the venders of which it appears difficult to
appropriate a name. It must necessarily be inferred, however, that there
existed a class of shopkeepers analogous to our oil and colour men, at
whose establishments were found most or all of the following
commodities: every kind of vegetable oil, for cookery, painting, or to
be burned as lamp-oil, of sea salt, probably for medicinal
purposes,[1163] oil of horseradish,[1164] used instead of the root
itself, as a condiment. Among the lamp-oils it is worthy of observation
that the Greeks included castor oil[1165] which was commonly, from its
nauseous effects, eschewed as a medicine. Bitumen[1166] also was
occasionally burnt in lamps. Their lampwicks were ordinarily of
rushes,[1167] which they sometimes anointed with the oil expressed from
the seeds of the myagrum perenne;[1168] and from certain nuts found on
the oak they obtained a sort of woolly substance[1169] which, being
twisted into wicks, burnt freely without oil. The dried stem of the
torch-weed[1170] was likewise employed for this purpose. Their flambeaux
consisted originally of slips of the pine or pitch tree,[1171] or even
as at Rhodes of the bark of the vine,[1172] but afterwards certain
combustible compositions were burned in painted and ornamented
handles.[1173]
-----
Footnote 1163:
Aristoph. Problem. xxiii. 15.
Footnote 1164:
Ῥαφανέλαιον. Dioscor. i. 45.
Footnote 1165:
Κίκινον ἔλαιον.—Κικι, οἱ δὲ σήσαμον ἄγριον, οἱ δὲ, σέσελι Κύπριον.
Dioscor. iv. 164.
Footnote 1166:
Dioscor. i. 99. Cf. Herod. 179.
Footnote 1167:
Schol. Aristoph. Nub. 60. Athen. x. 25.
Footnote 1168:
Dioscor. iv. 117.
Footnote 1169:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. iii. 7. 4. Plin. xviii. 10.
Footnote 1170:
Poll. i. 229, seq.
Footnote 1171:
The same torch is still in use in Circassia. J. S. Bell, Journal of a
residence in Circassia, ii. 69.
Footnote 1172:
Athen. xvi. 61. Cf. Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 48. t. i. p. 343.
Footnote 1173:
Sch. Aristoph. Vesp. 1373. Bœttiger. Fur. pl. 2. Barthelémy,
Anacharsis, ii. 330. Goguet. iii. 391. Cf. Gitone, Il Costume, tav.
63. Zoëga, Bassi Rilievi, tav. 14.
-----
The making of pitch, generally found in these shops, was carried on in
the following manner,[1174] particularly among the Macedonians: Having
cleared a large level space in the forests, as when constructing a
threshing-floor, they carefully paved it, and gave the whole a slope
towards the centre. The billets of wood were then piled up endways as
close to each other as possible, and so as that the height of the heap
should always be in proportion to its magnitude. These piles were
frequently of enormous dimensions, falling little short of a hundred
yards in circumference and rising to the height of eighty or ninety
feet. The whole mound was then covered with turf and earth; and the wood
having been set on fire by means of an open passage below, which
immediately afterwards was closed, numerous ladders were thrown up along
its sides in order that, should the least smoke anywhere appear, fresh
layers of turf and earth might be cast upon it: for if the flame found a
vent the hopes of the manufacturer were destroyed. The pitch flowed off
by an underground channel leading from the centre of the area to a
spacious cistern sunk in the earth about twenty feet beyond the
circumference of the mound, where it was suffered to cool. During two
days and two nights the fire in these heaps continued generally to burn,
requiring the incessant care and vigilance of the workmen, though it
frequently happened that before sunset on the second day, the earthy
crust flattened and fell in, the wood being reduced to ashes. This was
generally preceded by the pitch ceasing to flow. The whole of this
period was converted into a holiday by the labourers, who offered
sacrifice to the gods, and preferred many prayers, that their pitch
might be plentiful and good.
-----
Footnote 1174:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. ix. 3. i. Cf. Sch. Aristoph. Acharn. 189. 643.
-----
Nitre was procured from wood-ashes,[1175] as it is at this day in
Circassia, from the ashes of a plant cultivated for the purpose. It has
been supposed that the ancients were acquainted with gunpowder;[1176]
and there appears to have been a dim tradition of artificial thunder and
lightning among the Brachmanes in the remotest antiquity.[1177]
-----
Footnote 1175:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. iii. 7. 6. Dutens, Orig. des Découvertes, &c. p.
183. Bell, Resid. in Circassia, ii. 30. Beckmann, ii. 434.
Footnote 1176:
Dutens, p. 194, sqq.
Footnote 1177:
Philost. Vit. Apoll. Tyan. ii. 33. iii. 13. Themist. Orat. 27. p. 337.
-----
The demand for the various earths and colours was considerable; such as
the Melian, a fine white marl, used by artists frequently for
communicating to green paint a pale hue;[1178] the Cimolian, by
fullers;[1179] and the gypsum, employed occasionally by both. The
Samian, being fat and unctuous,[1180] was eschewed by painters, though
it found its place among the materia medica. Another article in much
request was the argol, a beautiful moss,[1181] used both by painters and
dyers; to which we may add the cinnabar[1182] and the kermes, used for
dying scarlet; the Indian black,[1183] indigo, ultramarine, lamp and
ivory black, painter’s soot, collected from glass furnaces,[1184]
verdigris, ceruse, and minium, used in painting vases and clay
statues.[1185] Other substances which sometimes entered into the
materials of painters were, the sandarach[1186] and the orpiment, found
in gold, silver, and copper mines, ochre, ruddle, and chrysocolla.
Ruddle was successfully imitated by burnt ochre, the manufacturing of
which was the invention of Cydias,[1187] who having observed that a
quantity of ochre found in a house which was burnt down had assumed a
red colour, profited by the hint, though the article thus produced was
inferior to the natural. The Lemnian earth,[1188] having been mixed with
goats’ blood, kneaded into small round pastilles, and stamped with the
figure of a goat, was vended, partly as a medicine, partly to be used in
sacrifice. In the same shops, doubtless, sealing-wax and ink were
sold.[1189] The receipt for preparing the latter was as follows:[1190]
to an ounce of gum they added three ounces of pine-torch or resin soot,
or even that which was obtained from the glass furnaces, and used, as
above observed, by painters. In this latter case, a mina of soot was
mingled with a pound and a half of gum, and an ounce and a half of
bull’s glue and copperas-water. An infusion of wormwood[1191] was
sometimes used in the manufacture of ink, which preserved the
manuscripts written with it from being gnawed by rats or other vermin.
Another method was, to smear the parchment with saffron and cedar
oil.[1192]
-----
Footnote 1178:
Dioscor. v. 180. Theoph. de Lapid. § 63.
Footnote 1179:
Dioscor. v. 176. Beckmann, iii. 245. Theoph. de Lap. § 62. Plin. xxxv.
56, seq.
Footnote 1180:
Theoph. de Lapid. § 62, seq. Plin. xxviii. 53. 77. xxxi. 46.
Footnote 1181:
Beckmann, i. 60.
Footnote 1182:
Dioscor. v. 109. Theoph. de Lap. 58.
Footnote 1183:
Beckmann, iv. 120. 111. 117.
Footnote 1184:
Dioscor. v. 182.
Footnote 1185:
Suid. v. κωλιάδος κεραμῆες, t. i. p. 1511. b. Paus. vi. 26. 11.
Herodot. iv. 191. 194. vii. 68, who says, it was also used by certain
people in painting their bodies.
Footnote 1186:
Dioscor. v. 122. 121. On the earths and ochres of the ancients, see
Sir Humphrey Davy, in the Philosophical Transactions, 1815, pt. i. p.
97, seq.
Footnote 1187:
Theoph. de Lapid. § 53.
Footnote 1188:
Dioscor. v. 113. Plin. xxviii. 24. xxix. 33. xxxv. 14.
Footnote 1189:
Luc. Alexand. § 21.
Footnote 1190:
Dioscor. v. 183. i. 93. Plin. xxxv. 25.
Footnote 1191:
Dioscor. iii. 26.
Footnote 1192:
Luc. adv. Indoct. § 16. By the odour of this oil the books of Numa
were said, by tradition, to have been preserved for many generations.
“Mirabantur alii, quomodo illi libri durare potuissent: ille (Hemina)
ita rationem reddebat: lapidem fuisse quadratum circiter in mediâ arcâ
vinctum candelis quoquo versus. In eo lapide insuper libros impositos
fuisse, propterea arbitrari eos non computruisse. Et libros cedratos
fuisse: propterea arbitrarier tineas non tetigisse.” Plin. Nat. Hist.
xiii. 27. To the virtues of this oil Vitruvius also bears testimony.
“Quæ unguntur cedrio, ut libri à tineis et carie non læduntur.” ii. 9.
In the above passage of Pliny, Hardouin reads “libros citratos,” and
supposes the naturalist to mean that citron-leaves were folded in the
manuscript: “quorum hæc propria dos, ut arceant animalium noxia, hoc
est, tineas.” Cf. Plin. Nat. Hist. xii. 7. But as the citron was not
introduced into Greece or Italy until several centuries after the age
of Numa, it is very clear that “cedratos” must remain in the text of
Pliny.
-----
Next to these, perhaps, should be ranged those shops which resembled our
Italian warehouses, where the gourmands of antiquity procured their best
vinegar, pickles, and sauces.[1193] To enumerate all the articles found
in such an establishment would be somewhat difficult; but we may observe
that they sold, among other things, the best Colophonian mustard,[1194]
pepper,[1195] together with all the substitutes occasionally used for
it, such as the Syrian nard,[1196] water-pepper,[1197] and, among the
ancient Italians, lovage of Lombardy,[1198] garlic heads,[1199] a
mixture of salt and thyme,[1200] pickled olives, and cornel-berries, to
be eaten at table, pickled dittander,[1201] mountain rue,[1202]
snakeweed or wake-robin, fennel or chervil, tendrils of the wild
vine,[1203] eringo root, sea-heath, cammock, lettuces and parsley.[1204]
To these may be added silphion, sesame, citron-peel, cumin, wild
marjoram, capers, cresses, and fig-leaves.[1205] Among the Syrians, the
root and seeds of the sison-amomum were used as spices, and pickled with
sliced gourds.[1206] The Arabs, we are told, seasoned their dishes with
the leaf of the ginger plant.[1207] Ginger-root was likewise known and
used as a condiment in Greece.
-----
Footnote 1193:
Diog. Laert. ii. 31. Schol. Aristoph. Acharn. 192. 643. Athen. ii. 75,
seq. Dioscor. v. 21. Plat. De Rep. vi. p. 404.
Footnote 1194:
Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 629.
Footnote 1195:
Ἀνώδυνον τε ἐστὶ καὶ ὑγιείνον· καὶ ὄρεξιν κίνει. Dioscor. ii. 189.
Footnote 1196:
Δράβη. Dioscor. ii. 187.
Footnote 1197:
Id. ii. 191.
Footnote 1198:
Λιγυστικὸν. Dioscor. iii. 58.
Footnote 1199:
Schol. Aristoph. Vesp. 680.
Footnote 1200:
Schol. Aristoph. Acharn. 737. Athen. ii. 45.
Footnote 1201:
Dioscor. ii. 205.
Footnote 1202:
Id. iii. 53.
Footnote 1203:
Id. ii. 167.
Footnote 1204:
Poll. vi. 61.
Footnote 1205:
Athen. ii. 76. Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 891.
Footnote 1206:
Dioscor. iii. 34.
Footnote 1207:
Id. ii. 190.
-----
Although, properly speaking, there may, in early times, have been no
such trades as those of the druggist and the apothecary, there very soon
arose a class of men who nearly resembled them, though professing to
practise medicine.[1208] Into the shops of those persons we shall now
beg leave to enter, and observe some few of the materials with which the
children of Æsculapius preserved or destroyed the health of the Greeks.
The art of medicine itself, as it existed among them, I shall not
venture to examine, abandoning that part of the subject to the
investigation of professional men.[1209]
-----
Footnote 1208:
Beckmann, History of Inventions, ii. 122, sqq.
Footnote 1209:
See, on this subject, Dissen. ad Pind. Pyth. iii. 47. 51. I may here,
however, by the way, remark, that while the free citizens were
attended by physicians of their own rank, there were likewise servile
practitioners who prescribed for the diseases of slaves. Plat. De Leg.
iv. t. vii. p. 362, seq. Cf. Poll. iv. 177, sqq.
-----
The interior of an ancient surgery, though it may have been less
lavishly furnished than one of our own day, made, nevertheless, some
pretensions to show. There were, for example, ranged in order on
shelves, numerous medicine chests of ivory; brass and silver cupping
instruments,[1210] lancet-cases, and cases inlaid with gold.[1211]
Flowers and aromatic plants were laid up in boxes of the wood of the
linden tree, while seeds were preserved in paper or leaves. Liquid
medicines were kept in vessels of silver, glass, or horn, or even in
earthenware jars, provided they were well glazed. For these they
sometimes substituted vases of boxwood, though those of metal were
generally preferred, at least for all such as were intended for the
eyes, or contained vinegar, pitch, or cedar juice. Lard, marrow, and all
similar substances, were put into vessels of pewter.[1212] The
instruments[1213] in most common use besides the bistoury, were the
forceps, the scissors, the hypographs, the ear-pick, the probe,[1214]
the needle, the scalpel, the tooth-file, the tooth-wrench, the eueidion,
and the podostrabe, an instrument for reducing luxations. We ought,
likewise, perhaps, to mention the bandages, ligatures, swathes,
plaisters, lint, amulets, and bleeding-bowls.[1215]
-----
Footnote 1210:
Aristot. Poet. c. 22, Rhet. iii. 2.
Footnote 1211:
Luc. adv. Indoct. § 29.
Footnote 1212:
Dioscor. proœm. p. 4.
Footnote 1213:
On the primitive instruments of surgery see Goguet, Origine des Loix.
t. ii. p. 17.
Footnote 1214:
Beckmann, History of Inventions, iii. 160.
Footnote 1215:
Poll. iv. 181.
-----
Their knowledge of the materia medica was acquired for the most part by
experience, though there existed, previously to the time of Hippocrates,
works on the virtues of plants, among which we may mention that of
Cratevas. By degrees these treatises were greatly multiplied, and
included, at length, a species of encyclopedia, arranged in alphabetical
order;[1216] though not one single fragment of it has been spared by
time. At first, and for many ages, the art relied chiefly upon simples,
the qualities of which were consequently studied with great ardour, and,
no doubt, with much success. Numerous individuals devoted themselves to
the gathering, drying, and preserving, of medicinal roots and herbs, an
occupation requiring considerable time and labour,—for which reasons the
physicians, by whom it was originally performed, soon abandoned it to
the rizotomists.
-----
Footnote 1216:
Dioscorides, however, who mentions this work, is far from speaking of
the plan with praise: ἥμαρτον δὲ καὶ περὶ τὴν τάξιν· οἱ μὲν ἀσυμφύλους
δυνάμεις συγκρούσαντεσ· οἱ δὲ κατὰ στοιχεῖα ἀναγράψαντες. διέζευξαν
τῆς ὁμογενείας τὰ τε γένη καὶ τὰς ἐνεργείας αὐτῶν, ὡς διὰ τοῦτο
ἀσυμμνημόνευτα γίνεσθαι. Proœm. p. 2.
-----
But the business of collecting simples, by whomsoever performed,
required great knowledge and perseverance. The individuals who carried
it on spread themselves, at the proper seasons of the year, through all
Greece, more especially over Mount Pelion in Thessaly, Telethra in
Eubœa, Parnassos in Phocis, and the uplands of Laconia and
Arcadia,[1217] making inquiries, as they went along, of the inhabitants
of every district and canton respecting the medicaments in use among
them, and collecting from the mouths of peasants and shepherds the
fruits of their limited but close observation. They passed, as a matter
of course, the greater part of their lives in the fields, studying the
topography and distribution of plants, and investigating all the
phenomena of vegetation. They believed, that herbs vary in virtues and
powers according as they are found in mountains or in valleys, in places
overrun with moisture, and where the air is rank and heavy, or on spots
swelling and exposed, where they are fanned and invigorated by every
breeze that blows. They laid much stress, too, on the season of the
year, on the weather, and on the hour of the day; some simples
requiring, it was supposed, to be gathered when the sun has exhaled from
them all extraneous moisture, others before its rising, others amid the
darkness of night when their leaves and flowers were suffused with dew.
They were guided, likewise, in their operations by other rules, some
founded on experience, others originating in fancy and superstition. In
culling, for example, the thapsia[1218] and several other herbs, they
were careful, having first anointed themselves with oil, to stand with
their backs to the wind, persuaded that they otherwise should inhale
certain noxious effluvia which would cause their whole bodies to swell,
or, in the case of the dog-rose,[1219] that their sight would be
impaired.
-----
Footnote 1217:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. ix. 15. 3, sqq.
Footnote 1218:
Dioscor. iv. 157. Theoph. Hist. Plant. ix. 8. 5.
Footnote 1219:
Κυνόσβατον. Theoph. Hist. Plant. ix. 8. 5.
-----
Those who gathered the mountain rue,[1220] anointed their faces and
hands with oil, to guard themselves against cutaneous inflammation.
Again, of other herbs the juices are so pungent as to burn like fire:
these were collected in the greatest haste. In digging the
hellebore,[1221] too, the odour of which was supposed rapidly to affect
the brain, they proceeded with great celerity, and were careful to eat a
clove or two of garlic beforehand, and to drink a little pure wine
after. But all these precautions were trifling compared with those which
the good rizotomists had persuaded themselves were indispensable in
collecting the peony flower.[1222] About this operation they interwove a
sort of netting of romance: it was to be undertaken they affirmed by
night, lest the woodpeckers, who regarded it with as much jealousy as
the Indian ants do their gold, should fall upon the unfortunate
herbalists, and with their sharp beaks pluck out their eyes. So,
likewise, in gathering the centaury they were to stand on their guard
lest they should be assaulted and maltreated by the hawks. Considering
all these numerous evils which rizotomist flesh was heir to,
Theophrastus thinks it by no means absurd, that when issuing forth on an
enterprise so perilous, they should have fortified their nerves with
many prayers. Some few, however, of their practices the philosopher
condemns as a trifle beyond the mark, as for example when in digging the
root of the Asclepian all-heal, they judged it necessary to propitiate
mother earth by burying in its stead a cake composed of many various
sweets. And again in unearthing the root of the iris fœtidissima,
they interred a cake of spring wheat mixed with honey, not, however,
before they had drawn round the spot a treble circle with a two-edged
sword. When they had obtained possession of one of the roots, they held
it up for some time in the air, and then proceeded to procure a second,
and so on. Strangest of all, however, were the ceremonies observed in
digging the mandrake.[1223] First, the triple magic circle was inscribed
on the earth with a sword, then the pious rizotomist turned his face
toward the west, and began to use his knife, while a second operator
went dancing round, uttering all kinds of amorous incantations. Still
more perilous was the gathering of the black hellebore, which they
performed with the face towards the east, and many prayers to Apollo and
Asclepios.[1224] The strictest watch was meanwhile to be kept, that no
eagle appeared above the horizon; for if the eye of this king of birds
happened to fall upon the herbalist while engaged in digging, he would
infallibly die within the year.[1225]
-----
Footnote 1220:
Dioscor. iii. 53.
Footnote 1221:
King Attalus, desirous not to have far to reach in the matter of
poisons, cultivated a great variety of them with his own hands in the
royal gardens, such as hyoscyamus, hellebore, hemlock, aconite, and
dorycnion, of whose virtue and qualities he obtained a thorough
knowledge by experiments. Plut. Demet. § 20.
Footnote 1222:
Παιωνία. Theoph. Hist. Plant. ix. 8. 6.
Footnote 1223:
Μανδράγορας. Theoph. Hist. Plant. ix. 8. 8.
Footnote 1224:
Dioscor. iv. 151.
Footnote 1225:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. ix. 8. 5, sqq. The spleen-wort, (ἀσπλήνον) when
designed to produce sterility was collected on a dark night: ἀσελήνου
δὲ νύκτος φασι δεῖν αὐτὴν ὀρύσσειν εἰς ἀτόκιον. Dioscor. iii. 151.
-----
After all these toilsome and dangerous enterprises it was natural that
the rizotomists should desire to enjoy some advantages,[1226] which,
accordingly, they procured themselves by selling dear their hard-won
prizes to their equally superstitious countrymen. Making no pretension
as I have said to describe the regular medical practice among the
Greeks, I shall here, nevertheless, introduce some few particulars more
or less connected with it, which may be regarded as characteristic of
the age and people.[1227] Great were the virtues which they ascribed to
the herb alysson, (biscutella didyma,) which, being pounded and eaten
with meat, cured hydrophobia. Nay, more, being suspended in a house, it
promoted the health of its inhabitants;[1228] it protected likewise both
man and cattle from enchantment; and, bound in a piece of scarlet
flannel round the necks of the latter, it preserved them from all
diseases.
-----
Footnote 1226:
Cf. Poll. iv. 177.
Footnote 1227:
See a witty disquisition on charms in Luc. Philopseud. § 7, and a list
of medicinal plants introduced into remedies for the gout. Tragopodag.
138, seq.
Footnote 1228:
Dioscor. iii. 105. Another mode of repelling contagious disorders was
to cause verses to be written by soothsayers on the door. Luc.
Alexand. § 36. Fevers were also cured in some places by touching
miraculous statues, as that of the wrestler Polydamas at Olympia, or
that of Theagenes, at Thasos. Deor. Concil. § 12. A sea-onion was
planted before dwelling houses as a charm. Theoph. Hist. Plant. vii.
13. 4.
-----
Coriander-seed,[1229] eaten in too great quantity, produced, they
thought, a derangement of the intellect. Ointment of saffron had an
opposite effect, for the nostrils and heads of lunatics being rubbed
therewith they were supposed to receive considerable relief.[1230]
Melampos the goatherd was reported to have cured the daughters of
Prætos[1231] of their madness by large doses of black hellebore, which
thereafter received from him the name of Melampodion. Sea-onions[1232]
suspended over the doors preserved from enchantment, as did likewise a
branch of rhamnus over doors or windows.[1233] A decoction of
rosemary[1234] and of the leaves and stem of the anemone[1235] was
administered to nurses to promote the secretion of milk, and a like
potion prepared from the leaves of the Cretan dittany[1236] was given to
women in labour. This herb, in order to preserve its virtues unimpaired,
and that it might be the more easily transported to all parts of the
country, was preserved in a joint of a ferula or reed. A plaster of
incense,[1237] Cimolian earth, and oil of roses, was applied to reduce
the swelling of the breasts. A medicine prepared from mule’s fern,[1238]
was believed to produce sterility, as were likewise the waters of a
certain fountain near Pyrrha, while to those about Thespiæ a contrary
effect was attributed, as well as to the wine of Heraclea in
Arcadia.[1239] The inhabitants of this primitive region drank milk as an
aperient[1240] in the spring, because of the medicinal herbs on which
the cattle were then supposed to feed. Medicines of laxative properties
were prepared from the juice of the wild cucumber, which were said to
retain their virtues for two hundred years,[1241] though simples in
general were thought to lose their medicinal qualities in less than
four.[1242] The oriental gum called kankamon was administered in water
or honeyed vinegar to fat persons to diminish their obesity, and also as
a remedy for the toothache.[1243] For this latter purpose the gum of the
Ethiopian olive[1244] was put into the hollow tooth, though more
efficacy perhaps was attributed to the root of dittander[1245] which
they suspended as a charm about the neck. A plaster of the root of the
white thorn[1246] or iris[1247] roots prepared with flour of copper,
honey, and great centaury, drew out thorns and arrowheads without pain.
An unguent procured from fern[1248] was sold to rustics for curing the
necks of their cattle galled by the yoke. A decoction of marsh-mallow
leaves[1249] and wine or honeyed vinegar was administered to persons who
had been stung by bees or wasps or other insects;[1250] bites and burns
were healed by an external application of the leaf smeared with oil, and
the powdered roots cast into water caused it to freeze if placed out
during the night in the open air; an unguent was prepared with oil from
reeds, green or dry, which protected those who anointed themselves with
it, from the stings of venomous reptiles. Cinnamon unguent,[1251] or
terebinth and myrtle-berries,[1252] boiled in wine, were supposed to be
a preservative against the bite of the tarantula or scorpion, as was the
pistachio nut against that of serpents.[1253] Some persons ate a roasted
scorpion to cure its own bite;[1254] a powder, moreover, was prepared
from sea-crabs supposed to be fatal to this reptile.[1255] Vipers[1256]
were made to contribute their part to the materia medica; for, being
caught alive, they were enclosed with salt and dried figs in a vase
which was then put into a furnace till its contents were reduced to
charcoal, which they esteemed a valuable medicine. A considerable
quantity of viper’s flesh was in the last century imported from Egypt
into Venice, to be used in the composition of medicinal treacle.[1257]
From the flowers of the sneezewort,[1258] a sort of snuff appears to
have been manufactured, though probably used only in medicines. The
ashes of old leather[1259] cured burns, galls, and blistered feet.
-----
Footnote 1229:
Dioscor. iii. 71.
Footnote 1230:
Δύναμιν δὲ ἔχει (κρόκινον) θερμαντικὴν, ὑπνωτικὴν, ὅθεν πολλάκις ἐπὶ
φρενετικῶν ἁρμόζει καταβρεχόμενον, ἢ ἀποσφραινόμενον, ἦ καὶ κατα
μυζωτηρων διαχριόμενον. Dioscor. i. 64.
Footnote 1231:
Dioscor. iv. 151. Apollod. ii. 2. 2.
Footnote 1232:
Luc. Alexan. § 47. Dioscor. ii. 202.
Footnote 1233:
Dioscor. i. 119.
Footnote 1234:
Λιβανωτις. Theoph. Hist. Plant. ix. 11. 10. Dioscor. iii. 87. “In
insulis Græcis rariùs in Melo legit.” Sibth. Flor. Græc. tab. 14. “In
Zacintho, nec non in Bœotia.” D. Hawkins.
Footnote 1235:
Dioscor. ii. 207.
Footnote 1236:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. ix. 16. 1.
Footnote 1237:
Dioscor. i. 81. Cf. Cels. ii. 33. Pills of wax were given to nurses to
prevent the thickening of the milk. Dioscor. ii. 105. We have already
remarked on the exuberance of milk in Greek women. Nevertheless the
opinion prevailed that one nurse could not suckle two children: οὐδὲ
δύο βρέφη ὑπὸ τροφοῦ μιᾶς ἐκτρεφόμενα Geopon. v. 13. 4. The stone
Galactites was worn round the neck by superstitious nurses in order to
increase their milk. Plin. viii. 16. xxxvii. 10. Vigenère, Imagen. de
Philostrate, p. 576.
Footnote 1238:
Ἡμιόνιον. Theoph. Hist. | Plant. ix. 18. 7.
Footnote 1239:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. ix. 18. 10.
Footnote 1240:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. ix. 15. 4. The belief was prevalent, however,
that milk at all times was a species of medicine. Thus when Timagoras
accepted, among other things, eighty cows from the king of Persia,
with herdsmen to take care of them, he pretended that he had need of
their milk on account of the delicacy of his health: ὧς δὴ πρὸς
ἀῤῥωστίαν τινὰ γάλακτος βοείου δεόμενος. Plut. Pelopid. § 30.
Footnote 1241:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. ix. 14. 1.
Footnote 1242:
Dioscor. in proœm. p. 4.
Footnote 1243:
Dioscor. i. 23.
Footnote 1244:
Id. i. 141.
Footnote 1245:
Id. ii. 205.
Footnote 1246:
Id. i. 122.
Footnote 1247:
Ξυρὶς, Iris fœtidissima. Dioscor. iv. 22.
Footnote 1248:
Πτέρις. Dioscor. iv. 186.
Footnote 1249:
Dioscor. iii. 163. A plaster of fresh laurel leaves was thought to
produce the same effect. i. 106.
Footnote 1250:
As a protection against musquitos the Greeks we find were accustomed
to anoint their bodies with oil which had been flavoured with
wormwood. Dioscor. iii. 26.
Footnote 1251:
Dioscor. i. 13.
Footnote 1252:
Id. i. 91. 155.
Footnote 1253:
Id. i. 177.
Footnote 1254:
Id. ii. 13.
Footnote 1255:
Id. ii. 12.
Footnote 1256:
Id. ii. 18.
Footnote 1257:
Hazelquist, Travels, p. 221.
Footnote 1258:
Πταρμικὴ. Dioscor. ii. 192.
Footnote 1259:
Τὰ δὲ ἀπο τῶν καττυμάτων παλαιὰ δέρματα, κεκαυμένα καὶ λεία
καταπλασσόμενα, πυρίκαυστα καὶ παρατρίμματα καὶ τὰ ἐξ ὑποδημάτων
θλίμματα θεραπεύει. Dioscor. ii. 51.
-----
The common remedy when persons had eaten poisonous mushrooms was a dose
of nitre exhibited in vinegar and water;[1260] with water it was
esteemed a cure for the sting of the burncow, and with benzoin it
operated as an antidote against the poison of bulls’ blood. The seeds of
mountain-rue, in small quantities, were regarded as an antidote, but,
administered too copiously, were themselves lethal.[1261] White
hellebore was employed with honey and other medicines to poison
rats;[1262] bastard saffron,[1263] mice, pigs, and dogs; which last were
physicked with hellebore.[1264] The deadly qualities of this plant, when
taken in any quantity, were universally known, and, therefore, the
pharmacopolist, Thrasyas,[1265] of Mantinea, who boasted of having
invented a poison which would kill without pain, attained the credit of
possessing something like miraculous powers, because he used frequently,
in the presence of many witnesses to eat a whole root, or even two, of
hellebore. One day, however, a shepherd, coming into his shop, utterly
destroyed his reputation; for, in the sight of all present, he devoured
a whole handful, observing that it was nothing at all, for that he and
his brethren on the mountains were accustomed to do as much, and more,
daily.[1266] They had, in fact, discovered, that medicine is no
medicine, and poison no poison, to those with whose bodies they have
been assimilated by use. When limbs were to be amputated, and previous
to the application of the cautery, a dose of powdered mandragora-root
was usually administered.
-----
Footnote 1260:
Dioscor. v. 130.
Footnote 1261:
Id. iii. 53.
Footnote 1262:
Dioscor. iv. 150.
Footnote 1263:
Χαμαιλέων λευκὸς ... ἀποκτείνει καὶ κύνας καὶ ὗας καὶ μύας, σὺν ἀλφίτῳ
πεφυραμένη, καὶ ὑδρελαίῳ διεθεῖσα. Dioscor. iii. 10.
Footnote 1264:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. ix. 8. 4.
Footnote 1265:
Theophrast. Hist. Plant. ix. 16. 7, seq. Cf. Sext. Empir. Pyrrh.
Hypot. l. i. p. 17. b.
Footnote 1266:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. ix. 17. 1.
-----
On the nature, power, and uses, of ancient poisons, it is not my purpose
to enlarge.[1267] It may be proper, however, to observe, that they had
discovered drugs which would kill secretly, and at almost any given time
from the moment of administering them. They, by certain preparations of
aconite,[1268] so called from Aconè, a village in the country of the
Mariandynians, the professional poisoners could take off an individual
at any fixed period, from two months to two years. The possession,
however, of this poison was in itself a capital offence.[1269] It was
usually administered in wine or hydromel, where its presence was not to
be detected by the taste. At first, there was supposed to exist no
remedy, so that all who took it inevitably perished; but, at length,
physicians, and even the common people of the country, discovered more
than one antidote prepared from the ground-pine,[1270] from honey, and
from the juice of the grape. Another poison, evidently in frequent use,
was the bulb of the meadow-saffron (colchicum autumnale), which being
known to everybody, and nearly always at hand, slaves[1271] were said to
have plucked and eaten when enraged against their masters; but,
repenting presently, they used, with still greater celerity, to rush in
search of an antidote. Some persons, anxious to fortify their children
against the effects of all noxious drugs, were in the habit of
administering to them as soon as born a small dose of the powder of
bindweed,[1272] which they believed to possess the power of protecting
them for ever. When persons were invited out to dine where they ran the
risk of meeting with ratsbane in their dishes, it was customary to chew
a little calamint before the repast.[1273] In the case of the canine
species the Argives, instead of having recourse to poison, like their
neighbours, used to celebrate an annual festival during the dog-days, in
which they seem to have slaughtered[1274]
Both mongrel, puppy, whelp, and hound,
And cur of low degree,
the moist atmosphere of their city having been peculiarly liable to
engender hydrophobia.
-----
Footnote 1267:
See on Scythian slow poison, Theoph. Hist. Plant. ix. 15. 2. Among the
Romans the lepus marinus (the aplysia depilens of Linnæus) was
sometimes used as a secret poison, as we find from the example of
Domitian, who employed it in removing his brother Titus. Δυοὶν δὲ
ἐτοῖν μετὰ τὸν πατέρα τὴν ἀρχὴν κατασχόντα, ὑπὸ τοῦ θαλαττίου λαγὼ
ἀποθανεῖν. τὸν δὲ ἰχθὺν τοῦτον, παρέχεσθαι χυμοὺς ἀποῤῥήτους, ὑπὲρ
πάντα τὰ ἐν τῇ θαλάττῃ καὶ γῇ ἀνδροφόνα. καὶ Νέρωνα μὲν ἐμποιῆσαι τοῖς
ἐαυτου ὄψοις τὸν λαγὼν τοῦτον ἐπὶ τοὺς πολεμιωτάτους, Δομετιανὸν δὲ
ἐπὶ τὸν ἀδελφὸν Τῖτον, οὐ τὸ ξὺν ἀδελφῷ ἄρχειν δεινὸν ἡγούμενον, ἀλλὰ
τὸ ξὺν πράῳ τε καὶ χρηστῷ. Philost. Vit. Apoll. Tyan. vi. 32, p. 271.
The baneful qualities of this fish are noticed, likewise, by
Dioscorides, Alexipharm. 30; by Ælian. de Nat. Animal. ii. 45. xvi.
19, and by Pliny, Nat. Hist. ix. 72. xxxii. 3.
Footnote 1268:
Cf. Beckmann, i. 82.
Footnote 1269:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. ix. 16. 7.
Footnote 1270:
Dioscor. iii. 175.
Footnote 1271:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. ix. 16. 6.
Footnote 1272:
Dioscor. iv. 144.
Footnote 1273:
Id. iii. 43.
Footnote 1274:
Athen. iii. 56. There appears to be no other authority for this
custom. Cf. Meurs. Græc. Feriat. iv. p. 183. The poison of a mad dog’s
bite was exhausted by the cupping-glass. Celsus, v. 27. 2.
-----
Among the more remarkable of the materia medica was the cedar gum,
generally transparent, and of a most pungent odour. It was esteemed
destructive of living bodies, but formed, doubtless, an important
ingredient among the embalmer’s materials, since it completely preserved
corpses from corruption, on which account it was sometimes called the
Life of the Dead.[1275] It entered, moreover, into preparation designed
to sharpen the sight.
-----
Footnote 1275:
Δύναμιν δὲ ἔχει σηπτικὴν μὲν τῶν ἐμψύχων, φυλακτικὴν δὲ τῶν νεκρῶν
σωμάτων. ὄθεν καὶ νεκροῦ ζωήν τινες αὐτὴν ἐκάλεσαν. Dioscor. i. 105.
-----
The gum obtained from the cherry-tree[1276] was administered in wine and
water to promote appetite. A dose of saffron and boiled wine restored
the tone of the stomach after excess at table. Asses’ milk was
habitually given to consumptive patients, connected with which practice
there is an apothegm of Demosthenes, which may be worth repeating. When
he was once exerting himself to prevail on some foreign state to ally
itself with Athens, an orator in opposition observed, that the Athenians
were like asses’ milk, whose presence always indicated sickness in the
places they visited. “It is true,” replied Demosthenes, “but the
sickness previously exists, and they come to cure it.” A mixture of salt
and water, to which the Egyptians added the juice of the radish,[1277]
constituted a very common emetic. Opium was in general use even so
early, apparently, as the age of Homer,[1278] who seems to have
celebrated it under the name of nepenthè. The Spartan soldiers appear to
have made considerable use of the poppy-head;[1279] but whether for the
same purpose as the Rajpoots of modern India, I do not pretend to
determine. Persons desirous of obtaining frightful and dismal
dreams[1280] could always gratify their wishes by eating leaks or
lentils, or the seeds of the great bind-weed,[1281] mixed with
dorycnion. We may mention by the way, that the ancients understood well
the doctrine of the circulation of the blood.[1282]
-----
Footnote 1276:
Dioscor. i. 157.
Footnote 1277:
Συρμαία, Poll. i. 247.
Footnote 1278:
Odyss. δ. 221. Plin. Nat. Hist. xxi. 21. Dutens, p. 183. From a
passage in Herodotus there seems reason to suspect, that certain
Asiatic nations were already in his time acquainted with the
inebriating effects of opium smoke. For, describing the inhabitants of
the larger islands found in the Araxes, he relates that they were
accustomed to gather together round a fire, and casting the fruit of
some unknown tree into the flames to inhale with delight the smoke and
effluvia emitted by it, until they experienced all the delight and
madness of intoxication, which impelled them to leap about, and dance
and sing. i. 202. Among the Scythians, moreover, we find in the same
author distinct traces of the use of beng, or hemp-seed. iv. 75.
Footnote 1279:
Thucyd. iv. 26. Celsus, ii. 32. Dioscor. iv. 65.
Footnote 1280:
Dioscor. ii. 129. 179.
Footnote 1281:
Σμίλαξ λεία. Dioscor. iv. 145.
Footnote 1282:
Poll. ii. 46. 214. 216. Plat. Tim. t. vii p. 19, seq. 89, seq. 98.
-----