THE EARLY AGE OF GREEK AND ROMAN PHARMACY.
Rome at an early period gave birth to several philosophers and
practitioners in the art of healing. Cornelius Celsus, who is thought
to have been a Roman, was a much esteemed writer of the time, and his
works on medicine show the advanced state of surgery and medicine
during the Roman Empire.
His work on medicine gives a considerable insight into the pharmacy of
the Romans in his day. With reference to their weights, he says: “I
would have it understood that in an ounce is contained the weight of
seven denarii; next, that I divide each denarius into six parts, that
is, sextantes, so that I have the same quantity in the sextans of a
denarius that the Greeks have in their obolus”.
Of the methods of administration employed in early Roman pharmacy,
the malagma was commonly used. It was a kind of soft mass composed of
herbs and grass beaten up to the consistency of a thick paste, and
applied to the skin. Numerous formulæ for malagmas are given, in which
pellitory, myrrh, resin, cardamoms, ammoniacum, galbanum, etc., are
included. Their malagmas corresponded with our ointments. They also
used plasters, of which the basilicon, of galbanum, pitch, resin, and
oil, in an improved form, has survived two thousand years. Troches, for
healing wounds, were composed of dry medicines held in suspension by
some liquid such as wine or oil. Pessaries (vaginal) were originated
by the Greeks, who called them pessi. The ingredients were placed in
a piece of wool, and thus used. Powders and snuffs were also common
methods of administration.
Antidotes for bruises, bites, and poisons were regarded as extremely
important. One was called ambrosia, which Zopyrus is said to have
compounded for the King Ptolemy; another was the celebrated antidote of
King Mithridates.
The Greeks called their embrocations or ointments euchrista. The
catapotia was the method used for internal administration in liquid
form, for which many recipes are given by Celsus. The following will
serve as an example:—
_Athenio’s Catapotia for a Cough._
Myrrh, pepper, each p. ♓ i.
Castor, poppy tears, each p. ♓ i.
which are bruised separately and afterwards mixed.
For venomous bites, the treatment of the ancients, if the wound was
severe, was first cupping, or, if slight, the plaster of Diogenes
was applied, or a salt fish bound over the wound. A curious remedy
practised by the Greeks for hydrophobia was to throw the patient
suddenly into a pond, and “if he could not swim let him sink several
times, and thus drink; if he can swim, keep him down at times until he
may be satiated with water, for thus at once,” writes Celsus, “is both
the thirst and the dread of water removed”.
Their antidote for nearly all poisons was warm oil, given in order to
induce vomiting.
The word collyrium, now applied to a lotion for the eyes, was also used
by the ancients; but they gave it a greater latitude, and also employed
it to describe a composition of powders wrought to a pasty consistence
with a liquid, and formed into something like a tent for insertion into
cavities.
Of the chemical bodies and drugs known both to the Greeks and the
Romans, the number is not a few.
Cinnabar, which seems to have been known from a very remote period, was
the name applied to the red sulphide of mercury, and also to dragon’s
blood. It is doubtless of the latter Pliny says “he believed to be the
gore of a dragon crushed by the weight of a dying elephant, with a
mixture of the blood of these animals”. Copperas, lead, alum, copper,
and iron were used as styptics.
Myrrh, frankincense, cardamoms, linseed, isinglass, and cobwebs were
used as astringents.
Galbanum, storax, bitumen, are recommended for promoting suppuration,
while pennyroyal, sulphur, pellitory, stavesacre, ox-gall, scammony,
rue, and opium were all included in their medical recipes.
Dioscorides was the first to attempt to record in anything like a
methodical manner the many drugs and chemical substances used by the
early Greeks.
Pedacion Dioscorides, born in Anazaba in Cilicia, was a Greek
physician, who lived in or about the second century. He gathered a
great portion of his information on _materia medica_ during his travels
with the Roman army, which he accompanied on several expeditions in the
capacity of physician. Afterwards he wrote his great work _Peri Hules
Iatrikes_ (about _materia medica_), which for fifteen centuries or
more remained one of the chief authorities on that science. It treats
of all the medicines then in use, with their preparations and action
as then known. The work of this early physician first appeared in a
Latin translation in 1478; the first Greek edition being published in
1499. The work was afterwards translated into Spanish, Italian, French,
German, and Arabic.
[Illustration: PEDACION DIOSCORIDES.
From a drawing, 1598.]
In describing the _Papaver sativum_ and its virtues in this work, he
says: “It is not improper to subjoin the method in which the opus or
juice of it is collected. Some, then, cutting the poppy heads with the
leaves, squeeze them through a press, and rubbing them in a mortar,
form them into troches. This is called meconium, and is weaker than the
opus. But whoever desires to gather the juice must proceed thus: After
the heads are moistened with dew, let him cut round the * (asterisk)
with a knife, but not penetrate through them, and from the sides cut
straight lines in the surface, and draw off the tear that flows with
his finger into a shell. And come again, not long after, for it will
be found standing upon it; and the day following it will be found in
the same manner.” Hence the old name poppy tears. Dioscorides was also
learned in the preparation of wool fat, which he calls œsypum, known
to modern pharmacists as lanoline. He says: “Œsypum is the oily part
collected from sordid wool, thus: The wool was washed in warm water
and all its sordes expressed; the fat floated with a froth, and upon
throwing in some sea-water it subsided; and when all the œsypum was
obtained from it in this manner, it was purified by repeated affusions
of water. When pure it had no sharp taste, and was in some degree
astringent and appeared white, and was emollient and filled up ulcers.”
Recent excavations made at Pompeii and Herculaneum have thrown some
further light on various articles of _materia medica_ as it existed in
the days just preceding the destruction of those cities. Aloe seems to
have been held in high esteem by the practitioners of the time, and was
employed, we learn from the historian, in twenty-nine diseases. It was
prescribed in doses from 1 to 111 drachmas (about 68 grains), and mixed
with wine was employed to stimulate the growth of the hair. Aconite, we
find, was used in four diseases; and was supposed to be an antidote to
any poison which might exist in the system. Other remedies mentioned
include gum acacia, colocynth, elaterium, gold, silver, copper, and
elecampane. It is further recorded of the latter drug, that Julia
Augusta, daughter of Augustus Cæsar, used to eat the root daily.
Of the vegetable remedies about 150 are enumerated, and of these the
cabbage seems to have held a prominent place. Other favourite medicines
were rye, garlic, anise, mallow, rose, and lily.
In the animal kingdom, the remedies contributed were numerous, being
mainly the various parts of man and beast. Among some of the least
disgusting, hair, blood, and saliva may be mentioned.
Scrapings from the bodies of athletes, mixed with the oil with which
they anointed themselves, were used as a tonic. The hair of a man
torn from the cross was used as a remedy for quartan fever. The hyæna
was employed as a medicinal agent in seventy-nine diseases; and the
crocodile, chameleon, lion, elephant, camel, and the hippopotamus all
contributed certain curative agents. Wool fat was held in great esteem.
Of minerals, iron, lead, nitrum, salt, gold, tin, silver, realgar,
copper, and misy (a combination of the sulphates of copper and iron)
are enumerated. Most of these articles are mentioned by the second
Pliny, who was killed during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius which
buried Pompeii.