dicines to poison rats; bastard saffron, mice, pigs, and dogs; which last were physicked with hellebore. The deadly qualities of this plant, when taken in any quantity, were universally known, and, therefore, the pharmacopolist, Thrasyas, 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. 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. On the nature, power, and uses, of ancient poisons, it is not my purpose to enlarge. It may be proper, 2 1 Dioscor. iv. 150. • Χαμαιλέων λευκὸς . ἀποκτείνει καὶ κύνας καὶ ἦας καὶ μύας, σὺν αλφίτῳ πεφυραμένη, καὶ ὑδρελαίῳ διεθεῖσα. Dioscor. iii. 10. 3 Theoph. Hist. Plant. ix. 8. 4. Theophrast. Hist. Plant. ix. 16. 7, seq. Cf. Sext. Empir. Pyrrh. Hypot. 1. i. p. 17. b. 5 Theoph. Hist. Plant. ix. 17. 1. 6 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. Δυοῖν δὲ ἐτοῖν μετὰ τὸν πατέρα τὴν ἀρχὴν κατασχόντ τα, ὑπὸ τοῦ θαλαττίου λαγώ ἀποθανεῖν. τὸν δὲ ἰχθὺν τοῦτον, παρέχεσθαι χυμοὺς ἀποῤῥήτους, ὑπὲρ πάντα τὰ ἐν τῇ θαλάττῃ καὶ γῇ ἀνδροφόνα. καὶ Νέρωνα μὲν ἐμποιῆσαι τοῖς ἑαυτοῦ ὄψοις τὸν λαγὼν τοῦτον ἐπὶ τοὺς πολεμιωτάτους, Δομετιανὸν δὲ ἐπὶ τὸν ἀδελφὸν Τίτον, 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 Elian. de Nat. Animal. ii. 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,1 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. 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 groundpine, 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 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, which they believed to possess the power of protecting them for ever. When persons 5 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. 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 45. xvi. 19, and by Pliny, Nat. Hist. ix. 72. xxxii. 3. 1 Cf. Beckmann, i. 82. 2 Theoph. Hist. Plant. ix. 16. 7. 3 Dioscor. iii. 175. 4 Theoph. Hist. Plant. ix. 16. 6. 5 Dioscor. iv. 144. 6 Id. iii. 43. P 2 the dog-days, in which they seem to have slaughtered 1 Both mongrel, puppy, whelp, and hound, the moist atmosphere of their city having been peculiarly liable to engender hydrophobia. 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. It entered, moreover, into preparation designed to sharpen the sight. The gum obtained from the cherry-tree' 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, constituted a very common emetic. Opium was in general use even 66 4 · Δύναμιν δὲ ἔχει σηπτικὴν μὲν τῶν ἐμψύχων, φυλακτικὴν δὲ τῶν νεκρῶν σωμάτων. ὅθεν καὶ νεκροῦ ζωήν τινες αὐτὴν Ekaλeoav. Dioscor. i. 105. 3 Dioscor. i. 157. 4 Συρμαία, Poll. i. 247. 2 so early, apparently, as the age of Homer,' who seems to have celebrated it under the name of nepenthe. The Spartan soldiers appear to have made considerable use of the poppy-head; 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 3 could always gratify their wishes by eating leaks or lentils, or the seeds of the great bind-weed,* mixed with dorycnion. We may mention by the way, that the ancients understood well the doctrine of the circulation of the blood.5 1 Odyss. d. 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 214 CHAPTER VII. INDUSTRY: WEAVERS, GLOVERS, SOCK-MAKERS, CORDWAINERS, TANNERS, HATTERS, DYERS OF PURPLE, ETC., FISHERMEN. 1 IN spinning and weaving the ancients evidently rivalled us, though without the aid of machinery. As far, indeed, as the former process is concerned, no machinery can rival the human hand, which, from its slight oily exudation is enabled to communicate superior strength and evenness to the finest threads. Thus in Hindustân muslins were formerly produced, which, laid on the grass and wetted by dew, became invisible. And there is no reason for doubting that the produce of ancient Greek looms rivalled those of Dakka. The fabrics of Cos and Tarentum appear, in fact, from the testimony of the ancients, to have floated like a snowy mist around the female form, disclosing its whole contour like a gauze veil. In flowered and variegated tissues, too, they attained extraordinary 5 1 The whole of the manufacture in India is by hand-spinning, consequently there is a greater tension, from the moisture which the hand gives them, than can be had from anything in the shape of machinery; a fine yarn can be produced by hand-spinning "from "a short staple, which framespinning will not touch at all." Report from the Lords, July 8, 1830, p. 316. 2 Tavernier relates, "that the "ambassador of Shah Sefi, on his "return from India, presented his "master with a cocoa-nut, set "with jewels, containing a mus"lin turban, sixty covits, or thir"ty English yards, in length, so "exquisitely fine, that it could "scarcely be felt by the touch." The Hindoos, vol. i. p. 188. 3 Winkel. Hist. de l'Art. i. 498. 4 Athen. xii. 23. Aristoph. Lysist. 48. Poll. vii. 76. 5 To these an allusion is made in the following passage of Plato: |