Gloucester County Democrat., 1909-07-08
ANCIENT POISON LORE
Some Obscure Facts Revealed
by Study Of Toxicology.

4
THE PENALTY OF THE PEACH.
A Document Of Antiquity That Shows
the Egyptians Knew How to Make
! and Use Prussic Acid-The Poisons
| of Ancient Greece and Rome.
In the mythology of Greece there
was somber saga which declared
that in the far north, later described
as Colchis, there dwelt some sorcerers
children Of the sun. OF these Hecate
possessed vast knowledge of poison
GUS herbs. which passed to her daugh-
ter Medea, who administered drugs to
that dragon which guarded the Golden
Fleece and urged Jason to gladiator
like achievements.
Menes, one of the oldest of the Egyp-
tian kings. and Attalus Phylometer,
the last king Of Pergemus, undoubted-
( ly possessed wide knowledge of me-
dicinal plants. sAttalus Phylometer
compounded medicines and expert
! mented with poisons. He was famil-
lar with hyoscyamus, aconite, vera
trum, conium and others.
] Mithradates Eupator went further
than either of these, however, as he
prepared the famous mixture theriaca,
composed of fifty-four ingredients, and
which in later days sold at great
price. There is further evidence of
! the chemical knowledge Of the Egyp-
tians as disclosed in embalming and
! various technical works.
The most interesting feature of the
poison lore of Egypt, however, is the
fact that the Egyptians were acquaint-
ed with prussic acid, one of the most
deadly poisons They distilled it from
! certain plants and trees, notably the
peach. In the Louvre there is an an
cient Egyptian papyrus on which has
been deciphered:
Pronounce not the name of I. A. o.
under the penalty of the peach"
| This is supposed to be death warm
ing to those who might be tempted to
reveal mysteries in connection with
the religious rites of the priests
1t is certain that the Romans learned
of prussic acid from the Egyptians, for
history has it that i'll the reign Of I'll
berius a Roman knight accused of
treason drank poison and fell dead at
i the feet of the senators.
| In ancient Greece poison was the ia
j vorite method of capital punishment
and suicide, and it is of interest that
self destruction was considered by the
Greeks as an exemplary means of free
ing the soul from the body. Valerius
Maximus relates that he saw wo-
man of quality in the island of Ceos
who, having lived happily for ninety
years, obtained leave to take a poison
GUS draft, lest by living longer she
should happen to have a change in her
I good fortune"
Nicander of Colophon (204-13S B. CO.
! wrote the most ancient works extant
on the subject of poisons. In one
treatise he described the effects Of
snake venors, in another he considered
the properties of opium, henbane, GER
| tain fungi, colchicum, aconite and CON
tium and recommended antidotes for
them
Dioscorides (40-9O A. d. described
the effects of cantharides, sulphate of
copper, mercury, lead and arsenic. He
described poisons under three heads
4 animal poisons, poisons from plants
and mineral poisons.
Poison lore poison-lehre, as it was
long called considered a forbid
den subject for many ages. Gaten in
/ his work ION Antidotes' remarks that
| the only authors who dared to write
! of poisons were Orpheus, Theologus,
Morus, Mendesius the younger, Hello
dorus of Athens, Aratus and few 9TH
ers. Unfortunately none of their trea-
tises is now in existence.
The sacred writings Of India show
that the art Of poisoning was used for
suicide, robbery and revenge, and here
we learn that the original cattle poi
soners lived in India. The Asiatics
knew arsenic, aconite, opium and other
poisons.
The ancient Hebrews were acquaint-
ed with certain poisons, and '.vosch''
and "chema" seem to have been the
words used as general terms for poison.
The death of Socrates, Demosthenes,
Hannibal and Cleopatra testify to the
pharmaceutical knowledge Of the an
clients Phrysa poisoned the Queen
Statira in the reign of Artaxerxes II.
B. G. 405-359 by cutting food with a
poisoned knife.
!, The professional poisoners arose early
in the Christian era. 1t is recorded
that Agrippina "a. D. 26) refused to
eat apples at the table of her father
in-law Tiberius through fear of poison.
New York Times.