History: Antiquity Flashcards
Earliest humans used
Animal venoms and plant extracts for hunting, warfare, and assassination.
Contains information pertaining to many recognized poisons, including
Ebers Papyrus (circa 1500 bc)
Hemlock (the state poison of the Greeks)
Aconite (a Chinese arrow poison)
Opium (used as both a poison and an antidote)
Metals: arsenic lead, copper, and antimony
Indication that plants containing substances similar to digitalis and bella donna alkaloids were known
Hippocrates
(Circa 400 bc )
Added a number of poisons and clinical toxicology principles pertaining
to bioavailability in therapy and overdosage.
Book of
Job
(Circa 400 bc )
Speaks of poison arrows (Job 6:4)
Homer
(Circa 600 bc)
Homer have Odysseus obtaining poisons for his arrows
Theophrastus
(370–286 bc )
Student of Aristotle
Included numerous references to poisonous plants in De Historia Plantarum .
Dioscorides
Greek physician of the Roman emperor Nero
First attempt at a classification of poisons with descriptions and drawings.
Dabbled in therapy: Emetics in poisoning, use of caustic agents and cupping glasses in snakebite.
Socrates
(470–399 bc )
Best known recipient of poison used as a state method of execution
Expeditious suicide on a voluntary basis also made use of toxicological knowledge.
Demosthenes
(385–322 bc )
Took poison hidden in his pen
Calling for one to fall on his sword, although manly and noble, carried little appeal and less significance for the women of the day.
Cleopatra’s
(69–30 bc )
Knowledge of natural primitive toxicology: use the more genteel method of falling on her asp.
King Mithridates VI of Pontus
“mithridatic”:
“theriac”
Acute toxicity experiments on unfortunate criminals
Fearful of poisons that he regularly ingested a mixture of 36 ingredients (Galen reports 54) as protection against assassination.
On the occasion of his imminent capture by enemies, his attempts to kill himself with poison failed because of his successful antidote concoction, and he was forced to use a sword held by a servant.
Antidotal or protective mixture
Synonymous with “antidote,” from the poetic treatise Theriaca by Nicander of Colophon (204–135 bc ), which dealt with poisonous animals; his poem Alexipharmaca was about antidotes.
Lex Cornelia
(Circa 82 bc )
Sulla issued it
First law against poisoning, and it later became a regulatory statute directed at careless dispensers of drugs
Nero
( ad 37–68)
Poisons to his stepbrother Brittanicus and employed his slaves as food tasters to differentiate edible mushrooms from their more poisonous kin.
