C. U. C. p. ALUMNI JOURNAL 



113 



Ft?0]VI THE IilBt?At?Y 



ADELAIDE RUDOLPH 

 Assistant Librarian 



The Lloyd Library in Cincinnati has 

 the good fortune to possess a French 

 Codex of 1884, about which inquiry was 

 made in our March notes from this 

 Library, and has kindly advised us, that 

 Theriaque, appearing in the body of the 

 book under Electuaire theriacal, is 

 found in its index, but not Mithridate. 



We took our data, in this case, from 

 the introduction to the French edition 

 (Beyrouth, 190^) of Shirazi's pharma- 

 ceutical work, which does not mention 

 Mithridatium, indeed; but we took for 

 granted it was there, because Dorvault 

 has it in his index to "L'O'fficine," 1889. 



From our point of view, the several 

 articles on historical pharmacy in recent 

 pharmaceutical journals have been most 

 entertaining and important. We noticed 

 particularly what Mr. Lawrence Irwell 

 says in his interesting article in the 

 Practical Druggist this month about the 

 "treacle of Andromachus" and "the cele- 

 brated Mithridate of Damocratis." and 

 have thought that perhaps a glance at 

 the formula, handed down bv Plinv as 

 the very one found by Ponnpey in the 

 coffers of Mithridates. conquered king of 

 Pontus. together with a reproduction of 

 the original Greek (and its Latin trans- 

 lation), which contains the formula of 

 Damocrates, might be a satisfaction to 

 the natural curiosity of readers : 



The Traditional Original Recife for the 

 Antidote That Suggested to Damo- 

 crates the Name Mithridatium. 



In sanctuariis Mithridatis, maximi 

 regis devicti, Cn. Pompeius invenit in 

 peculiari commentario ipsius manu coiu- 

 positionem antidoti, e duabus nucibus 

 siccis. item ficis totidem, et rutae foliis 

 viginti simul tritis, addito salis grano : et 

 qui hoc jejunus sumat, nullam venenum 

 nociturum illo die. 



C. Plinii Sec. Nat. Hist, xxiii, "jj. 3. 



In the coffers of Mithridates the Great, 

 after he was vanquished. Cnaeus Pompey 

 found a formula for an antidote against 

 poison, with a commentary in the very 

 great king's own hand writing: 



Take two dried nuts, the same number 

 of figs, and twenty leaves of rue pow- 

 dered, with a pinch of salt. 



No harm will come to him that day 

 from poisons, who has taken this before 

 a sparing breakfast. 



On the pages which follow is found a 

 fac-simile of pages 115, 116 and 117 of 

 the original Greek (with Latin transla- 

 tion) from the work of Galen (A. D. 

 130 to 200?). It will be noticed that the 

 recipe for "Mithridatium Damocratis" 

 begins on the fotirth line of the Latin 

 translation on page 115, occupies the en- 

 tire page 116 and ends with the ninth 

 line of the Latin translation on page 117. 



