THE ALUMNI JOURNAL. 



"5 



by Plato correspond perfectly with those 

 observed by recent experiments with the 

 same drug. 



The Persians and other Eastern na- 

 tions took up the careful study of pois- 

 ons at an early date and used them free- 

 ly, if, indeed, we can believe the many 

 tales related by the early historians. 

 Thus one of the Persian Queens, Statira, 

 was poisoned in the royal palace in a 

 very ingenious way. Her mother-in-law 

 was carving a bird and gave one slice to 

 the queen, taking another slice herself. 

 She had spread the poison on one side of 

 the knife only, and so while her own 

 meat was perfectly wholesome, the poor 

 queen on eating her portion was taken 

 violently ill and soon died. The death 

 of Alexander the Great, after his con- 

 quest of Persia, was attributed by some 

 of the contemporary historians to poison, 

 although the records, when carefully 

 studied, indicate that he died from 

 malarial fever aggravated by his own 

 imprudence and the folly of his physi- 

 cians. 



In ancient Rome there was a cause 

 celebre as early as 330 B. C. It came to 

 the notice of the authorities that there 

 was an unusual number of sudden and 

 suspicious deaths among men of high 

 rank, and especially among senators 

 prominent in sumptuary legislation. On 

 investigation they found a regular asso- 

 ciation of fashionable women to whose 

 efforts this diminution in the population 

 was due. Twenty-two of the most 

 prominent of them were arrested and ex- 

 amined, but claimed that they were per- 

 fectly innocent. They said that they were 

 simply interested in medicine, and had 

 been studying the effects and properties of 

 some new and powerful remedies ; indeed 

 they were so convinced of their own in- 

 nocence that they offered to drink their 

 own potions in court. They did this, 

 and all died from the effects, while one 



hundred and seventy more of their asso- 

 ciates were hunted out, tried and ex- 

 ecuted. 



Even these rigorous proceedings did 

 not extinguish the habit of poisoning at 

 Rome, especially after the Eastern con- 

 quests had introduced to the capitol the 

 luxury and the vices of Greece and Asia 

 Minor. In Sulla's day we find very 

 severe laws passed on the subject, and 

 Sulla's great enemy, Mithridates, King 

 of Pontus, made his name famous for his 

 researches into the properties and uses 

 of poisons. He was one of the first to 

 study the subject scientifically, growing 

 and cultivating trees and plants, employ- 

 ing the physicians of the day to experi- 

 ment with them, and studying their ef- 

 fects not only on animals but also on 

 man. We find that he was familiar not 

 only with the hemlock, but also with 

 aconite, hyoscyamus, hellebore, and a 

 few other less important vegetable drugs. 

 Mineral poisons were as yet unknown, 

 but he knew the irritant properties of 

 cantharides and other insects, and, curi- 

 ously enough, seemed to depend largely 

 upon "bulls' blood," probably in a fer- 

 mented condition. 



It is said that Mithridates studied 

 this art not only for use against his ene- 

 mies, but also to protect himself. Indeed, 

 he is reported to have so fortified his sys- 

 tem, partly by constantly taking small 

 doses of poison, partly by the use of anti- 

 dotes, that when at last, completely over- 

 thrown, he tried to save his family and 

 himself from the disgrace of a Roman 

 triumph by the most powerful poison in 

 his possession, he was obliged, after see- 

 ing his family die around him, to call in 

 the services of a slave swordsman to put 

 an end to his own life. The composi- 

 tion of his famous antidote, " mithrida- 

 ticum," as handed down to us, is prob- 

 ably more or less fictitious, for it 

 consists of a mixture of sixty or sev- 



