PUBLISHED BY THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION 

 OF THE COLLEGE OF PHARMACY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK 



Vol. II. 



New York, June, 1895. 



No. 6. 



AN HISTORICAL SKETCH OF POISONS. 



LIBS 



By CHARLES E. PEIXEW, E. M., 



Demonstrator of Physics and Chemistry in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, and Honorary 



Assistant in Chemistry in the School of Mines, Columbia College. 



PART SECOND. 



Thus far, it will be noticed, we have 

 dealt only with the various vegetable 

 poisons. The mineral poisons are first 

 mentioned by Dioscorides Pedanius, a 

 famous physician of Cilicia, who publish- 

 ed a great work on materia medica, and 

 another one on poisons, about the begin- 

 ning of the second century, A. D. In these 

 works he discusses the properties of 

 aconite, hyoscyamus, conium, hellebore, 

 and many other plants in common use; 

 and he mentions opium in some detail 

 under the name meconium. He describes 

 certain poisonous fungi, tells of the 

 irritant effect of cantharides and other 

 poisonous insects, the use of 'barbarian 

 arrow poison' and the like. And then lie 

 gives some details of the effects of gyp- 

 siutn, litharge, burnt and slacked lime 

 and of 'Arsenikon.' The latter, also 

 called Sandarack, evidently refers to the 

 sulphide of Arsenic, afterwards named 

 auri pigmentum, orpiment, for its fine 

 yellow color, and still an article of com- 

 merce. He describes it as a golden miner- 

 al, coming from Mysia or Pontus," making 



sores, burning violently, eating away the 

 hair." In the book on poisons he states 

 that when taken internally, it "gives 

 violent pains in the stomach and intes- 

 tines, corroding them fiercely," and he 

 recommends milk, decoction of linseed, the 

 juice of the mallow, etc., as antidotes, "to 

 mitigate the burning and produce smooth 

 and easy vomiting." 



After this substance was known it was 

 but a short step to discover the white or 

 common arsenic, 'Arsenicum sublima- 

 tum' of the early chemists, which ac- 

 cordingly we find mentioned by Geberin 

 the ninth century, and which, from that 

 day to this, has been more used for 

 criminal poisoning than all the other 

 poisons put together. 



One of the earliest cases on record is 

 carefully preserved in the French archives 

 under the date of 1384. A wandering 

 troubadour, called Woudreton, was 

 arrested in Paris for acting suspiciously 

 in the royal palace, and under trial con- 

 fessed that he had been employed to poi- 

 son King Charles VI of France, and sever. 



