cording to Lewin, 4 grams. Ludewig and Lohs name 
elaterine as the active principle in C. colocynthis, the 
lethal dose being 3 grams. J. A. Kunkel does not con- 
sider the glycoside colocynthine to be the proper poison, 
but the colocyntheine which is generated after reaction 
with hydrochloric acid in the human stomach. He gives 
a lethal dose of 4 grams. Application of the chemically 
pure poison can be excluded from further consideration. 
Like Dioscurides and Scribonius Largus in their pre- 
scriptions, Xenophon must have utilized the fruit pulp 
if he wanted to prepare an applicable poison from C. 
colocynthis. The fruit pulp contains colocynthine in a 
concentration of 0.6%. Fruits of C. colocynthis are on 
an average the size of an apple or an orange. From the 
botanical division of the pharmaceutical company Dr. 
Madaus & Co., Cologne, we learned that the average 
colocynth fruit weighs about 180-200 grams and meas- 
ures about 7.5 cm. in diameter. Our estimate of the pro- 
portions in weight (fruit pulp : skin + core = 2: 1) was 
confirmed by several pharmacologists as realistic. One 
fruit of a total weight of 200 grams thus contains ap- 
proximately 133.32 grams of fruit pulp, and 0.8 grams 
of chemically pure colocynthine. If Nenophon intended 
to kill Claudius with C. colocynthis, he would have had 
to administer to him at least 4 grams of pure colocyn- 
thine. Had he wanted to be on the safe side, he would 
have had to administer a considerably larger amount, for 
Lewin reports that even 15 grams—3.5 times the lethal 
dose !—have at times not proved fatal. Four grams of 
colocynthine are contained in 666.60 grams of fruit pulp; 
in order to gain 15 grams, Xenophon would have had to 
process 2.3 kilograms of fruit pulp. Obviously he could 
not have smeared such a large quantity on a feather. He 
may have prepared a decoction or maceration, but even 
then he would have found it difficult to reduce this enor- 
[ 228 | 
