ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, IX. xvn. 2-4 



poisons non-poisonous ; for, when the constitution 

 has accepted them and prevails over them, they cease 

 to be poisons, as Thrasyas also remarked ; for he 

 said that the same thing was a poison to one and not 

 to another ; thus he distinguished between different 

 constitutions, as he thought was right ; and he was 

 clever at observing the differences. Also, besides 

 the constitution, it is plain that use has something 

 to do with it. At least Eudemus, the vendor of drugs, 

 who had a high reputation in his business, after 

 making a wager that he would experience no effect 

 before sunset, drank a quite moderate dose, and it 

 proved too strong for his power of resistance : 1 while 

 the Chiaii Eudemus took a draught of hellebore and 

 was not purged. And on one occasion he said that 

 in a single day he took two and twenty draughts in 

 the market-place as he sat at his stall, and did not 

 leave the place till it was evening, and then he went 

 home and had a bath and dined, and was not sick. 

 However this man was able to hold out because he 

 had provided himself with an antidote ; for he said 

 that after the seventh dose he took a draught of tart 

 vinegar with pumice-stone dust in it, and later on 

 took a draught of the same in wine in like manner ; 

 and that the virtue of the pumice-stone dust is 

 so great that, if one puts it into a boiling pot of 

 wine, 2 it causes it to cease to boil, not merely for 

 the moment, but altogether, clearly because it has a 

 drying effect and it catches the vapour and passes it 

 off. It was then by this antidote that Eudemus was 

 able to contain himself in spite of the large quantity 

 of hellebore which he took. 



However many things go to show that use makes 



2 otvov add. Sch., cf. Plin. 36. 42; 14. 138. 



307 

 x 2 



