OF HERBS IN MEDICINE 159 



with wonder that patients ever died, till one examines 

 into the prescriptions and methods generally, and then 

 one is more astonished that any of them recovered. I 

 shall not mention any prescriptions here, excepting the 

 celebrated antidote to all poison, Venice Treacle. This 

 included seventy-three ingredients, and was evolved from 

 an earlier and also famous nostrum, the Mithridatkum, 

 originated by Mithridates, King of Pontus. Of course, 

 this " treacle " was in no way connected with the sugary 

 syrup we call by this name, but is a corruption of the 

 Latin — Theriaca, a counter poison. Venice Treacle is an 

 extreme example of the multitude of conflicting elements 

 that were massed together and boldly administered in 

 ancient remedies. The memory of it still clings about a 

 wayside plant, Erysimum cheiranthoides, better known 

 as Treacle-Mustard, which has gained its English 

 name from the fact that its seeds were used in this 

 awe-inspiring compound. 



Anyone who is interested in ancient remedies can 

 easily gain much information from Culpepper or Salmon. 

 Either herbal can be procured at a low price (in a cheap 

 edition) from any second-hand bookseller, and Salmon's 

 wild statements, especially about animals, and Cul- 

 pepper's biting wit, make them amusing reading. It 

 is more instructive to examine the principles that 

 animated the practice, and from one, the Doctrine of 

 Signatures took form — a doctrine widely believed in, 

 and of great influence. Coles ^ expounds it with great 

 clearness : " Though Sin and Sattan have plunged 

 mankinde into an Ocean of Infirmities . . . yet the 

 mercy of God, which is over all His workes, maketh 

 . . . herbes for the use of man, and hath not onely 

 stamped upon them a distinct forme, but also given 

 them particular Signatures, whereby a man may read, 

 even in legible characters, the use of them. . . . Viper's 



1 "Art of Simpling." 



