4 POISONS : THEIR EFFECTS AND DETECTION. [§ 4* 
which is derived from Alton, a small city in Heraclea. The Greeks were 
well aware of the deadly nature of aconite, and gave to it a mythical 
origin, from the foam of the dog Cerberus. Colchicum was also known 
to Dioscorides ; its first use was ascribed to Medea. Veratrum album 
and nigrum were famous^medicines of the Romans, and a constituent of 
their “ rat and mice powders ” ; they were also used as insecticides. 
According to Pliny, the Gauls dipped their arrows in a preparation of 
veratrum. 1 Daphne mezereon, called by the Romans also smilax and 
taxus, appears to have been used by Cativolcus, the king of the Eburones, 
for the purpose of suicide ; or possibly by “ taxus ” the yew-tree is 
meant. 2 
The poisonous properties of certain fungi were also known. Nicander 
calls the venomous mushrooms the “ evil fermentation of the earth,” and 
prescribes the identical antidotes which we would perhaps give at the 
present time—viz. vinegar and alkaline carbonates. 
3. Mineral Poisons. —Arsenic has been already alluded to. The 
ancients used it as a caustic and depilatory. Copper was known as 
sulphate and oxide ; mercury only as cinnabar : lead oxides were used, 
and milk and olive-oil prescribed as an antidote for their poisonous 
properties. The poison-lehre for many ages was considered as something 
forbidden. Galen, in his treatise “ On Antidotes,” remarks that the 
only authors who dared to treat of poisons were Orpheus, Theologus 
Morus, Mendesius the younger, Heliodorus of Athens, Aratus, and a 
few others ; but none of these treatises have come down to us. From 
the close similarity of the amount of information in the treatises of 
Nicander, Dioscorides, Pliny, Galen, and Paulus iEgineta, it is probable 
that all were derived from a common source. 
§ 4. If we turn our attention to early Asiatic history, a very cursory 
glance at the sacred writings of the East will prove how soon the art of 
poisoning, especially in India, was used for the purpose of suicide, revenge, 
or robbery. 
The ancient practice of the Hindoo widow—self-immolation on the 
burning pile of her husband—is ascribed to the necessity which the 
Brahmins were under of putting a stop to the crime of domestic poison¬ 
ing. Every little conjugal quarrel was liable to be settled by this form 
of secret assassination, but such a law, as might be expected, checked 
the practice. 
Poison was not used to remove human beings alone, for there has 
been from time immemorial in India much cattle-poisoning. In the 
Institutes of Menu, it is ordained that when cattle die the herdsman 
shall carry to his master their ears, their hides, their tails, the skin below 
their navels, their tendons, and the liquor oozing from their foreheads. 
Without doubt these regulations were directed against cattle-poisoners. 
1 Pliny, xxv. 5. 2 De Bello Galileo, vi. 31. 
