HISTORY OF PHARMACY. 
57 
The second poem of Nicander, which remains to us, has 
for its title Jllexipharmaca.* It is a continuation of the 
poem upon Theriacs. In the first the author is wholly oc- 
cupied with the poisons acting externally ; in the last, he 
is taken up 'with the internal poisons. He commences by 
enumerating the substances of the three kingdoms capable 
of acting as poisons ; he describes the symptoms resulting 
from them, and then points out the proper therapeutic means 
to control them. Among the animal poisons he speaks of 
the cantharides of the Greeks, {Milabre de la chicoree, 
Fr.,)t the Carabus auratus, L., a kind of goldsmith, the 
black blood of the bullock, the rennet of the mammiferes, 
the tetraodon, {Tetraodon lagocepha his, L.,) the poisonous 
leech, and salamander. Among the vegetable poisons he 
described the effects of aconite, coriander,^ cicuta, the col- 
chicum of Ulyria,§ night shade, hyosciamus, opium, and 
mushrooms. Lastly, in the mineral kingdom he refers to 
two poisons only, white lead, and litharge. 
An incontestible merit of the poem upon JHexipharma- 
ques, is to present a sufficiently exact exposition of the 
symptoms which characterise the different kinds of poison- 
ing. The antidotes are here again topical applications, and 
electuaries more or less complicated. He directs as an an- 
tidote to cantharides, milk taken as a drink, and in injection, 
or else an emulsion prepared with hog's or lamb's brains, 
stirred up in a decoction of flaxseed. And to get rid of a 
leech that may have been swallowed, vinegar is to be drank, 
* From afofftv, to repulse, and fyuppaxov, venom. The word Alexi- 
pharmaque is synonymous with the words antidote, counterpoison, and 
alexiteric. 
f He spake of cantharides as being suited to raise pustules upon the 
skin. 
I The coriander in Egypt has sometimes excited a sort of delirium. 
§ Colchicum derives its name from Colchus, where the magician 
Media often employed it in her enchantments. 
