SECT. LXIV.—ON WHITE HELLEBORE, THAPSIA, ELATERIUM, BLACK AGARIC, WILD RUE, GITH, AND THE DOWN OF THE CACTOS.
We must be guarded in the administration of certain medicinal substances, which often occasion as great danger as poisons themselves. Such are the following, namely, white hellebore, thapsia, elaterium, and the black agaric, for these bring on either suffocation or hypercatharsis, in which cases we may cure the suffocation in the way described for mushrooms, and such like substances, and stop the hypercatharsis by such things are as calculated to suppress immoderate discharges. Likewise certain substances which might seem not injurious to any considerable degree, will sometimes occasion dangerous symptoms, and should not be neglected. Such are the wild rue, gith, and the fresh poppy, which are the flowers of the thorn called cactos. In such cases the administration of a vomit alone relieves those who have taken them.
Commentary. This section is taken from Dioscorides. Of the pappus Actuarius says, like our author, that it is the flower of the thorn called cactos, and that vomiting relieves those who have taken it. (Meth. Med. v, 12.) See Avicenna (iv, 6, 1); and Rhases (ad Mansor. viii, 49.) Alsaharavius directs us in the case of hellebore to clear the stomach by emetics, and to apply cooling plasters of citrons, apples, and roses. For the wild rue he recommends emetics of oil, emollient clysters, and the ashes of vine tops taken with water and vinegar.
In the [Seventh Book] we shall have occasion to state the opinions which have been entertained respecting the helleborus albus of the ancients. Schulze is very undecided. (Toxic. vet. iv.) The thapsia he makes to be the same as the T. fœtida of Linnæus. Theophrastus has described it (H. P. ix, 23). Pliny says it occasions swelling of the body, with erysipelas. (N. H. xiii, 43.)
We shall treat of the elaterium also in the [Seventh Book]. Hippocrates uses the word as a general term for all drastic purgatives, but by Dioscorides, and the subsequent writers on the materia medica, it is applied to the fæcula of the momordica elaterium.
The agaricus muscarius is a well-known poisonous mushroom. Schulze properly remarks that its effects are narcotic; and Dr. Christison places it in the class of narcotico-acrid poisons. See sec. liv.
Schulze is much inclined to believe that the πήγανον ἄγριον here treated of is the peganum harmala of Linnæus, a plant intermediate between the ruta and melanthium. He is also disposed to think that the melanthium of the ancients was the nigella sativa, L. We are inclined to adopt this opinion from the text of Avicenna. (iv, 6, 1, 16.) Sprengel agrees with Anguillara and Dalechampius in opinion that the cactos was the cynara cardunculus, L., or cardoon artichoke, a variety of the C. scolymus. (Comment. in Dioscor.) Schweighaeuser inclines to the opinion of Villebrun, the French translator of Athenæus, who makes it to be the C. sylvestris latifolia, which he says grows commonly in Sicily at the present day. (In Deipnos. ii, 83.)
Under this head we may notice the treatment of poisoning by gum euphorbium, and the spurges, of which no mention is made by the Greek authorities on toxicology. For the Arabians, see Avicenna (iv, 6, 1, 4, 5); Rhases (Contin. xx, 2; ad Mansor. viii, 48); Alsaharavius (Pract. xxx, 1, 19.) The symptoms as given by them all are, violent pain and heat in the primæ viæ, with bloody discharges, and death, unless timely relief be given. Their remedies are immediate vomiting with hot water and oil, then administering demulcents, barley-water, and in the end, the theriac. Galen and Haly Abbas, in their treatises on the Theriac, recommend it in this case of poisoning.
The mezereon is not noticed by the Greeks or Romans either as a poison nor as a medicinal substance. The Arabians treat of it under both these heads. See Avicenna (iv, 6, 1); Rhases (ad Mansor. viii, 53.) The symptoms as given by them are violent vomiting and purging, for which they recommend sweet milk, butter, juleps, in the first place, and in extreme cases the theriac and sealed earth. The Arabian authorities confound their mezereon with the chamæleon of the Greeks, treated of in [the thirty-seventh section of this book]. The dende of Avicenna and Serapion was the strychnos colubrinus, according to Sprengel. (R. H. H. i, 250.)
Rhases classes the nux vomica along with the articles treated of in this section. He recommends us in all these cases to give warm water to promote the vomiting, and render it easier, and if violent convulsions come on, he directs the patient to be put into a warm bath, and anointed with hot oils. (Ad Mansor. viii, 49.) Serapion treats of it in his Materia Medica (163.) The Arabians also treat of the methel-nut.
We are unable to determine satisfactorily the nature of the condisi, which is treated of by the Arabians, under the present head. See Rhases (ad Mansor. viii, 49); Avicenna (iv, 6, 1, 16.) Alsaharavius calls it cundes. The symptoms, he says, are dryness of the nose, throat, and palate, sneezing, muttering delirium, pain of the stomach, and, unless speedy relief be brought, death. (Pract. xxx, 1, 24.) Ardoyn mentions that some referred it to the struthium; but the above characters do not at all apply to the soapwort (saponaria officinalis, L.), which is the στρόυθιον of Theophrastus and Dioscorides. See further Sprengel (Comment. in Dioscor. i, 192.)
The sow-bread (cyclamen Europæum) is also treated of by the Arabians under this head. See Avicenna (iv, 6, 1, 16); Rhases (ad Mansor. viii, 59); Alsaharavius (Pract. xxx, 1, 24.) The symptoms, according to Alsaharavius, are swelling of the throat, and strong pain of the bowels. The sow-bread is treated of as an article of the Materia Medica by Dioscorides (ii, 193.)
Dioscorides (M. M. iv, 82) does not reckon the oleander (nerium oleander, L.) destructive to man, but the Arabians rank it among the deleterious substances, of a heating and desiccant nature; and recommend for it emetics, with the decoction of fenugreek, figs with honey, and the like. See Avicenna (iv, 6, 18); Alsaharavius (Pract. xxx, 1, 27); Rhases (ad Mansor. viii, 36.)
The anacardium, or Malacca bean, is treated of as a poison by Rhases (Contin. xx, 2; ad Mansor. viii, 35); Avicenna (iv, 6, 1, 9); Alsaharavius (Pract. xxx, 1, 42); Haly Abbas (Pract. iv, 50.) They all describe it as an irritant poison, and recommend emetics of animal and vegetable oils, with demulcents, to obviate the bad effects of it.
The apocynum, although not treated of by the ancient authorities on toxicology, is described as a deleterious substance by Dioscorides (Mat. Med. iv, 81); by Galen (De Simpl.); and by Pliny (H. N. xxv, 83.) It appears to be the periploca Græca, L.
Dioscorides and Pliny likewise reckon saffron, or the crocus sativus, a deleterious plant. Its deleterious action is very weak.
The atramentum sutorium, which was a solution of vitriol, was used as a poison. See Cicero (ad Familiar. ix, 21.)