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.)