The substance called pharicum in taste completely resembles nard, and when drunk it brings on paralysis, with disorder of the mind and convulsion. After evacuation by vomiting, we must give the patient to drink, along with wine, some wormwood, cinnamon, myrrh, or Celtic nard (which some call saliunca), or of spikenard, dr. ij, or two oboli of myrrh mixed with must or iris, and the flower of saffron with wine. The head is to be shaven, and a cataplasm consisting of barley-flour, with levigated rue and vinegar, is to be applied.
Commentary. Nicander, like our author, compares its taste to that of spikenard, and says that it proves fatal in one day, inducing delirium. He recommends the same internal medicines, and also makes mention of applying a stimulant cataplasm to the head, evidently with a view of relieving the phrenitis. The other authorities recommend similar treatment.
There is great disagreement among the ancient writers on toxicology respecting the nature of the pharicum. (See the notes of Gorræus and Schneider on Nicander.) The former remarks that many suppose it a species of nard. Dioscorides (Præf. vi) and Galen (Antidot. ii) make it to be a herb. Scribonius Largus, and Hesychius consider it to have been a compound medicine. After balancing all the statements Schneider comes to the conclusion, that most probably it was a composition from agaric. Schulze is wholly undecided as to its nature. (Toxic. Vet. 21.) Sprengel, in like manner, can come to no certain conclusion respecting it. (Notæ in Dioscor. l. c.)
SECT. LIII.—ON TOXICUM.
The toxicum seems to be so called because the barbarians anointed their darts (τοξεύματα) with it. When a person has drunk of it, inflammation of the lips and tongue comes on, also irrestrainable madness leading to various fantasies, so that in the treatment of them they are difficult to cure, and it is rare that any of those who have drunk of it can be saved. However, they are to be forcibly bound with ligatures, and compelled to drink sweet wine with rose-oil, and to vomit. Turnip seed, also, drunk with wine will be proper for them, and the root of cinquefoil, the blood of a he or she-goat when taken, oak bark, that of the beech or ilex triturated with milk; also quinces when eaten, or triturated with pennyroyal and drunk in water; and ammomum, and the fruit of balsam with wine. But if any escape the danger they remain for a long time confined to bed, and when they get out of it they spend the rest of their lives in a state of timidity.
Commentary. The symptoms detailed by Nicander are much the same as those enumerated by our author, namely, swelling of the mouth and throat, with violent internal pains. His remedies likewise are much the same, namely, forcing the patient, after he is well secured, to drink wine until he vomit, and making him take bruised apples, rose-oil, oil of iris, &c. He says, that certain savage nations upon the Euphrates poisoned their arrows with it, which rendered their wounds immedicable, occasioning lividity and putrefaction. Dioscorides, Aëtius, Actuarius, and, in short, all the ancient authorities, copy his account.
It is very difficult to determine the nature of the toxicum. Theophrastus describes a species of calamus by the name of toxicus. (H. P. iii, 12.) Avicenna, however, admits that he was wholly unacquainted with its nature. (iv, 6; i, 29.) Some have supposed, with considerable probability, that it was a preparation from the rhus toxicodendron. Schulze is only decided that it was a vegetable poison. (Tox. Vet. 19.) But it even seems doubtful whether it was a simple or compound medicine, and whether of an animal or vegetable nature. (See Schneider’s note on Nicander’s Alexiph. 248.) Sprengel inclines to the opinion that it was collected from the venom of serpents. (Notæ in Dioscor.) All, however, is mere conjecture on this subject.
SECT. LIV.—ON MUSHROOMS.
Of mushrooms, some prove deleterious from their general nature, and some by the quantity taken. They all bring on suffocation resembling choking. The general remedy which is to be instantly applied is to compel the persons affected to vomit by means of oil. They are also wonderfully relieved by drinking of the lye from vine-shoots, or from the wood of the wild pear with oxycrate, salts, or natron. And wild pears or their leaves, if boiled with mushrooms, take away their suffocative quality, and if eaten they prove beneficial. Hen’s dung, drunk in oxycrate, proves beneficial to them; likewise a drachm of birthwort, or of wormwood with wine, and honey when licked or drunk with water; and baum with natron, or the root and fruit of all-heal with wine, the burnt lees of wine with water, and copperas with vinegar, radish, mustard, or cresses when eaten. And since certain mushrooms having been tasted of by venomous animals occasion not only suffocation but also ulceration of the intestines, we must give in such cases plenty of wormwood, and the decoction of figs, and of marjoram, and honied water. Emetics, the hot hip-bath, and raw barley-flour when applied to the hypochondria, will also be proper.