[3168] Fée remarks, that it is difficult to see how this could be done.
[3169] This statement, as Fée remarks, is quite unfounded.
[3170] This assertion is also entirely imaginary.
[3171] “Cortex juglandium.” Fée says that by this term is meant, not the green outer shell, husk, or pericarpus of the walnut, but the bark of the tree.
[3172] This asserted use of them has not been verified by modern experience.
[3173] The various receipts for the preparation of this Mithridate or antidote differ very widely; and, indeed, the probability is, as Dr. Heberden says, that Mithridates was as much a stranger to his own antidote, as modern physicians have since been to the medicines daily advertised under their names. Mithridates is said to have so fortified himself against all noxious drugs and poisons, that none would produce any effect when he attempted to destroy himself—a mere fable, no doubt.
[3174] This, we are told by Galen, was regularly done by the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, De Antid. B. i. c. i.
[3175] See B. xv. c. 24.
[3176] An emulsion of them fresh, with honey, might be useful, Fée thinks, in such a case.
[3177] Either of these additions would certainly neutralize the good effects of the emulsion. The addition of raisin wine, however, is recommended by Dioscorides.