[171] Suffire autem oportet ore aperto alterci semine carbonibus asperso, subinde os colluere aqua calida; interdum enim quasi vermiculi quidam eiciuntur.
[172] Gum of the cedar tree.
[173] Dentifricium, quod splendidos facit dentes et confirmat, chap. xi, lix.
[174] A Roman measure of capacity, equal to a little more than half a liter.
[175] The origin of the theriac, according to what Galen writes in his book De antidotis, is to be traced back to Mithridates, King of Pontus, who lived from the year 132 to the year 63 B.C. This king, patron of Art and Science, was, for his times, an eminent toxicologist. By making experiments on condemned criminals he sought to discover by what drugs the action of the various poisons, both mineral and vegetable, and those inoculated by the bites of poisonous animals might be counteracted. He afterward mixed the various antidotes together for the purpose of obtaining a remedy that might prove a preservative against the action of any poison whatever. This universal remedy, the receipt of which was carried to Rome by Pompey, the conqueror of that great king, was named mithridatium, after the name of him who had composed it. Andromachus modified the mithridate; he took away certain ingredients and added others, reducing the number of them from about eighty to sixty-five. The principal modification was that of introducing into the composition of this drug the flesh of the viper; wherefore, Galen is of the opinion that the theriac (so called from the Greek word therion, a noxious animal) was more efficacious than the mithridate against the bite of the viper. The theriac still exists in the French pharmacopeia, although considerably simplified. In every 4 grams it contains 5 centigrams of opium.
[176] A species of solanaceæ of the Physalis genus, probably the Physalis alkekengi.
[177] Galeni de compositione medicamentorum secundum locos, liber v.
[178] J. R. Duval, Recherches historiques sur l’art du dentiste chez les anciens, Paris, 1808, p. 19. (See Carabelli, p. 13.)
[179] Galen admits three kinds of nerves: soft or sensitive nerves, originating from the brain; hard or motor nerves, originating from the spinal marrow; medial nerves, motor-sensitive, originating from the medulla oblongata.
[180] Galen distinguishes seven pairs of cerebral nerves; his third pair corresponds to the trigeminus.