The medicine and doctors of Horace / by Eugene F. Cordell.

Date:
[1901?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The medicine and doctors of Horace / by Eugene F. Cordell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    mends it as a laxative. It is still embraced in onr materia [239] medica, having an agreeable sonr taste (due to acid oxalate of potassium) and valuable antiscorbutic properties. Hellebore was in great repute in the treatment of insanity. According to Pliny,' it will cure paralysis of the insane ( paralyticus msaniens expelling bile, faeces and mucus and with these the melancholy humor. The same author states that the illustrious tribune, Drusus, was cured by it of epilepsy. Celsus does not mention it. The plant was found in great abundance on the island of Anticyra, in the Aegean Sea, and thither wealthy patients with mental disorders were sent to undergo courses of treatment with it. Hellebore (known as Helleborus Orientalis) is still found growing in the Island of Anticyra. It is distinct from the black hellebore, which is also foimd in Greece, though probably possessing similar properties. The dbrotanum (southernwood) was an evergreen plant, of [240] very bitter taste; both leaves and seed were employed and were considered by Pliny and others to be highly useful in diseases of the nerves, coughs, lumbago, urinary difficulties, poisoning, etc. Celsus recommends it as a diuretic in dropsy. In the last edition of the U. S. D., the leaves of Artemisia Ahrotanum, L., or southernwood, are said to have a fragrant odor and a warm, bitter, nauseous taste and to have been formerly employed as a tonic, deobstruent and anthelmintic. It is allied to the Artemisia Absinthium, from which the in- toxicant absinth is derived. The cicuta (hemlock) was a painless poison, producing nar- cotism with coldness of the body. Among the Athenians, those condemned to death were compelled to drink its juice; thus perished Socrates and Phocion. It is mentioned twice by Celsus. The effects of the modern conium which is sup- posed to be identical with it, are anodyne, soporific and anti- spasmodic. After toxic doses, the muscular prostration is extreme, the eyelids drop from weakness, the voice is sup- pressed, the pupils dilated, the light almost lost; conscious- ness is usually preserved to the last and life is finally ex- 93 Lib. XXV, cb. [230]