Historical notes on poisoning.

  • David Ferrier
Date:
[cbetween 1800 and 1899?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Historical notes on poisoning. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    of philtres, or love-potions, which were administered under the idea that the affections of the person so practised on would be gained by the individual who employed them. Though the means adopted were often ridiculous enough, and partook more of the character of sorcery and incantation, yet in many cases they were not of the same harmless nature, and the evil effects which frequently resulted assumed such an importance in the eye of the law, that, even at an early period, the administration of such philtres was looked upon in the same light as more serious attempts at poisoning, and was punished as a capital offence. The idea involved in the use of philtres is no doubt, to a cer- tain extent, based on sound physiological principles, and was probably suggested by an attentive observation of the habits of the lower ani- mals ; and it still leads to crime, for we yet occasionally meet with cases in which poisonous substances are employed for a similar purpose by vile and deluded miscreants. There is great difficulty in ascertain- ing the true nature of many of the substances to which the ancients ascribed such virtues, and in estimating how much truth there is in the narratives which have come dovra to us. Many learned commentaries have been written on the dudaim, or mandrakes, which were held by the Jews of old in high repute as an aphrodisiac, and also as a cure for sterility—an opinion strengthened by the results which apparently followed its use in Rachel's case. Pro- bably the inquiries have been stimulated by the desire to rediscover a remedy which would be of such immense value to obstetricians ! The most likely of the many suppositions which have been advanced re- specting this plant is, that it belonged to the natural order of the Atro- pacece. This opinion would accord best with the descriptions which we read elsewhere of the effects which resulted from the administration of philtres ; viz., a kind of frenzied delirium, such as might be produced by some one of the deliriant narcotics belonging to this group. In all probability, it is to some such plant, in its connexion with philtres, that Shakespeare refers when he speaks of The insane root Which takes the reason prisoner. Among the Greeks and Romans, Medea was universally regarded as the greatest adept in the art of preparing philtres; and hence the term Medeides herbcc''' was used by Horace and Ovid to designate such substances generally. Next in reputation stand the Thessalian women, who may be supposed to have learnt the art from Medea, and who at- tained great celebrity in all that related to poisoning, sorcery, and in-
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