Chapter II

POISONS USED BY THE EGYPTIANS, GREEKS, ROMANS, HEBREWS, CHINESE AND
HINDUS IN ANCIENT TIMES

Many mysterious poisons are referred to in the legends and sagas that have come down to us from the dim ages of the past.

The earliest deity associated with poisons is Gula, whose name was revered by the Sumerians about 4500 B.C. She was known as “The Mistress of Charms and Spells,” the “Terrible Goddess,” “Controller of noxious poisons,” and was the deified form of the sorceress. Medical schools at Borsippa and Sirpurra were under her protection. She is described on a cuneiform tablet, said to have been written about 1400 B.C., as:—

“Gula, the woman, the mighty one, the prince of all women.
His seed with a poison not curable
Without issue; in his body may she place
All the days of his life,
Blood and pus like water may he pour forth.”

Ages ago a mysterious country in the far North was supposed to be ruled and dominated by sorcerers and kindred beings, all of whom were said to be children of the Sun. Here dwelt Æëtes, Perses, Hecate, Medea and Circe. To Hecate is ascribed the foundation of sorcery and the discovery of poisonous plants. Her knowledge of magic and spells was supposed to be unequalled. She transmitted her power to Medea, whose wonderful exploits are described in early Greek mythology, and who by her magic arts subdued the dragon that guarded the golden fleece and assisted Jason to perform his famous deeds. Hecate’s garden is described by the poets as being enclosed in lofty walls with thrice-folding doors of ebony, which were guarded by terrible forms, and only those who bore the leavened rod of expiation and the concealed conciliatory offering could enter. Towering above was the temple of the dread sorceress, where the ghastly sacrifices were offered and all kinds of horrible spells worked.

According to tradition, after Medea’s adventures with Jason she returned with him to Thessaly, and on their arrival they found Æson, the father of Jason, and Pelias, his uncle, who had usurped the throne, both old and decrepit. Medea was requested to exert her magical powers to make the old man young again, an operation which she is said to have speedily performed by infusing the juice of certain potent plants into his veins, and thus foreshadowing a recent operation for rejuvenating the old by means of injecting the solution of a certain gland.

Medea became the wife of Ægeus, king of Athens, whose son, Theseus, had been brought up in exile and who resolved to return to Athens to claim his rights. Medea, hearing of this, and for some reason greatly resenting it, prepared a poisoned goblet and gave it to Ægeus at an entertainment which he gave to Theseus, with the intent that he should hand it to his son. At the critical moment the king cast his eyes on the sword of Theseus, recognizing it as the weapon which he had given to his son when a child, directing that it should be brought by him when a man as a token of the mystery of his birth. The king at once threw the goblet from him and embraced his son, and as tradition has it, Medea fled from Athens in a chariot drawn by dragons.

Circe’s charms were more seductive and romantic. She is said to have been endowed with exquisite beauty, which she employed to allure travellers to her territory. On their landing she entreated and enticed them to drink from her enchanted cup, but no sooner was the draught swallowed than the unfortunate stranger was turned into a hog and driven by the magician to her sty, where he still retained the consciousness of what he had been and lived to repent his folly.

These mythological stories tend to show that some knowledge of poisonous substances existed at a very remote period.

In ancient Egypt a certain crude scientific knowledge probably existed from a period of great antiquity, and some of the earliest deities, especially the god Thoth, are associated with the genesis of science, arts and magic. Thoth is reputed to have been the author of six divine works dealing with these subjects. He was identified by the Greeks with Hermes Trismegistos, or the “Thrice Great,” to whom they attributed the foundation of the science of chemistry. Menes, the earliest Egyptian king of whom we have record, was said to have studied the properties of plants, and other Egyptian rulers cultivated the art of medicine, probably through the priests, who were the chief practitioners in the art of healing in those early times. They apparently gathered knowledge of certain poisonous bodies, both vegetable and mineral. They were learned in the art of alchemy and initiated votaries into its mysteries in their schools of science. The secrets taught were forbidden to be revealed under penalty of death, and therefore, probably, many of the discoveries they made were lost, but there is sufficient evidence to prove that they were conversant with crude arsenic, opium, mandrake, lead and other poisonous substances. This knowledge was probably handed down by oral tradition as part of the priestcraft for centuries before it was committed to writing.

The earliest known record of the actual preparation of a substance of a lethal nature is mentioned in an Egyptian papyrus, now in the Louvre, in which the following sentence, as translated by Duteuil, occurs: “Pronounce not the name of I.A.O. under the penalty of the peach.”

The Egyptians were probably the first to practise distillation, and from the stones of certain fruits they apparently discovered that they could extract a powerful poison which we now know as prussic acid.

The Hebrews in ancient times were also acquainted with the use of poisonous substances. Arsenic was known to them as “Sam,” aconite as “Boschka,” and they are said to have known of the poisonous properties of ergot which they called “Son.”

Coming to times of early culture in Greece, the knowledge of poisons had made a considerable advance. The Greeks knew of arsenic in the form of realgar and orpiment, antimony, mercury, gold, silver, copper and lead, and they probably had a knowledge of their poisonous properties, as they recommend hot oil as an antidote in a case of poisoning and mention other means to promote vomiting and prevent a poison being absorbed into the system.

Of the vegetable poisons known and used by the Greeks hemlock appears to have been chiefly employed. They looked upon suicide under certain conditions as a noble act, and sanctioned the use of the poison cup by those who desired to terminate their existence on earth. They also employed poison as a means of execution. The State Poison was chiefly composed of a species of hemlock called cicuta, the seeds of which were pounded in a mortar as the first step in preparation. Several of the early historians, including Plato, describe the action of the plant used, but its identification has long been a matter of dispute. From all accounts the poison draught does not appear to have been either very powerful or rapid in its action, as a second dose was often found to be necessary before death ensued.

At the death of Phocion it is recorded that “having drunk all the hemlock juice, the quantity was found insufficient and the executioner refused to prepare more unless he was paid twelve drachmas.” When Seneca also wished to end his life, a friend and physician, at his request, procured for him some of the Athenian State Poison, but when he took it the effect was inadequate.

The circumstances attending the death of Socrates, which happened in the year 402 B.C., are thus recounted by Plato:

“When the fatal cup was brought he asked what it was necessary for him to do. ‘Nothing more,’ replied the servant of the judges, ‘than as soon as you have drunk of the draught, to walk about until you find your legs become weary and afterwards lie down upon your bed.’

“He took the cup without any emotion or change in his countenance and, looking at him in a steady and assured manner,

“‘Well!’ said he, ‘what say you of this drink?’

“‘May a libation be made out of it?’

“Upon being told that there was only enough for one dose, ‘At least,’ said he, ‘we may pray to the gods as is our duty and implore them to make our exit from this world and our last stage happy, which is what I most ardently beg of them.’

“Having spoken these words he remained silent for some time and then drank off the whole draught.

“After reproving his friends for indulging in loud lamentations, he continued to walk about as he had been directed until he found his legs grow weary. Then he lay down upon his back and the person who had administered the poison went up to him and examined for a little time his feet and legs, and then squeezing his foot strongly, asked whether he felt him? Socrates replied that he did not. He then did the same to his legs, and proceeding upwards in this way, showed us that he was cold and stiff, and he afterwards approached him and said to us that when the effect of the poison reached the heart Socrates would depart. And now the lower parts of his body were cold, when he uncovered himself and said, which were his last words, ‘Crito, we owe Æsculapius a cock. Pay the debt and do not forget it.’

“‘It shall be done,’ replied Crito. ‘But consider whether you have anything else to say.’

“Socrates answered in the negative, but was in a short time convulsed. The man then uncovered him; his eyes were fixed and when Crito observed this he closed his eyelids and his mouth.”

The poison which is given the general name of φάρμακον by Plato, is termed κώνειον by Xenophon in relating the execution of Theramenes, whose death occurred but forty years after Socrates. The same word is again used by Plutarch in describing the State Poison by which Phocion fell a victim to the Athenians in the year B.C. 317.

Aristophanes, who was contemporary with Socrates, furnishes further evidence that the State Poison was commonly known in Athens by the name κώνειον, for in “The Frogs,” which was acted many years before his death, the following allusion to the poison occurs:—

HERCULES: Then there is a short and beaten road—that by the mortar.

BACCHUS: Speakest thou of hemlock, then?

HERCULES: Most certainly.

BACCHUS: A journey cold and winterly forsooth, for it immediately congeals the shins.

Pliny and the other Latin authors use the word cicuta when alluding to the State Poison of the Greeks. Dioscorides (_circa_ A.D. 40) in his work on Materia Medica, describing the cicuta, says it has a knotted stem and likens it to fennel. “Its branches shoot with umbels at their summits, while it bears a whitish flower with a heavy smell and a fruit like that of anise, but whiter.” From this it was evidently an umbelliferous plant. Pliny refers to the spots on the stem, which further identifies the plant as the _Conium maculatum_, or hemlock.

According to Sibthorpe, _Conium maculatum_ grows in various parts of Greece and in the vicinity of Athens, and no other poisonous umbelliferous plant grows in that country. This seems conclusive evidence that the cicuta of the Greeks was the plant we know as _Conium maculatum_.

In addition to this, Pliny states that the cicuta (described by him as the Athenian State Poison) grows in Attica and at Megara, and describes the seeds and leaves as particularly fatal when drunk in wine, the former producing the most deadly effects.

The clinical effects of the drug as graphically described by Plutarch are identical with those produced by conium or hemlock. He mentions the coldness of the extremities, concluding with its influence on the brain, which would account for the strangeness of the last words of Socrates, referring to a sacrifice to the deity who presided over the Medical Art.

It is probable that opium was sometimes combined with hemlock, judging from the statement of Theophrastus, who was born only twenty-eight years after the death of Socrates.

He says: “Thrasyas, the Mantinian, stated that by making use of the juices of cicuta, the poppy and such other things, he had discovered a substance which occasioned death easily and without pain, and so portable and minute that the weight of a δραχμή (about sixty grains) was sufficient and absolutely irremediable.” Further, that it was capable of being preserved for any time without alteration. That a powerful preparation and certain in effect was required at the time of the death of Socrates, is evident from the caution of the executioner, who states that none of the contents of the cup could be spared. Judging from all accounts, and the evidence afforded by the description of its action, there seems little doubt that the Athenian State Poison consisted of hemlock, probably in the form of the concentrated juice of the leaves, to which a proportion of poppy juice was added to render its action more certain.

A curious custom prevailed among the inhabitants of the island of Ceos in which poison played a part. When the old men found they were no longer of service to the State and began to feel life a burden, they assembled at a banquet of death and, with their heads crowned with chaplets, cheerfully drained the poison cup. A relic of this ancient custom was once practised at Marseilles, where a poison was kept by the public authorities, of which hemlock was an ingredient. A dose of this was allowed by the magistrates to anyone who could bring a sufficient reason why he should deserve death. Valerius Maximus observes, “This custom came from Greece, particularly from the island of Ceos, where I saw an example of it in a woman of great quality who, having lived very happy ninety years, obtained leave to die in this way, lest by living longer she should happen to see a change of her good fortune.”

The reputed poisonous property of bull’s blood is recorded by various ancient writers, and it is stated that Æson, Midas King of Phrygia, Plutarch and Themistocles the Athenian leader employed it as a means of suicide. It is probable that some strong poisonous vegetable substance such as cicuta was mixed with it.

The symptoms and signs which were accepted in early times as evidence of poisoning are sufficiently crude to inspire us with considerable doubt as to the reliability of many of the cases narrated. That there were certain post-mortem appearances which were generally considered as evidence of death by poison is recorded by Cicero, Tacitus and other early writers. In the account given by Suetonius of the death of Germanicus, who was poisoned by Piso at the instance of Tiberius, they are enumerated as “livid spots on the face and body, and foam at the mouth.” It was further generally believed that worms could not generate in the bodies of persons who had died from the effect of poison.

Dioscorides throws a further light on the poisons of antiquity in his work on Materia Medica, which for fifteen centuries or more remained the chief authority on that subject. He mentions cantharides, copper, mercury, lead and arsenic. Among the animal poisons he includes toads, salamanders, poisonous snakes, a peculiar kind of honey, and the blood of the ox, probably after it had decomposed. The sea-hare is frequently alluded to by the ancient Greeks, and was evidently regarded by them as capable of producing a very powerful poison. Domitian is said to have administered it to Titus. It is supposed to have been one of the genus Aplysia, among the gasteropods, and is described by the old writers as a dreadful object which was neither to be touched nor looked upon with safety.

Among the poisonous plants enumerated by Dioscorides are the poppy, black and white hellebore, henbane, mandragora, hemlock, elaterium, the juices of a species of euphorbia, and apocynae. The black and white hellebore were known to the Romans and used by them as an insecticide, and Pliny states that the Gauls used a preparation of veratrum to poison their arrows. Arsenic, in the form of the native realgar and orpiment, was employed by the Greeks as a caustic and for removing hair from the face; but no mention is made of it being used internally or as a poison. Copper, mercury, and lead were also used in their medical treatment. The study of poisons was forbidden for a long period, and Galen mentions the fact that only a few philosophers dared treat the subjects in their works.

Theophrastus states that the poison of most subtle operation of his time was extracted from wolf’s bane (aconite); no antidote had been discovered to this poison and it was a capital crime to have in one’s possession the plant from which it was extracted. He tells us that in Ethiopia “there grows a certain deadly root, with which the people smear their arrows,” and “In Scythia there are others some of which kill at once those who eat them, some after an interval shorter or longer, so that in the latter case men have a lingering death.” He thus relates the story of one Thrasyas of Mantineia, who had discovered

“a poison which produces an easy and painless end; he used the juices of hemlock, poppy, and other such herbs, so compounded as to make a dose of conveniently small size, weighing only somewhat less than a quarter of an ounce. For the effects of this compound there is absolutely no cure, and it will keep any length of time without losing its virtue at all. He used to gather his hemlock, not just anywhere, but at Susa, or some other cold and shady spot; and so too with the other ingredients. His pupil Alexias was also clever and no less skilful than his master, being also versed in the science of medicine generally.

“At last Eudemus, the vendor of drugs, who had a high reputation in his business, after making a wager that he would experience no effect before sunset, drank quite a moderate dose, and it proved too strong for his power of resistance: while the Chian Eudemus took a draught of hellebore and was not purged. And on one occasion he said that in a single day he took two and twenty draughts in the market-place as he sat at his stall, and did not leave the place till it was evening, and then he went home and had a bath and dined, and was not sick. However, this man was able to hold out because he had provided himself with an antidote; for he said that after the seventh dose he took a draught of tart vinegar with pumice-stone dust in it, and later on took a draught of the same in wine in like manner; and that the virtue of the pumice-stone dust is so great that if one puts it into a boiling pot of wine it causes it to cease to boil, not merely for the moment, but altogether, clearly because it has a drying effect and it catches the vapour and passes it off. It was by this antidote that Eudemus was able to contain himself in spite of the large quantity of hellebore which he took.”

Livy records that about 200 B.C. several persons of distinction died in a mysterious way in Rome. At first it was thought that they had succumbed to plague, but Quintus Fabius Maximus is said to have been informed by a female slave, that the persons had been poisoned and that she could reveal the names of the guilty. The matter was laid before the consuls and the Senate. The stipulated pardon was granted, and, guided by the slave, the officers of justice are said to have discovered the poisoners, among whom were women belonging to the noblest families of Rome. Twenty in all were seized; two of them, Cornelia and Serpi, undertook to speak for the rest, and declared that the drugs they had prepared were medicinal. They were told that to prove this, the preparation they had made would be tried on themselves and to this test they agreed. After drinking the draughts it is said they all died. One hundred and seventy more of the noblest ladies of Rome were seized, on similar information and condemned, and before that day, says Livy, there was never an inquest on poisoning. To mark this memorable example of what had never been done before, it was resolved to have a nail driven into the temple of Jupiter. A dictator was appointed for that mystic duty, a master of the horse, and he drove a nail into the temple of Jupiter, after which a stop was put to poisoning for two or three centuries.

Unfortunately, however, the method of taking life by poisons did not die out, but apparently increased and became very common in Rome under the early Emperors. Among these nefarious practitioners, mostly apparently women, was Locusta, who lived in the time of Nero. She had been condemned to death for a case proved against her, but her life was spared, so that she might use her nefarious methods in the service of the State. She was employed by Agrippina to poison the Emperor Claudius and to her is attributed the death of Britannicus, whom Nero wished to remove from his path. Britannicus was dining with his brother and the Imperial family, and as was the custom of the Romans, hot water was brought round by slaves to the table, the water being heated to varied degrees to suit the taste of the drinker. The cup of water handed to Britannicus proved to be too hot and he gave it back to the attendant slave, who added cold water to it, which addition is supposed to have contained the poison, for no sooner had he swallowed the draught than he fell back, gasping for breath. His mother, Agrippina, and Octavia, his sister, became terror-stricken, but Nero, unmoved, calmly remarked that he often had such fits in his youth without danger, and the banquet proceeded.

A curious tradition which has survived from early times, and still entertained by the ignorant, is, that if a body after a sudden death rapidly decomposes, it is to be attributed to the effects of poison, thus when Britannicus died it is recorded that the Romans attempted to conceal his discoloured face by the use of paint.

Locusta appears to have been appointed a kind of unofficial poisoner-in-ordinary to the Emperor, one of her duties being to train pupils so that her secrets should not be lost. She was encouraged to experiment with her knowledge on slaves, who were liberally supplied for the purpose.

The Persians in ancient times are said to have studied with care the art of poisoning. Plutarch and Ctesias relate that Queen Parysatis, the mother of Cyrus the younger, during the reign of Artaxerxes II (405–359 B.C.), poisoned her daughter-in-law Statira by means of a knife, one side of the blade being smeared with venom. A bird was set before the two queens at supper and was divided by the poisoned knife; Parysatis ate her half with impunity, but Statira died. Such is the story, but there is no evidence to corroborate it. The Carthaginians were apparently also skilled in the art of poisons, and it is related that they killed Regulus, the Roman general, by this means.

With reference to the use of poisons in Persia in early times the poet Nizámi, in his _Treasury of Secrets_, relates a story of rivalry between two court physicians which finally reached such a point that they challenged one another to a duel or ordeal by poison. It was agreed that each should take a poison supplied by his antagonist, of which he should then endeavour to counteract the effects by a suitable antidote. The first prepared a poisonous draught “the fierceness of which would have melted black stone”; his rival drained the cup and at once took an antidote which rendered it innocuous. It was now his turn, and he picked a rose from the garden, breathed an incantation over it, and bade his antagonist smell it, whereupon the latter at once fell down dead. That his death was due simply to fear and not to any poisonous or magical property of the rose is clearly indicated by the poet:

“Through this rose which the spell-breather had given him
Fear overmastered the foe and he gave up the ghost.
That one by treatment expelled the poison from his body,
While this one died of a rose from fear.”

An incident which happened to the army led by Mark Antony against the Parthians, and described by Plutarch, is said to have been caused by aconite. At one time during the expedition, the soldiers, being very short of provisions, sought for roots and pot-herbs and met one that brought on madness and death. “The eater immediately lost all memory and would busy himself in turning over every stone he met with as if on some important pursuit. The camp was full of unhappy men digging up and removing stones, till at last they were carried off by bilious vomiting.” Whole numbers, says Plutarch, perished, and the Parthians still continued to harass them. Antony is said to have frequently exclaimed: “Oh! the ten thousand!” alluding to the army which Xenophon led in retreat both a longer way and through more numerous conflicts and yet led in safety.

There is a story told of Alexander the Great that after crossing the Cydenus, he was seized with a fever and was warned by Parmenio in a letter not to take the medicine which his physician offered to him for fear of poison. The physician’s name was Philip, and Alexander so trusted him that he gave him the letter to read, scanning his face meanwhile. The calm air of the physician satisfied the ailing conqueror and assured him that he might safely drink the potion.

The death of Alexander the Great, like that of many other monarchs, is ascribed by some historians to poison, but from Littré’s investigations it would appear that the great Emperor, debilitated by his drinking habits, contracted malarial fever in the marshes round Babylon and died after an illness of eleven days.

In India and the Far East, poisons have been used from very early times, not only for the destruction of human life, but also for destroying animals; arsenic, aconite, opium and many other poisonous mineral and vegetable substances being employed for the purpose.

The Hindus have many curious traditions concerning poisons, and like the Western nations attribute to some the property of causing a lingering death, which can be controlled by the will of the poisoner. The knowledge of the substances employed is guarded with great secrecy and even now they are not fully known. Blyth mentions a mysterious substance known in India, called _Mucor phycomyces_, which is said to be a species of fungus. When the spores are administered in warm water they are said to attach themselves to the throat and speedily develop and grow, with the result that in a few weeks the respiratory organs are attacked and the victim is rapidly carried off as if by a fatal disease. Nine active or virulent poisonous substances are mentioned by the ancient writers on Hindu medicine. Some of them are at present still unidentified, while others, there is little doubt, are varieties of aconite, also opium, ganja (_Cannabis indica_), datura stramonium, the roots of _Nerium odorum_, and _Gloriosa superba_, the milky juices of _Calatropis gigantea_ and _Euphorbia neriifolia_, white arsenic, orpiment and the poison venom from snakes.

Most of the early Sanscrit MSS. are written on paper prepared with orpiment to preserve them from the ravages of insects. Three varieties of datura yield atropine, a powerful poison. These plants were frequently employed in India for putting a sudden end to domestic quarrels, and to this practice may be traced the origin of the custom of “Suttee,” or widow-burning, as the Brahmins found from experience that by making a wife’s life co-terminous with the husband’s, the average husband lived considerably longer. It is worthy of note that the diamond was celebrated as a medicinal agent by the Hindus, who prepared it by roasting it seven times and then reducing it to powder. It was given in doses of one grain as a powerful tonic.

Both the Chinese and Japanese, from ancient times down to the present day, have paid a great deal of attention to the study of poisons. From an early period the Chinese are said to have used gold leaf for suicidal purposes, and at the present time when a high official puts an end to his life it is officially announced that he has “taken gold leaf.”

At the time of the death of the Emperor Kwang Su, the cause of which was enveloped in mystery, it was rumoured that he did not die from natural causes, but committed suicide by request. For some time previous to his death, it is said that the Emperor had led a miserable existence and was simply a ruler in name. The Dowager-Empress, Tzu Hsi, had resolved that her nephew should precede her to the tomb. She therefore convoked the Grand Council and as a result of this conclave it was announced that Kwang Su was dangerously ill from heart disease, but the offers of the foreign Legations to send their medical officers were firmly declined.

According to the story “at ten o’clock next morning the Chief Eunuch, with two confidential attendants, entered the Little Palace where the Emperor was confined, and after having ordered everybody out of the room he declared to Kwang Su that the Empress was dying, and that it was needful for him to predecease her.

“He then deposited on a table, pills of opium, a packet of gold leaf, and some yellow silk plaited cord, promising to return in three hours’ time. If he found that neither the opium nor the gold leaf had been used it would be his painful duty to call upon the two assistants to strangle him with the silken cord. Meanwhile, the two executioners would watch the door of the room. It should be explained that a piece of fine gold-leaf is placed over the lips, and, the breath being deeply drawn, it is inhaled and obstructs the glottis, causing immediate suffocation.”

When the Chief Eunuch returned at one o’clock, he found the opium pills had disappeared and Kwang Su was stretched unconscious on his couch, but still breathing. It was stated that he died at five o’clock, and the three-year-old Pou Yi was at once brought to the Imperial Palace and proclaimed Emperor.

The Japanese are said to import from China certain powerful poisons prepared by the Chinese medicine-men, the secret of which is only known to them. They are thought to be a mixture of both animal and mineral substances which have a very deadly effect, though their exact composition is yet undetermined.