Note 57 — HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.

This preparation consists of 72 ingredients, which are arranged under 13 heads—viz. Acria, of which there are 5 species. Amara, of which there are 8. Styptica vulgo Astringentia, 5 in number. Aromatica Exotica, 14. Aromatica Indigena, 10. Aromatica ex Umbelliferis, 7. Resinosa et Balsama, 8. Grave-Olentia, 6. Virosa, seu quæ Narcosin inducunt, under which head there is but one species, viz. Opium. Terrea Insipida et Inertia; this comprises only the Lemnian Earth. Gummosa, Amylacea, &c. 4 species. Dulcia, liquorice and honey. Vinum, Spanish.

Upon no principle of combination can this heterogeneous farrago be vindicated. It has, however, enjoyed the confidence of physicians for many ages, and is therefore entitled to some notice. It was supposed to have been invented by Mithridates, the famous king of Pontus, the receipt for which was said to have been found among his papers after his defeat by Pompey, at which time it was published in Rome under the title of ‘Antidotum Mithridatum;’ but the probability is, says Dr. Heberden, that Mithridates was as much a stranger to his own antidote as several eminent physicians have since been to the medicines that are daily advertised under their names. It was asserted, that whoever took a proper quantity in the morning, was insured from poison during the whole of that day, (Galen de Antidot. Lib. 1.) and it was further stated, that Mithridates himself was so fortified against all baneful drugs, that none would produce any effect when he attempted to destroy himself. (Celsus, lib. 5. c. 23.) In the course of ages it has undergone numerous alterations. According to Celsus, who first described it, it contained only 35 simples; Andromachus, Physician to Nero, added vipers, and increased the number of ingredients to 75; and when thus reformed, he called it γαλήνη—but in Trajan’s time it obtained the name of Theriaca, either from the vipers in it, or from its supposed effect in curing the bites of venomous animals. Damocrates gave a receipt for it in Greek Iambics, which has been preserved by Galen. It appears then that its composition has hardly remained the same for a hundred years; it is, says Dr. Heberden, a farrago, that has no better title to the name of Mithridates than, as it so well resembles, the numerous undisciplined forces of a barbarous king, made up of a dissonant crowd collected from different countries, mighty in appearance, but in reality, an ineffective multitude, that only hinder each other. ANTIOPIAKA, by W. Heberden, M. D. 1745.