Note 17 — PART I.—INTRODUCTORY.
Reading edition
De Rerum Proprietaribus.
[18] In the sixteenth century it was not considered proper to write upon poisons. Jerôme Cardan declared a poisoner worse than a brigand, “and that is why I have refused not only to teach or experiment on such things, but even to know them.”—J. Cardan: De Subtilitate. Basel, 1558.