Shen Nung - 2696 BCE
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Ebers Papyrus - 1500
BCE
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The oldest well preserved medical
document from ancient Egyptian record dated from approximately
1500 BC contains 110 pages on anatomy and physiology, toxicology,
spells, and treatment recorded on papyrus.
More
Information on Egyptian Medicine and the Smith & Ebers
Papyrus.
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Gula
1400 BCE
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Sumerian texts refer to a female deity,
Gula. This mythological figure was associated with charms,
spells and poisons. Also called the "Goddess of Healing"
or "the great physician".
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Homer
850 BCE
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Homer (about 850 BCE) Wrote of the use of
arrows poisoned with venom in the epic tale of The Odyssey
and The Iliad. The Greek toxikon is arrow
poison.
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Socrates (470-399
BCE)
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399 BC Death of Socrates by
Hemlock
Socrates was charged with religious heresy and corrupting
the morals of local youth.
The active chemical used was the alkaloid coniine
which, when ingested causes paralysis, convulsions and potentially
death.
More
information on Socrates & more
"The unexamined life is not worth living" |
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Hippocrates
(460-377 BCE)
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Hippocrates was a Greek physician
born in 460 BC on the island of Cos, Greece. He became known
as the founder or father of modern medicine and was regarded
as the greatest physician of his time .A person of many talents
he named cancer using the Greek word karkinos (crab) because
of the creeping, clutching crab-claw appearance of cancerous
tissue spreading into other tissue areas. He moved medicine
toward science and away from superstition He was also noted
for his found of an oath of ethics still used today.
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information |
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Mithridates
VI (131-63 BCE)
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Mithridates VI was from a young
age period of being poisoned. He went beyond the art of poisons
to systematically study how to prevent and counteract poisons.
He used both himself and prisoners as “guinea pigs”
to test his poisons and antidotes. He consumed mixtures of
poisons to protect himself, which is the origin of the term
“mithridatic”.
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information & more
Ralph
Waldo Emerson poem on Mithridates
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Ralph Waldo Emerson – Mithridates - (reference)
I cannot spare water or wine,
Tobacco-leaf, or poppy, or rose;
From the earth-poles to the Line,
All between that works or grows,
Every thing is kin of mine.
Give me agates for my meat,
Give me cantharids to eat,
From air and ocean bring me foods,
From all zones and altitudes.
From all natures, sharp and slimy,
Salt and basalt, wild and tame,
Tree, and lichen, ape, sea-lion,
Bird and reptile be my game.
Ivy for my fillet band,
Blinding dogwood in my hand,
Hemlock for my sherbet cull me,
And the prussic juice to lull me,
Swing me in the upas boughs,
Vampire-fanned, when I carouse.
Too long shut in strait and few,
Thinly dieted on dew,
I will use the world, and sift it,
To a thousand humors shift it,
As you spin a cherry.
O doleful ghosts, and goblins merry,
O all you virtues, methods, mights;
Means, appliances, delights;
Reputed wrongs, and braggart rights;
Smug routine, and things allowed;
Minorities, things under cloud!
Hither! take me, use me, fill me,
Vein and artery, though ye kill me;
God! I will not be an owl,
But sun me in the Capitol.
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Sulla 82 BCE
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Lex Cornelia de sicariis
et veneficis – law against poisoning people including
prisoners; could not buy, sell or possess poisons.
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information and more |
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Cleopatra
– Queen of Egypt (69-30 BCE)
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Queen of Egypt - Experimented
with strychnine and other poisons on prisoners and poor. Committed
suicide with Egyptian Asp (Egyptian cobra sometimes used in
executions).
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information |
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Aulus Cornelius Celsus
(25 BCE - 50AD)
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Celsus promoted cleanliness
and recommended the washing of wounds with an antiseptic such
as vinegar. He published De Medicina which contained information
on diet, pharmacy, surgery and preparation of medical opiods.
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information
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Pedanius
Dioscorides (40-90 CE)
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Greek pharmacologist and physician in the
time of Nero. Wrote “De Materia Medica” basis
for the modern pharmacopeia. Used up to 1600 CE
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information |
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Mount Vesuvius Erupted
August 24th 79 CE
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City of Pompeii & Herculaneum
destroyed and buried
by ash. Pliny the Elder suffocated by volcanic gases.
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information
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