History of Medicine

Abstract

TWO interesting lectures connected with the history of medicine were delivered at the Wellcome Medical Historical Museum at the end of last month by Sir William Willcox and Dr. A. P. Cawadias respectively. The former, who chose the subject of secret poisoning for his address, stated that the recent excavations in Mesopotamia have shown that an interest in poisons could be traced back to about 4500 B.C., when a goddess named Gula was worshipped by the Sumerians under the name of The Mistress of Charms and Spells and Controller of Noxious Poisons. The first scientific student of poisons, however, appears to have been Mithridates, king of Pontus, who not only conducted toxicological experiments on condemned criminals and others, but also wrote a book on the subject and invented a universal antidote which, according to Celsus, consisted of thirty-six ingredients. It is recorded that when he wished to commit suicide by poison, rather than surrender to the Roman invader, his constitution had become so inured to various poisons that his attempt was unsuccessful and he had to ask a mercenary to dispatch him with a sword. His name survives in modern scientific nomenclature, in the term ‘mithridatism’ which signifies immunity to poisons, bacterial and otherwise, acquired by gradually increasing doses of the poison itself.