Now to return from where my writing had digressed, it seemed worthwhile to investigate whether this venom bearing liquid which derives from the dental membranes is truly that which is conveyed to it (as believes, along with many others, Baldo Angelo Abati(88), and among the more recent, the most erudite Samuel Bociarto(89), in his extremely learned 'Geographia Sacra') from the conserve of bile by means of some very small conduits which come to the head. Indeed, facing this again and again, I furrowed my brows
"Come il vecchio sartor fa nella cruna,"(90)
but, it was not possible, however, for me to see this. Therefore, I hold the firmest opinion that the viper does not possess channels of bile of this kind going to the head, inasmuch as is imagined by the devout mediations of some writers. I am persuaded in this by the tint of the bile, coloured a rather vivid green that ought to make it even easier to visualise. I am persuaded, again, by the consideration that the bile, when judged by taste, has a sharp and rough bitterness, whereas that other fluid, which pours from the dental membranes, has an insipid sweetness, and, as said above, quite alongside that of the oil of sweet almonds. Besides which, there can be seen to exist some minute canals which run from the liver for the bile, and made to allow the bile fluid to flow from the liver to the gall-bladder, and not from the bladder to the parts which are superior; and since it can be deduced with full certainty, if when the gall bladder is pressed it is recognised that it is impossible for the biliary fluid to be in a position to exit upwards, but that, on the contrary, when it is pressed downwards, little by little, all of it is seen to drip into the intestines.
If I did not appreciate the embarrassment of writing, without other proof, that which occurs in my imagination, I would say that the yellow-coloured fluid finds its way into the above-named dental membranes, perhaps, by no means other than the salivary conduits, newly rediscovered by the celebrated Thomas Wharton(91), and in this court, by Lorenzo Bellini(92), a gifted youth of the highest expectations, and demonstrated in other animals outside the human species, particularly, in deer, and in magpies; besides which there are two glands there, beneath the bottom of those membranes, found by me in all vipers. Do not capitalise on this thought of mine, however, because it is possible that it might be a chimera, like I consider to be a chimera the opinion of those who have said that that liquid in the mouth of a viper becomes venomous because, as reported by Aristotle(93), Pausania(94), and the author of 'De Theriaca ad Pisonem', the viper feeds itself on deadly plants, scorpions, crickets, caterpillars, and other poisonous larvae. I believe it to be a chimera, I say, because without qualifying what the viper eats, suffice it to say that it lives in its container for eight, nine, or more months without food, and even after such a long fast, is deadly in its bite. By contrast, Galen, in the treatise which he wrote to Panfiliano(95) on the use of the theriac, contends that it is more poisonous starved thus, then when taken afresh, and the author of 'De Theriaca ad Pisonem' believes that it is less impregnated with venom after it has been fed on these maggots. Moreover, experience confirms it. If a viper that has been in a container for a long period of time is caught, and is made to bite a chicken two or three times, with a view that, in biting, it discharged all the fluid contained in the two membranes, and the same viper is made to inflict a bite on another chicken, the second one will not die. Afterwards, if the viper is put back into its container and reviewed at the end of four, five or more days, and when seen to have the bottom of the membranes filled with the usual liquid, the viper is then made to bite again, it will result in death, even though it was starved for all of those days, and had not eaten any poisonous insects that might have led to it being able to create venom in the mouth.
However, what am I to say to you of the teeth? Many exceedingly small ones can be seen in the mouth of the viper, as much in the superior maxilla, as in the inferior. However, I shall not mention these now, wishing to speak only about the larger ones, called canines, of which how many the viper has, it is impossible to learn from books. Nicandro, the ancient Greek poet, who flourished at the time of Ptolemy the Seventh, and of Attalus, last King of Pergamon(96), said, that the male has two teeth, and the female has more than two of them, but without clarifying how many:
τοῦ μὲν ὑπὲρ κυνόδοντε δύο χροΐ τεκμαίρονται,
ιὸν ἐρευγόμενοι, πλέονες δέ τοι αἰὲν ἐχίδνης.(97)
It was to Nicandro, and to his Greek impressed commentary that adhered, from top to bottom, the author of the book of the theriac to Piso, Rasis, Avicenna, Attuario(98), and Giovanni Gorreo(99), in the notes to Nicandro. It was he who was followed, again, in large part, by the author of that Greek treatise, which bears the title 'ΔΙΟΣΚΟΡΙΔΟΥΣ ΠΕΡΙ ΑΝΤΙΦΑΡΜΑΚΩΝ' (The antidotary of Dioscorides). This little work, however, has not yet been printed, and is kept in Florence, in the famous Medici library of San Lorenzo, in the eighty-sixth repository, in that codex in which is the manuscript of the 'Commentaries' of Michele Efesio(100), 'On the parts of animals'. If I were permitted to pass judgment on that writing, I would say that it was falsely attributed by copyists to Dioscorides, and that it was, rather, the work of the Greek, Eutecnio Sofista(101), who compiled from the books by Nicandro the paraphrases, not yet given the light, but retained in the aforesaid library, in the above-mentioned codex of Michele Efesio. I am going to say that I do not believe I deceive myself, if I am not beguiled by the manner in which Eutecnio writes, or of him who might be the author of that paraphrasis, and to his characteristic and disorderly continuation of the order kept by Nicandro; apart from which the work does not keep to what the title promises all that well.
Aezio determined the number as two in the male, and four in the female(102). This sentiment of Aezio was shared by Isaac(103), Francesco Cavallo of Brescia(104), Zacuto, Mercuriale, Amato Lusitano, Francesco Sanchez(105), Gasparo Offmanno, and others of lesser repute,
Ch'a nominar perduta opra sarebbe.(106)
Paulo Egineta(107), and Ali Abate, see fit to mention only two, as many in the male, as in the female. Vincenzio Belluacense(108) says that there are three, Baldo Angelo Abati(109), and Veslingio(110), that there are four. Alberto Magno(111) affirms that the male viper has two teeth in the upper maxilla, and two in the lower one of that, corresponding to each other. Giovanni Battista Hodierna, in his careful and curious letter, 'De dente viperino', after having stated that the lesser teeth are forty-eight, when speaking of the greater ones, stays silent about their numbers. Marc'Aurelio Severino asserts having seen at least three, four, also five, and even six, in each one of the superior maxillae. Who should we believe? I shall tell you of what I have observed in more than three hundred vipers. Vipers of either sex only have two canine teeth with which they bite, stable and sound and, sprouting from the bone of the superior maxilla, one on each side, they are covered by the tunic of which I have spoken above, in a manner not dissimilar to that which I saw, myself, this year, in lions and cats, holding gloved, the nails in their paws. It is, nevertheless, true that within this tunic, at the roots of these aforesaid teeth, there are produced many, other, minor ones. I have counted up to seven of them for each tunic, and all united as in a cluster, like there sprout up in fields some small mushrooms at the roots of the major mushroom, unequal in size, but a smaller arrangement of the other, and not so tough, or so well-rooted in the jaws, as the major teeth. Thus, they are very minimally kept hold of, and when prodded, fall down very easily, whereas the larger teeth are not dislodged without force. If at times, which occurs also rarely, one of it is found equal to the larger, it should be borne in mind that one of the two totters and shakes, and is close to being shed. I say close to being shed because there are writers who learnedly state that the teeth of the viper every so often fall, and then regrow. These teeth are hollow inside, and canalised as far as its ultimate point. They have been visualised under the microscope by modern writers, and can be discerned also without a microscope when they are dry, because, slightly cracked, they cleave along the length, from root to the point, into two or three splinters, presenting to the eye the internal cavity, which was also observed by the ancients, especially Pliny(112), and the author of the theriac to Piso, when he wrote: "καὶ δὴ καὶ μάζας τινὰς ἐπιδιδόντες ἐμφραττούσας τῶν ὀδόντων τὰ θρύμματα (τρήματα - see note), καὶ ὅυτω τούτων ἀσθενῆ γίνεται τὰ δήγματα."(113)
Nevertheless, I do not believe it to be true that these teeth, being hollow internally, are the receptacle for the venom, or that through their very narrow foramina it spurts into the wound which a viper makes in biting. For when a viper is gripped, and its mouth is opened forcibly until it bares its teeth, that yellow and deadly liquid can be seen running down by the teeth, not inside the cavity but well outside, from the roots of the point, and I have experienced this fully many times with my own eyes(114). Anyhow, if the teeth are not the receptacle or the vessel for the venomousness, then they are, also, not venomous of their own accord, as they have been swallowed by human beings; and I have made a capon gulp down six of them altogether completely, and they not only did not die, but gave no indication of an impending death. Moreover, having scooped out the teeth of dead and live vipers, and with these having punctured the neck, the breast, and the thighs of some cocks, and having left, in addition, the teeth inside the wound, they did not die. Furthermore, a nephew of the above-named Jacopo Viperaio pricks himself in his hands many times, now and again, with the teeth, and draws blood from the pricks, but comes to no other harm from them other than that which occurs usually from pricks due to needles and spines. Now it becomes clear that Baldo Angelo Abbati(115), and Scrodero, wrote that the teeth of a dead viper kill, based upon a whim, and not taught to them by experience; and the masses can be sure that it was a fanciful invention, the one daily recounted of the death of that druggist who, while handling the head of a viper killed a year earlier, inadvertently pricked himself. It is not a fable, however, and I can testify having witnessed it many times, that the head half an hour after decapitation, whilst it still has some residual movement and, so to speak, some embers of life, kills if it bites, just as when it is attached to a trunk; and no amount of the sweet music of the famous Atto Melani(116), or of Cavalier Cesti(117), or the silver voice of Ciecolono(116), with as many musical instruments known to have been invented by ancient and by modern schools, will be of any use in healing it.
Do not laugh, Signor Lorenzo, and may what I have said not appear to you to be something of an exaggeration. Recall to yourself our forefathers, and in particular the Pythagoreans, who were so blessed and gullible in belief, that they gave themselves to understand that music had the power to heal some bodily illnesses. Theophrastus, as can be read in the 'Noctes Attici' by Aulo Gellio(118), stated that honest musicians, in comparison with whoever the most famous medic might be, could restore health to those who had been bitten by vipers. Marc Aurelio Severino, a very diligent and learned man, in 'Vipera Pitia' reiterates that, and holds it to be true. Zacuto, also, in the fifth book of the 'Istorie de' medici più principali', confirms it, and laboriously, and argumentatively, presents a long and bizarre discussion in order to adduce natural reasons for it, but fails to remember that the young Eurydice, wife of the gentlest musician in the universe(119), when pricked by a viper, ended all her days without the melodious husband being able to obtain for her the least profit. This same outcome awaits the medics of nowadays, should they wish to treat the bites of this nasty little beast with the sound of a guitar. If I were not afraid of excessive prolongation, I would recount to you the fine joke which occured once to a certain fresh medic who, having read that Ismen, the Theban(120), cured the most bitter pains of sciatica with nothing other than by singing some gentle songs, wished that he, too, the more generous remedies not being held in very high regard, might hang on simply to that of music alone. However, of this, on another occasion. Be content for now, so as to enable me before reaching near the end, to say to you here, that the viper has neither a sting nor a spine in its tail capable of pricking, and that anyone can straightforwardly eat it whether as food or as medicine. If, when a viper is killed to prepare a theriac, the tail is also cut with the head, it is severed not because they are a venomous part, but because they are bony and lacking in flesh, and out of a certain superstition the source of which from whence it derives I do not know; in precisely the same way, as Severino says in his 'Vipera Pitia', that the ordinary man has a certain aversion to eating heads and tails of eels. Thus, if there is someone here who still claimed that viperine tails were poisonous, and was obdurate in wanting to maintain, in company with so many ancients and moderns, that the old Andromachus(121) could not have lied when he sang in the second part of his little poem:
Λυγρὸν ὔπ'οὐραίην ιὸν ἔχων φολίδα
Ουλα γὰρ αμφοτέρω φέρει επι τύμμασιν ἄχθη.(122)
say, also, to him, on my behalf, that those who have formed such an opinion have not seen, as I have seen, men and other animals feed themselves, not only on the heads of vipers, but also the tails, cooked and raw, and also, when the vipers are alive, in order to provoke them and irritate them so as to make them bite, put the tails of these in their mouth, and fiercely clench, and lacerate them.
Therefore, to summarise everything in a few words, I say to you that the viper does not have a fluid secreted in any part which, eaten or drunk, has the power to kill; that the tail has nothing with which to sting; that the canine teeth, as much in the male as in the female, number no more than two, are hollow from the root to the tip, and that if they injure, they are not poisonous, but simply open a path for the viperine venom; that the venom is not deadly, unless it comes into contact with blood; that this venom is none other than the liquid which sullies the palate, and pools in those membranes which cover the teeth, and it is not sent there by the gall-bladder, but altogether generated in the head and transmitted, perhaps, to the membranes through some small salivary ducts, which, perhaps, open into them.
Continued...
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Notes:
88. "Necesse igitur est...in vesica fellea materiam tamquam proxima lacuna duobus meatibus inde ad dentium vesicas deferri, in quibus vipereum actu venenum efficitur..." - 'De Admirabili Viperae natura"; Baldo Angelo Abati.
89. Samuel Bochart, (1599-1667 ACE), a French biblical scholar, and a noted linguist, wrote the two volume 'Geographia Sacra seu Phaleg et Canaan' which had a profound influence on Biblical studies soon afterwards. His etymological derivation, along with those by other similar scholars, was much derided by Voltaire, who ridiculed it as "curiosité absurde (car il faut appeler les choses par leur nom) jusqu'à faire venir du chaldéen et de l'hébreu certains mots teutons et celtiques", adding, "Bochart n'y manque jamais".
90. "As an old tailor at the needle's eye." Canto XV, Purgatory; The Divine Comedy: Dante Alighieri - Trans. by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
91. Thomas Wharton, (1614-1673), an English physician and anatomist, wrote an important work, the 'Adenografia', a treatise on glandular structures in the body, which was published privately in 1656, in London, and in Amsterdam, in 1659. His name is given to the duct of the submandibular salivary gland, first described by him, and also to the jelly of the umbilical cord.
92. Lorenzo Bellini, (1643?1704 ACE), an Italian physician and anatomist, was a close friend of Redi, and a member of the Pisan Academy, where he also occupied a chair in anatomy. He later moved to Florence, having received an appointment to serve Cosimo Medici III as personal physician. He is remembered in name by his description of the papillary ducts, called Bellini's ducts, which is contained in his book, 'Exercitatio Anatomica de Structura Usu Renum' (1662). He also published a work on the gustatory sense, 'Gustus Organum', in 1664, in which he showed himself to be thoroughly familiar with the nature of glands, their structures and their ducts, as with the contemporaneous work of others in the field, such as Stensen, Wharton, and the like. All his works were collected and published jointly in 1708.
93. "Πάντων δὲ χαλεπώτερά ἐστι τὰ δήγματα τῶν ἰοβόλων, ἐὰν τύχῃ ἀλλήλων ἐδηδοκότα, οἷον σκορπίον ἔχις". - 'Περὶ τα ζωα ιστοριαι'; Ἀριστoτέλης.
["But the deadliest of all bites of venomous creatures is when one venomous animal has bitten another; as, for instance, a viper's after it has bitten a scorpion." - 'The History of Animals' by Aristotle; translated by D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson.]
Galen, in 'De theriaca ad Pisonem', advises not only fresh vipers in the preparation of theriacs, but those which have been kept in healthy air for a while, and maintained on their usual diet of animal and vegetable food, made up of items such as buprestis, cantharides, and pine grub ("νέμεται δὲ ταῦτα τὰ θὴρία καὶ βοτάνης μὲν τινας καὶ ζῶα καὶ τὰ ςυνήθως αὐτὰ τρέφειν δυνάμενα, ὥσπερ τὰς βουπρήστεις καὶ κανθαρίδας καὶ τὰς καλουμένας πετυοκάμπας. αῦται γὰρ αὐτῶν εἰσιν αἱ κατάλληλοι τροφαί" - 'πρὸς Πίσωνα περὶ τῆς Θηριακῆς βιβλιον'; Γαληνός).
94. Pausanias, [Παυσανίας], 2nd century A.D, a Greek traveller and geographer, mentions this property in his account of Boeotia.
"ἔστι μὲν δὴ ὁ ἰὸς τοῖς ἀγριωτάτοις τῶν ὄφεων καὶ ἄλλως ὀλέθριος ἔς τε ἀνθρώπους καὶ ζῷα ὁμοίως τὰ πάντα, συντελοῦσι δὲ οὐχ ἥκιστα ἐς ἰσχύν σφισι τοῦ ἰοῦ καὶ αἱ νομαί, ἐπεί τοι καὶ ἀνδρὸς ἀκούσας οἶδα Φοίνικος ὡς ἐν τῇ ὀρεινῇ τῇ Φοινίκης ἀγριωτέρους τοὺς ἔχεις ποιοῦσιν αἱ ῥίζαι". -XXVIII.2; Βοιωτικά: Παυσανίας.
"[9.28.2] Now the poison of the most venomous snakes is of itself deadly to men and all animals alike, but what they feed on contributes very much to the strength of their poison; for instance, I learnt from a Phoenician that the roots they eat make more venomous the vipers in the highland of Phoenicia." 'Description of Greece'; Pausanias - translated by Jones, W.H.S, Loeb Classical Library, 1918.
95. "Ἀρτίσκοι δὲ θηριακοι σκευάζονται...ἔχεις... ἄμεινον δὲ εἶναι νεοθηράτους, αἱ γὰρ πολλῷ χρόνῷ καθειργμέναι ἰωδέστεραι τὴν ἕξιν εἰσίν." - 'Περὶ Θηριακῆς πρὸς Παμφιλιανόν'; Γαληνός.
["Orbiculi Theriaci sic confiuntur. Viperas...esse recenter captas melius: nam inclusae multo tempore virulentiores habitu sunt" - 'De theriaca ad Pamphilianum';vol. 14, Galeni opera omnia, edited by C. G. K Kühnhn, 1821 - 1833.]
96. Ptolemy VII Neos Philopator, [Πτολεμαίος Νέος Φιλοπάτωρ], was probably an Egyptian king of the Ptolemaic period in the 2nd.century BC. His reign is disputed, and it is possible that he did not reign at all.
The last Attalid King of Pergamon was Attalus III, Philometor Euergetes (ca 170 - 133 BCE), who ruled the Greek city, in what is now Turkey, for just 5 years, from 138 BC to 133 BC.
97. 'With two canine teeth the male signifies his nature,
Pouring poison; but of these, females, have very many.' (my translation)
['Sunt gemini dentes maribus, sua signa, canini
Virus fundentes: habet hos sed foemina plures'.- 'De theriaca ad Pisonem', vol. 14; Galeni opera omnia: edited by C. G. Kühn, 1821 - 1833.]
98. Johannes Actuarius, [Actuarii Ioannis, filii Zachariae], a Byzantine author, probably practised as a court physician, because the title of 'Actuarius' was conferred on those appointed in this office. He appears to have lived in the thirteenth century, and his writings, including the influential work on urine, 'Περί Ουρων' or 'De Urinis', were all published in the 16th.century.
99. Jean de Gorris, (1505-1577 ACE), was a distinguished member of the Faculty of Medicine in Paris. Several editions appeared in his lifetime of the 'Nicandri Theriaca & Alexipharmaca cum interpretatione & scholiis', published first in Paris, in 1549. He was a witness to the St. Bartholomew massacres. It is said that on being stopped by soldiers during the civil war, in 1561, whilst on his way to call upon the Bishop of Paris, Guillaume Viole, at Melun, he was so badly treated that he 'lost all his senses' ("comme perdus de tous ses sens") from fright, and remained in this state until his death.
100. Michael of Ephesus was a Byzantine scholar of the 11th and 12th century AD. He was a prominent intellectual amongst those ordered by Anna Komnene [Άννα Κομνηνή], (1083 - 1153 ACE), the historian princess, and daughter of the Byzantine Emperor, Alexios I Komnenos, to revive the works of ancient philosophers, and he would appear to be the person mentioned in her funeral oration by George Tornike, when he said, "I myself have heard of the philosopher from Ephesos blame her as the cause of his blindness, because he had worked night after night, without sleep, commanded by her to write commentaries on the works of Aristotle; the use of candles had caused drying of his eyes." At one time wrongly attributed to other Byzantine authors, his extensive writings on Aristotle confirm his role as an important conductor of Greek learning, independent of other sources and means of transmission of hellenic wisdom in the middle ages. A particular example is furnished by his commentary on 'De animalium motione, de incessu animalium' (On the Movement and Progression of Animals) by Aristotle, a work unknown to Muslim scholars.
101. Not much is known of Eutecnio Sofista (Eutechnius the Sophist), and he remains an obscure Byzantine, who wrote two known paraphrases of Nicander's poem, Theriaka and Alexipharmaka, and a paraphrase of Oppian's poem on fishing(Halieutica). One other paraphrasis, thought by many to be one of a lost poem by Oppian, on bird trapping, is, as he is said to declare himself at the end, based on an 'Ixeutika' of Dionysius, considered to be no other than the Dionysius of Samos who, according to Eustathius, wrote one such poem in rough verse.
102. "Vipera foemina...et quatuor habet caninos dentes...Vipera vero mas dentes autem caninos solum duos habet..Reperiuntur igitur in eis quos vipera mas momordit vulnera in plaga bina: in his vero qui a femina demorsi sunt vulnera quatuor." - 'Aetii medici graeci contractae...tetrabiblios hoc est.. per Janum Cornarium...Latine conscripti', Lyon,1549.
103. Isaac ben Solomon Israeli, [Yitzhaq ben Sh'lomo ha-Yisra'eli, Isaac Judeaus], (c. 855 - c.955 ACE), although of Jewish Egyptian origins, became a famous oculist in Islamic times, and wrote, in Arabic, the works which exercised such influence on Europe, after they were translated by his student, Constantinus Africanus, who published them under his own name. His complete works, were published in Lyon in 1515, and while the authorship of many of them is disputed, one work listed among them, the 'Kitab fi at-Tiry᫧, or the 'Book on Antidotes', is attributed to him.
101. Francesco Caballo, born in Brescia, a part of the state of Venice, would have flourished at the beginning of 16th century, and died around 1540. A work by him is the 'Libellus de animali pastillos theriacos et theriacam ingrediente', published in 1497, in Venice, which may be the same as the 'Tractatus de theriaca' , a work published in 1525, at Lyon, alongside the 'Opera Medica' of Montagnana, and the 'Consilia' of Cermisoni, both of whom were at one time professors of medicine at Padua.
105. Francisco Sanchez, (c.1551 - 1623 ACE), was a Spanish humanist, and a man of letters. He left Braga, in Portugal, for Bordeaux, at a very young age, and a few years later, went on to Rome, where he enrolled to study medicine at the college of La Sapienza, under Eustachius and others. He read Galen avidly, there, and wrote commentaries on his work. A year later, he began at Montpellier. The son of a doctor, he had an extensive knowledge of medicinal plants, and was particularly interested in poisons, as shown in his 'Pharmacopeia' and 'De theriaca ad pharmacopoeos liber', (in 'Opera Medica', 1636), . He was appointed as professor of philosophy first, at Toulouse, and then, 25 years later, of medicine, for a further 11 years.
106. "but who to recall would be futile work." - (my translation), Triumphus Cupidinis; Trionfo d'Amore II: by Francesco Petrarca.
107. Paul of Aegina, [Paulus Aegineta], (c.625 ? c.690 ACE), a Greek physician, is well-known for having written a medical compendium in seven volumes. It has been speculated that he might have been in Alexandria when it fell to the Arabs. His work was certainly known to Muslim physicians, since we know of a volume translated into Arabic by Hunayn ibn Ishaq,
[ أبو زيد حنين بن إسحاق العبادي ], (810-873AD/194-260 ﻫ). In the chapter on bites from vipers or echidnae, Paul of Aegina states:
"In the bite there appear two perforations at a little distance from one another, from which there is a discharge...of a poisonous fluid, which they affirm to be the poison of the reptiles." - Section XII; Vol II: The Seven Books of Paulus Aegineta, trans. by Francis Adams
108. Vincent of Beauvais (c. 1190-c.1264 ACE) was a French scholar whose immense work, 'Bibliotheca Mundi', or 'Speculum majus' ("Great Mirror"), divided into natural, doctrinal, moral and historical parts, exerted great influence in Europe for a long time. Sir Thomas Browne, in the 'Pseudodoxia Epidemica', classed him, "or rather he from whom he collected his 'Speculum naturale', that is, Guilielmus de Conchis", alongside Albertus Magnus, as a "man who hath much advanced these Opinions by the authority of his Name, and delivered most Conceits, with strict Enquiry into few."
109. "Dentes tam mas quam foemina quatour habet" - 'De Admirabili Viperae natura'; Baldo Angelo Abati.
110. Johann Vesling, [Veslingius, Wesling], (1598 - 1649 ACE), was a German anatomist and botanist. After studying medicine, he went on an extensive tour of Egypt, where he acquired a great knowledge of the botanical wealth of that country. A few years afterwards, in 1632, he was appointed to the chair of anatomy in Padua. In addition to a work in anatomy, the 'Syntagma anatomicum'(1647), he edited 'De plantis Aegypti liber', an important work by Prosepero Alpino, who had been an earlier director of the botanical gardens at Padua, reputedly the first in Europe. Unfortunately, his manuscript written on poisonous plants and animals, and their antidotes, has been lost. He gave up his chair to succeed Prosper Alpino?s son, Alpino, as director of the hortus in Padua in 1638, for 11 years until his death.
111. Albertus Magnus, (1193/1206 - 1280 ACE), was a Dominican friar and priest who attempted to harmonise Aristotle with the Catholic Church, and has a place among the great medieval scholars. His knowledge of physical science was extensive and influential, and apart from his commentaries on works by Aristotle, he also studied the works of Muslim philosophers, and wrote extensively, on a wide range of subjects, with treatises on minerals, alchemy, and natural history, in works such as De animalibus XV, (1258), in which he writes: "...masculus duos dentes anterius in mandibulis: duos inferius et duos superius respondente illis habet. Femina autem habet plures."
112. "similes aspidi et serpentibus, sed duo in supera parte dextra laevaque longissimi, tenui fistula perforati, ut scorpioni aculei, venenum infundentes." - Liber XI; 'Naturalis Historia': Pliny the Elder, ed. by Karl Friedrich Theodor Mayhoff.
["The asp also, and other serpents, have similar teeth; but in the upper jaw, on the right and left, they have two of extreme length, which are perforated with a small tube in the interior, just like the sting of the scorpion, and it is through these that they eject their venom." - Bk 11; 'The Natural History': Pliny the Elder, ed. by John Bostock, and H.T.Riley.]
113.'And they give them barley bread to block the shards* of their teeth, and thus they make their bites feeble' [ *Alternatively, and more probably, *foraminae, "Quin etiam mazas quasdam obiciunt, quae dentium foramina (τὰ τρήματα) obstruant; atque hac ratione morsus fiunt imbecillesas" - see 'De theriaca ad Pisonem', Volume 14; Galeni opera omnia: Kühn, 1821-1833]
114.This was subsequently shown to be erroneous by Felice Fontana (1730-1805 ACE), and other researchers, who demonstrated the emergence of the venom from the point of the teeth, and not from the dental tunic. According to Livy, Fonatana attributed this mistake by Redi to the possibility that, when the tooth was damp, drops of the fluid ran almost invisibly down to the dental tunic, thus filling it up, and spilling over. It is now known that a special gland secretes the venom, which flows out by means of a duct, and passes through the dental cavity.
115. "...et in dentibus a natura venenum esse inde manifestum est: quoniam ab eisdem dentibus viperae iam dudum mortuae, si quis tangatur lethale admodum est." - 'De Admirabili Viperae natura'; Baldo Angelo Abati.
116. Jacopo Melani was a composer of operas, many of which were staged at the Teatro della Pergola in Florence, between 1657 and 1663, and often sung by Antonio Rivani [Ciccolino, Ciecolino], a Pistoiese soprano castrato, along with several of the Melani brothers.
117. Antonio Cesti, (1623-1669 ACE), was an Italian composer of the Baroque era. He was also a tenor, and an organist, and "the most celebrated Italian musician of his generation." (Groves)
118. "Quod incentiones quaedam tibiarum certo modo factae ischiacis mederi possunt:
Creditum hoc a plerisque esse et memoriae mandatum, ischia cum maxime doleant, tum, si modulis lenibus tibicen incinat, minui dolores, ego nuperrime in libro Theophrasti scriptum inveni. Viperarum morsibus tibicinium scite modulateque adhibitum mederi refert etiam Democriti liber, qui inscribitur . . ., in quo docet plurimis hominum morbidis medicinae fuisse incentiones tibiarum." - Liber IV; Noctes Atticae: Aulus Gellius.
["On the possibility of curing gout by certain melodies played in a special way on the flute:
I ran across the statement very recently in the book of Theophrastus 'On Inspiration'* that many men have believed and put their belief on record, that when gouty pains in the hips are most severe, they are relieved if a flute-player plays soothing measures. That snake-bites are cured by the music of the flute, when played skilfully and melodiously, is also stated in a book of Democritus, entitled 'On Deadly Infections'*, in which he shows that the music of the flute is medicine for many ills that flesh is heir to." - Book IV, Attic Nights, translated by J. C. Rolfe in the Loeb Classical Library edition, 1927 (revised 1946).
*On Inspiration' From Fr. 87, Wimmer; 'On Deadly Infections', as a title, is not known to me but see earlier note on Damocrates.]
119. According to legend, the poet, Orpheus, was married to Eurydice. Fleeing from being violated by Aristaeus, she was stung by a serpent lurking in the grass, and died from the injury. The grief-stricken Orpheus went to hell where, by the power of the music of his lyre, Pluto was persuaded to restore his wife back to life, on condition that he did not look back before reaching earth. However, unable to prevent himself from seeing his wife, he broke the condition, and she was taken from him forever. The story was told and retold throughout history by many writers.
120. Ismenias was a celebrated Theban musician, mentioned in several anecdotes by Plutarch (see for example 'On the Fortune or the virtue of Alexander' in 'Moralia' or 'Pericles' in 'Parallel Lives').
121. Andromachus, called "the Elder", to distinguish him from his son of the same name, was reputedly the first ever to be designated 'Archiater', and served as a physician to Nero, (54-68 ACE). He was also famous for having invented a renowned theriac, the 'Theriac Andromachi', the recipe of which he left inscribed in a Greek poem of 174 lines, dedicated to Nero. It is included in its entirety by Galen in his book 'On Antidotes', and 'On theriac to Piso', in which he declares that this form was chosen because it was the most easily memorised.
122. The couplet in context is as follows:
"τῶν δ᾽ αὐτῶν οὐράς τε καὶ ἰοβόλους ἀπὸ κόρσας
τάμνοις καὶ κενεὰς γαστέρας ἔξερύοις·
οὖλα γὰρ ἀμφοτέρωθε φέρει ἐπὶ τύμμασιν ἄχθη
λυγρὸν ὑπ᾽ οὐραίην ἰὸν ἔχων φολίδα·" (Galen, De Ant. I .6. ed. Heitsch)
["Their poisonous tails and heads amputate
And the empty intestines take away.
Indeed, both bring affliction to the wounds,
For the bane is also in their tailscales." (my translation)
The Kühn edition has the following:
"His ipsis caudas et colla referta veneno,
Praecides, vacuos ventriculosque adimes,
Quippe venenatos utraque ex parte dolores
Mittunt, nam caudis et colla referta veneno" - 'De Antidotis', Volume14; Galeni opera omnia: Kühn, 1821-1833].
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