Mithridate

It was one of the most complex and highly sought-after drugs during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, particularly in Italy and France, where it was in continual use for centuries.

[3] After realizing the anti-toxic effects of snake meat, Andromachus made Faroug antidote with changes in the previous formulas.

According to Simon Kellwaye (1593), one should "take a great Onyon, make a hole in the myddle of him, then fill the place with Mitridat or Triacle, and some leaues of Rue".

[7] According to historian Christopher Hill, Oliver Cromwell took a large dose of mithridate as a precaution against the plague and found it cured his acne.

[11] In keeping with most medical practices of his era, Mithridates' anti-poison routines included a religious component supervised by Agari, or Scythian shamans who never left his side.

A recent translation is as follows: "But the most famous antidote is that of Mithridates, which that king is said to have taken daily and by it to have rendered his body safe against danger from poison".

Galen called the antidote "theriac" and presented versions by Aelius (used by Julius Caesar), Andromachus (physician to Nero), Antipater, Nicostratus, and Damocratis.

Ephraim Chambers, in his 1728 Cyclopaedia, says "Mithridate is one of the capital Medicines in the Apothecaries Shops, being composed of a vast Number of Drugs, as Opium, Myrrh, Agaric, Saffron, Ginger, Cinnamon, Spikenard, Frankincense, Castor, Pepper, Gentian, &c. It is accounted a Cordial, Opiate, Sudorific, and Alexipharmic".

He gathered all that springs to birth From the many-venomed earth; First a little, thence to more, He sampled all her killing store; And easy, smiling, seasoned sound, Sate the king when healths went round.