'Observations Surrounding Vipers' by Franceso Redi, continued:

    Many times it happens that these real causes, due to some unknown or unobserved impediments, cannot demonstrate their effects. I can confirm here, having been present when sheep, dogs, and cats, bitten furiously by vipers taken in the thick of noon a few days earlier in the country did not die whereas, on the contrary, a pullet bitten by a viper, one the tips of whose teeth I had cut off, and from which I had intentionally squeezed out from the membranes that foul fluid which lay hidden there, succumbed to death. Also, of the many cockerels and pigeons on the wounds of which this venom was put, on one occasion, one survived, possibly because when I wounded it with the sharpest point of a pocket flick-knife, I struck a rather large vein from which blood issued in abundance. It could be, perhaps, that the poison did not penetrate further in, and instead, with the streaming blood, that although it persisted some hours after expulsion, the toxin had been chased out of the body. In connection with this, I recollect how much it benefits those who have been bitten by vipers, following the teachings of the ancients, to scarify them at the place where they have been bitten, in order to provoke bleeding, or to apply cupping on top of it, or to attach one or two well-cleaned leeches, or, really, to have a man suck the wound. It is worth noting, Signor Lorenzo, that Avicenna⁽⁴⁴⁾ cautioned that one who sucks such wounds should not have broken or rotten teeth, and before Avicenna, more wisely, Cornelius Celsus⁽⁴⁵⁾, and Aetius⁽⁴⁶⁾, admonished (albeit Severino, deceiving himself, judged this caution frivolous) that the mouth should not have any ulcers or wounds, because coming into contact with the sucked venom they could be a cause of death; just as, although it might go into the stomach, it would not prejudice either health or life. This doctrine, moreover, is in no way a new precept, but rather old, and the aforesaid Cornelius Celsus taught this, saying: "Nam venenum serpentis, ut quaedam etiam venatoria venena, quibus Galli praecipue utuntur, non gustu, sed in vulnere nocent".⁽⁴⁷⁾ After Celsus, it was noted again by Galen in the third book of 'On the temperaments', and by the author of 'De Theriaca ad Pisonem' in the tenth chapter⁽⁴⁸⁾, but most nobly of all, by Lucan⁽⁴⁹⁾, when he described Cato presiding over the Roman army in the sandy empty spaces of Libya :

"    ...iam spissior ignis,
et plaga, quam nullam superi mortalibus ultra
a medio fecere die, calcatur, et unda
rarior. inuentus mediis fons unus harenis
largus aquae, sed quem serpentum turba tenebat
uix capiente loco; stabant in margine siccae
aspides, in mediis sitiebant dipsades undis.
ductor, ut aspexit perituros fonte relicto,
adloquitur. 'uana specie conterrite leti,
ne dubita, miles, tutos haurire liquores.
noxia serpentum est admixto sanguine pestis;
morsu uirus habent et fatum dente minantur,
pocula morte carent.' dixit, dubiumque uenenum hausit;⁽⁴⁹⁾

    For confirmation of this truth, if all the above-mentioned proofs and authorities were not sufficient, you should know that various people have cooked, and have happily eaten all of these good pullets, and pigeons, and all the other animals bitten by a viper, regarding which Mattiolo⁽⁵⁰⁾ says, that it cannot be done without obvious danger of poisoning. To remove any doubt and every scruple about the uncooked as well, killed by vipers at least, I have fed a dog, and a civet cat, with it, and one of those birds of prey that we usually call kestrels. It has been shown distinctly by experiment, that the terrifying, horrid, and deadly arrows of Bantan⁽⁵¹⁾, on wounding, lead to death in a short time, but when left to steep for many days in wine, or some other liquor, they do not induce the least alteration in health. One can read in the book cited above of 'De Theriaca ad Pisonem', that the Dalmatians and the Scythians poisoned their darts by rubbing them on elecampane⁽⁵²⁾, and with these, even a slight injury, as long as contact was made with blood, was lethal, albeit elecampane was harmless food for them, and deer and other animals, killed by these arrows, ate it with total assurance.

    How then, if to taste the venom of vipers is not only not fatal, but even less in the same manner noxious, I say, can the story of Mattiolo ever be true, or that other one by Amato Lusitano⁽⁵³⁾, that two youths, wounded by a viper, had died because they themselves had sucked the bitten place? I, for myself, consider that it would be more probable to say that they died, not because they had sucked the wound, but rather because they had been bitten by a viper, or had been unable to extract all the venomosity from sucking, or having some wound in the mouth, they communicated it through that or, finally, in not having had an opportunity to make use of other, necessary, internal, medication, as happened to a sorcerer, in Rome, in the time of Aedile Pompeius Rufus, who, having got himself bitten on the arm by an asp in the middle of a square, despite sucking out the bite well by himself was, nevertheless, deprived of his life at the end of two days. This happened to him, according to the testimony of Eliano, from having had a certain medicinal water removed by his rivals, or spilt, one which he had prepared beforehand to be drunk, and for not having succeeded in rinsing out his mouth, because in the absence of the said water he could, in need, have washed it out with wine, or from water obtained from the nearest fountain⁽⁵⁴⁾. Furthermore, even though Eliano says that, in his case, before he expired the gums and the mouth had putrefied, all this is insufficient as an argument to prove that it was caused by sucking, because Dioscorides⁽⁵⁵⁾, Attuario⁽⁵⁶⁾, and Cesalpino⁽⁵⁷⁾ teach, that those who have been wounded by a viper, apart from the other mishaps, are also susceptible to disease of the gums, and exhale, as Aldrovando⁽⁵⁸⁾ says, a heavy and foul breath from their mouth, or in the words of Avicenna, their lips become swollen⁽⁵⁹⁾; this does not happen, as I have observed endless times from experience, to those who lick, and who swallow the viper's venom. Thus a dog, which I caused to be bitten at the tip of the nose, much as it tried to clean itself with the tongue to avoid death, had neither on its tongue, nor in its gums, any illness, and in olden times, there were men who made a paid skill out of sucking poisoned bites. In this context, I am reminded of the great, pretended kindness of Augustus who, as can be read in Suetonio⁽⁶⁰⁾ and in Paulo Orosio⁽⁶¹⁾, after Cleopatra had died, ordered the wound to be sucked out by the Marsi and the Psilli. This dissimulated piety I find used often in those times at the commencement of the great empires, where not many years earlier on the shores of Alexandria,

"Cesare poi che 'l traditor d'Egitto
Gli fece 'l don dell'onorata testa,
Celando l'allegrezza manifesta
Pianse per gli occhi fuor, sì com'è scritto."⁽⁶²⁾

    Cato, again, in Africa, and Plutarch⁽⁶³⁾ refers to it, retained many Psilli in his army so that they could treat serpentine injuries by sucking the venom out. However, do not be persuaded that the Psilli, the Marsi, and the Ophiogenes⁽⁶⁴⁾ of those times had any more special, or appropriate virtue for it than every man, however trivial, has every day, even though Pliny⁽⁶⁵⁾ in many places, and Aulus Gellius⁽⁶⁶⁾ recount that this was a gift from providence, granted to those people alone, and that they had the custom of testing the chastity of their wives by exposing tender children amid the fiercest of snakes⁽⁶⁷⁾. Despite all this, I do not find myself believing it. On the contrary, I want rather sooner to give credence to Cornelius Celsus who, many years before Pliny or Gellius wrote on the subject: "Neque, Hercules, scientiam praecipuam habent hi, qui Psylli nominantur, sed audaciam usu ipso confirmatam"⁽⁶⁸⁾. Then, close by: "Ergo quisquis exemplum Psylli secutus id vulnus exuxerit, et ipse tutus erit, et tutum hominem praestabit"⁽⁶⁹⁾. These Psilli were bitten no less than other men by serpents, and in order to recover, needed alexins, as can be gathered from the book that Damocrat⁽⁷⁰⁾, the Greek physician and poet, wrote on antidotes, in which one can read of one which, he declares, was made use of by the Psilli when they were bitten by vipers:

Σφόδρα ἀγαθὴ δύναμις, ἧ καὶ χρωμένους
Πίνοντας αὐτοὺς οἶδα, δηχθέντας κακῶς
Τοῖς ἀρτιθήροις ἔχεσι τοῖς καλουμένοις
Ψύλλιοις.⁽⁷¹⁾

     Whether that Ophiogene, called Esagone⁽⁷²⁾, emerged safe and sound from a booth full of serpents in which, to establish his virtue, he was shut in by commandment of the Roman Consul, rests in the belief of the truth accorded to Pliny, who recounts it to us. Today, also, it might give me the courage to attempt something similar, be it in man, or in another animal, provided that I choose the snakes myself; and leaving aside many others, reminding you of those in the small cave in the vicinity of Bracciano⁽⁷³⁾, which twine themselves around the naked bodies of those who repair to its interior in order to cure themselves of some stubborn illness, and who often succeed in their intention, I do not know, now, whether due to the coiled serpents or, what seems to me to be rather more probable, from the very copious sweating which is induced by the heat in the grotto; regarding this, too, I entrust myself to the prudent judgment of those authors who have written most accurately about this snake-bearing grotto, and particularly the most learned, and insufficiently praised, Tommaso Bartolini⁽⁷⁴⁾, and the most diligent Atanasio Chircherio⁽⁷⁵⁾. There have always been great numbers of these Marsi and Psilli around in the world, not, indeed, those who formed a tribe which boasted a fabled origin from the children of Circe, and the king, Psillo, but, as noted by the celebrated Tommaso Reinesio⁽⁷⁶⁾ in various lectures, because in those times, such a name was assumed by all those who made a profession out of sucking envenomed wounds, and of being hunters of vipers. Galen makes mention of one such, who was the first to establish the skill of that hunt in Asia, and here in the Roman Empire, they were intended to serve this sole function at court, the aforesaid Galen relating that he had treated one who, having been bitten by a viper, had become icteric. They were all, however, of a vile and abject condition. Hence it is that Martial⁽⁷⁷⁾, to blunt the haughtiness of the vain Caecilius, said to him:

Urbanus tibi Caecili videris.
Non es, crede mihi: quid ergo? Verna es
Hoc quod transtiberinus ambulator,
Qui pallentia sulphurata fractis
Permutat vitreis: quod otiosae
Vendit quid madidum cicer coronae:
Quod custos, dominusque viperarum:
Quod viles pueri salariorum;⁽⁷⁸⁾

    From having shown to you thus far, that it is possible to suck bites caused by vipers without danger, you can sense the credence that might be given, insofar as it is related, to the epigrams inscribed below, the authors of which one sees having written down their view of what might have occurred, given the events. Moreover, as the world has always been of one kind, I am happy to believe that like we see, in the present time, many versifiers remembering some thoughts of theirs which contain something exotic or sparkling to their taste, quickly adapt the conceit into a sonnet, where we often observe the first quatrain and, sometimes, the first tercet, of a weave, not like that of Petrarch, or other, better poets, yet wrought from opinions and fine sentences, and, finally, replete with words, but not of other matter, and solely as much as is sufficient to lead into those three last verses, which were the reason and the source of the sonnet, that it could have happened likewise, perhaps, in those times, and that those writers may have formed their ideas all at once, imagining the bite given by a viper to the breast of a doe, or a wild goat, then the medicine for the poison through sucking it from their lactating part and, eventually, the death of these, and the life restored to the mothers. The epigrams are as follows:

    ΠΟΛΥΑΙΝΟΥ ΣΑΡΔΙΑΝΟΥ

Δορκάδος ἄρτιτόκοιο τιθηνητήριον οὖθαρ
Ἔμπλεοη εἰδοῦσα πικρὸς ἔτυψεν ἔχις,
Νεβρὸς δ' ἰομιγῆ θηλήν σπάσε, και τὸ Δυσαλθὲς
Τραύματος ἐξ ὀλοοῦ πικρὸν ἔβρωξε γάλα.
Ἀ δήν δ'ηλλάξαντο, και αὐτίκα νηλέϊ μοίρῃ
Ἑ ν ' ἔπορεν γαστὴρ, μαστὸς ἀφεῖλε χάριν.

    ΤΙΒΕΡΙΟΥ ΙΛΛΟΥΣΤΡΙΟΥ

Κεμμάδος ἀρτιτόκου μαζοῖς βρίθουσι γάλακτος
Ἠ φονίη δακετῶν ἴον ενῆκεν ἔχις.
Φαρμαχθὲν δ'ἰῷ μετρὸς γάλα νεβρὸς αμέλξας
Χείλεσι τὸν κείνης ἐξέπιεν θάνατον.⁽⁷⁹⁾

    Apart from sucking the wound, I also consider to be the most useful, in keeping with the advice given by Galen, the application of a tight ligature in an area higher than the injury, so that the circulating blood does not carry the venom to the heart, and not be infected by the whole, sanguine mass⁽⁸⁰⁾. It matters not at all whether the strip is of wool, linen, silk, or leather, because it was the gentleness of a good and simple man, rather than one overly superstitious, when Gilberto Anglico⁽⁸¹⁾ wrote that it was more rewarding to make the ligature with a strip of deerskin. It will, therefore, be a praiseworthy thing not to have faith in similar trifles, or as is found written in Pliny, Aezio, and in Quinto Sereno Sammonico⁽⁸²⁾, that the detached, fresh head of a viper applied to the bite, while still warm and bloody, is a marvellous antidote to that poison. I reject this without any doubt, because I dare assert it to be childish naiveté unless, however, many proofs, and re-examination, together with reason, have deceived me. He might well remain misled who, in providing a remedy for the envenomed bite, relies solely in the marvellous efficacy that writers have attributed to citron. For one reads in Ateneo⁽⁸³⁾ that two wrongdoers condemned to be killed by asps and boldly bitten by them many times over, nevertheless did not show susceptibility to the power of the venom, because a little before these wretches arrived at the scaffold, a certain compassionate and charitable woman had given them citron to eat. Rather more unfortunate than them were the two cockerels which were fed by me for four days continuously, on barley infused in a decoction of citron, and finally, their crops filled with small pieces of citron, and of citrate syrup. After having been left for an interval of two hours, I had them bitten by two vipers, and also applied ointment of the essence of citron peels to the wound of one. However, the death of both of them by the end of three hours made me realize that this medicine was futile, and Ateneo's tale incredible. Fabulous, again, is all that of the 'astral' (as it is called) and magical virtue of the 'signatures' of plants that some writers have imagined and, in particular, the worthy chemist, Osualdo Crollio⁽⁸⁴⁾. For if an expert in our times, one by me greatly esteemed, had performed some experiments on it beforehand, he would not have allowed himself to write that as the spine of a caper plant bears the 'signature' of a viper's teeth, it stands to reason that the caper is bound to be an excellent and powerful medicament for the treatment of viperine bites. I have conducted experiments on this, not, of course, because I hoped or believed the effect to be real, but to be able to write truthfully of having done so; and with this same truth I confess to you that, in connection with this good theory, I have experimented on some other, famous, medicinal plants, described by Dioscoride and Pliny, and have always been disappointed, never to have hit upon a glimpse of the wonders which they attribute to them. Hence, I allow myself to suppose that either they did not have such natural endowments, or, simply, that they were,

"Ne' tempi antichi, quando i buoi parlavano,
Che 'l ciel più grazie a lor solea producere."⁽⁸⁵⁾

     Perhaps in those fortunate times it was true that the head of a viper, strangled with a silk string dipped in cocchineal, and worn on the neck, restored the health of those who had synanche⁽⁸⁶⁾, and stopped them from ever being afflicted by such a fierce and uncontrollable illness, as writes along with many authors, Abimeron Abinzoar, commonly spoken of as Avenzoar⁽⁸⁷⁾, and as believed by the masses. I know a man, in a city not far off from Florence, who does not remove a viper's head from his neck for however more precious a treasure. He has it continuously attached there, and yet, every year, round about the beginning of April, he infallibly happens to suffer from this illness, and if his doctor, without wasting time, did not help him with a sound blood-letting, and other effective remedies, I am of the opinion that, remaining suffocated, he would render true a part of the statement by Avenzoar. Perhaps in that ancient epoch it was no lie, like it is today, as Marc'Aurelio Severino relates, that capons bitten and killed by vipers, and consumed by those suffering from quartan fever, were a guaranteed medicament designed to extinguish that febrile fire which, for a period of many and numerous years, usually remains obstinately alive in the bodies of human beings, in spite of all the remedies that are administered by physicians.

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Notes:

⁴⁴. ['Sucking may be enough in itself. It is necessary for the person who sucks not to be fasting, indeed, rather to have eaten, and washed his mouth, and there should be no erosions of the teeth; he should have rinsed his mouth with sweet liquour, and drunk a little of it; and he should retain rose oil, or violet oil, in his mouth. If he has other filth in his mouth, he should get rid of it, and every so often as the person who sucks draws it out, it is necessary that he spit it out.' - (my translation), Book IV; 'The Canon of Medicine' by Ibn Sina.]

"فان المص ربما كفي ويجب ان يكون الماص غير صايم بل قد اكل و غسل فاه و يكون غير متاكل الاسنان و قد يمضمض بشراب ريحاني وشرب منه شيا و امسك في فمه دهن الورد او دهن البنفسج. و اذا كان في فمه افه اخر و دفع و كلما يمصه هاذا الماص فيجب ان يبصقه." - من 'كتاب القانون في الطب'; ابن سينا"

⁴⁵. Aulus Cornelius Celsus, (ca 25 -ca 50), was a Roman medical writer who, it seems, wrote an encyclopaedia dealing with agriculture, military art, rhetoric, philosophy, law, and medicine, but only the medical portion of which has survived. Although not discovered until the Renaissance, 'De medicina' is generally considered as one of the finest medical works ever written, but it is uncertain whether he himself was a practising doctor.
"Ergo quisquis exemplum Psylli secutus id vulnus exsuxerit, et ipse tutus erit et tutum hominem praestabit. Illud ne intereat ante debebit adtendere, ne quod in gingivis palatove aliave parte oris ulcus habeat." Liber V; De Medicina: A. Cornelii Celsi.
["Anyone, therefore, who follows the example of the Psylli and sucks out the wound, will himself be safe, and will promote the safety of the patient. He must see to it, however, beforehand that he has no sore place on his gums or palate or other parts of the mouth." - Translation by W. G. Spencer, Loeb Classical Library, 1938.]

⁴⁶. The Latin translation of the chapter by Aetius, writing on the general treatment for all poisoned animal wounds, advises due caution against being attacked by malignant beasts. In addition:
"Si levior sit plaga aut morsus, posca calida eum proluemus, deinde vero locum ipsum exugemus. Verum qui exucturus est, prius os oleo colluat, ne inde laedatur, atque ita ore ad morsum admoto exugat, et expuat venenum. Cavere etiam oportet, ne exulcerata aliquam internam oris partem habeat exucturus." Cap. X. 'Communia remedia ad omnes venenum eiaculantum ferarum plagas' per Janum Cornarium Latine conscripti, Lyon, 1549.

⁴⁷. From Liber V; De Medicina: Aulus Cornelius Celsus.
"For serpent's poison, like certain hunter's poisons, such as the Gauls in particular use, does no harm when swallowed, but only in a wound." Vol. II; 'On Medicine': Loeb Classical Library, 1935.

⁴⁸. "συλλήβδην γοῦν εἰπεῖν, ουδὲν ὁμοίως ἔσωθέν τε καὶ ἔξωθεν ἐνεργειν πέφυκεν. οὔτε γὰρ ὁ τοῦ λυττῶντος κυνὸς ἀφρὸς, οὔθ' ὁ τῆς ἀσπίδος, οὔθ' ὁ τῆς ἐχίδνης ἰὸς, οἳ δη καὶ χωρὶς ἕλκους ἐξωθεν προσπεσόντες ἀδικεῖν πεπίστευνται, τὴν ἴσην ἔχφυσι δύναμιν, ἢ τῷ δέγματι μόνῳ προσομιλήσαντες, ἢ εἴσω μεταληφθέντες." - 'περὶ κρασεῶν III'; Γαληνός.
["quippe, ut semel dicam, nihil foris intusque parem agendi facultatem habet. Neque enim aut rabidi canis spuma, aut viperae venenum, aut aspidis virus, (quae tamen, si extrinsecus etiam sine ulcere corpori occurrant, offendere creduntur,) parem vim habent vel soli cuti applicata vel intro assumpta." - 'De Temperamentis', vol. 1; Galeni opera omnia, edited by C. G. Kühn, 1821 - 1833.]
"καὶ φησί τις αρχαῖος λόγος ὅτι τινὰ τῶν ζώον ὁμιλήσαντα μὲν ἐν τῷ δάκνειν τῳ ἐκ τοῦ δήγματος ἀποκρινμένῳ ἀνθρωπείῳ αἵματι ἀναιρεῖ τοὺς δακνομένους." - 'πρὸς Πίσωνα περὶ τῆς Θηριακῆς βιβλιον'; Γαληνός.
["Vetus quidam sermo est, quaedam animalia ubi inter mordendum sanguinem humanum ex vulnere manantem contingerint, commorsos occidere." - 'De Theriaca, ad Pisonem', vol. 14; Galeni opera omnia, edited by C. G. Kühn, 1821 - 1833.]

⁴⁹. ["Now was the heat more dense, and through that clime
Than which no further on the Southern side
The gods permit, they trod; and scarcer still
The water, till in middle sands they found
One bounteous spring which clustered serpents held
Though scarce the space sufficed. By thirsting snakes
The fount was thronged and asps pressed on the marge.
But when the chieftain saw that speedy fate
Was on the host, if they should leave the well
Untasted, "Vain," he cried, "your fear of death.
Drink, nor delay: 'tis from the threatening tooth
Men draw their deaths, and fatal from the fang
Issues the juice if mingled with the blood;
The cup is harmless." Then he sipped the fount,
Still doubting." - Bk. IX; Cato: 'Pharsalia (The Civil War)' by Lucan, translated by Sir Edward Ridley.]

⁵⁰. Pietro Andrea Matteoli (1501-85 ACE) of Siena, who wrote a famous commentary on Dioscorides. It has been said that in its importance for the subject, "it can be compared with Vesalius' 'Fabrica'". He learnt surgery at Perugia and practised as a doctor at Trento, and then, Gorizia. In the 1550's, he was imperial physician to Archduke Ferdinand, in Prague, and Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor, in Vienna. He retired, finally, in 1571, opting to go back to Trento, where he died from the pestilence.
"a humane prorsus adversatur...; item in morticinis carnibus, aut a fulmine occisis, aut a venenosis, et rabidis animalibus. Caeterion hac in re, licet nonnulli dicant venenum cum vita animalis consumi, eo ducti exemplo, quod cervi, lupi, apri, et reliquae ferae, quae venenatis sagittis conficiuntur, innocue comedantur; scire tamen oportet, hanc regulam deficere in his, quae pestis, aut rabies, aut fulminis ictus venenosorum morsus enecat." Lib VI. 'Commentarii in libros sex Pedacii Dioscoridis Anazarbei De Materia Medica'.

⁵¹. Bantam (for Bantan). The three Javan states of the Muslim period were Bantam, Demak, and Mataram. Some of the Javanese were skilled in using blowpipes which shot poisoned arrows. The poisons are derived from various species, including the Ipoh tree, or Antiares, Strychnos, and Strophanthera.

⁵². Inula helenium, also I. campana, a tonic and stomachic, is ἑλένιον in Greek, so called, according to various legends, because it either sprang out of Helen's tears, or Helen was said to have been the first to use it against snake bites, or, even from an abundance of it found in the island of Helena, all mentioned by Matteoli. The use of it in Dalmatian arrows is found in the following passage:
"φασὶ γὰρ τοὺς Δάκας καὶ τοὺς Δαλμάτας περιπάττειν αὐτὸ ταῖς ἀκίσι τῶν βελῶν, καὶ οὕτως ὁμιλῆσαν μὲν τῷ αἵματι τῶν τιτρωσκομένων ἀναιρεῖν δύνασθαι, ἐσθιόμενον δὲ ὑπ᾽ αὐτῶν ἀβλαβὲς εἶναι, καὶ μηδὲ κακὸν αὐτοὺς ἐργάζεσθαι" - 'πρὸς Πίσωνα περὶ τῆς Θηριακῆς βιβλιον'; Γαληνός.
["Nam Dacas inquiunt et Dalmatas id telorum cuspidibus circumspergere, atque sic postquam sanguinem vulneratorum attigerit, posse necare; esum vero ab ipsis esse innocuum, neque mali quicquam ipsis facere." - 'De Theriaca, ad Pisonem', vol. 14; Galeni opera omnia, edited by C. G. Kühn, 1821 - 1833.]

⁵³. Amato Lusitano, [Amatus Lusitanus, João Rodrigues de Castelo Branco], (1511?1568 ACE), was a notable Portuguese physician of the 16th century. He studied medicine in Salamanca, and in Italy, where he lectured for a while a Ferrara, and later moved to Ancona. Viewed in suspicion for his conversion from Judaism by the clergy, and by his peers, like Mattioli, in 'Apologia adversus Amatum'(1557), he disappeared to Thessalonica, where he practiced his Jewish faith openly. His published works include 'Exegemata in priores Dioscoridis de materia medica libros'(1531), 'Enarrationes in Dioscoridem Anazarbaeum'(1551), and 'Curationum medicinalium Centuriae septem'(1551-1559).

⁵⁴. "Πομπηίου Ῥούφου "Ῥωμαίοις ἀγορανομοῦντος ἐν Παναθηναίος φαρμακοτρίβης ἀνἠρ καὶ τῶν τοὺς ὄφεις ἐς τὰ θαύματα τρεφόντων, ἑτέρων ὁμοτέχνων παρεστώτων πολλῶν, ἀσπίδα κατὰ τοῦ βραχίονος προσάγει ἐς ἔλεγκον αὐτοῦ τῆς σοφίας καὶ ἐδήχθη.εἶτα τῷ στόματι ἐξεμύζησε τὸ κακόν. ὕδωρ δὲ οὐκ ἐπιρροφήσας, οὐ γὰρ παρῆν, καίτοι παρεσκευασμένον οἲ (ἀνετέτραπτο δὲ ἐξ ἐπιβουλῆς τὸ σκεῦος), οἷα μὴ ἐκκλύςας τὸν ἰὸν μηδὲ ἀπορρυψάμενος, τὸν βίον κατέστρεψε μετὰ ἡμέραν οἶαι δευτέραν, οὐκ ἀλγῶν οὐδὲ ἕν, τοῦ μέντοι κακοῦ ἡσυχῆ διασήψαντος αὐτοῦ τὰ οὖλα καὶ τὸ στόμα." - Περί Ζώων Ιδιότητος; Κλαύδιος Αιλιανός.
[ "Cum Pompejus Rufus Romae aedilitium munus obiret quinquatriis vel Panathenaicis ut solet in Romano foro fieri, circulator, aliis permultis, qui eandem quam is ipse artem factitarent, adstantibus, ad suam ipsius ostentandam sapientiam, simulque ex artificio suo specimen dandum, aspidem ad brachium admovit, et ex impresso morsu malum exsuxit. Cum postea non aquam, quam sibi praeparaverat, exsorbuisset, quod ea esset subducta (ex insidiis nimirum vas fuerat eversum) veneno non exhausto neque absterso, secundo post die sine doloris sensus, sensim et pedetentim pernicie veneni illapsa, postquam ejus os sunt gingivae extabuissent, vita privatus est."- Liber Nonus; De Natura Animalium: Claudii Aeliani.]

⁵⁵. "αἱμάσσεται δὲ ἀυτοῖς καὶ τὰ οὖλα." -'περὶ ὶοβόλων..'; Διοσκορίδης.
[Gingivae quoque cruentantur. - 'De iis, quae virus eiaculantur...'; Pedanii Dioscoridis Anazarbei II, Volume XXVI, Medicorum graecorum opera quae exstant, Sprengel, 1830]

⁵⁶. Giovanni Attuario, or Joannis Actuarii,son of Zacharias, first came to light in the later half of the 14th.century. His work was eventually published in Latin, the 'Operum tomus III, De medicamentorum compositione, Ioanne Ruellio interprete at Lyon in 1556, and in addition, he was also responisble for a work on urine.

⁵⁷. Cesalpino, [Andreas Caesalpinus], (1519 - 1603 ACE), was born in Arezzo, and studied medicine, philosophy, and botany, in the modern vein, very much for its own sake. He ended his life in the service of the pontificate, under Clement VIII. Known for his 'De Plantis', Libri XVI, he tackled many problems, including taxonomy, and using morphological and other characteristics, he grouped plants into families very similar to those used nowadays. One of the volumes was devoted to fungi, in which he included fleshy fungi.He also wrote a major philosophical work, the 'Quaestiones peripateticum'.

⁵⁸. Ulisse Aldrovandi, (1522-1605ACE), was an Italian botanist, pharmacologist, and the first professor of 'natural science' at Bologna, where he played a major role in creating the botanical gardens. His herbarium, still preserved in Bologna, comprised some 4,760 dried specimens on 4,117 sheets, in sixteen volumes. During his life he published works on ornithology, insects, and serpents. In the 'Historia serpentum et draconum' he gives gingivitis ('inflammatio gingivarum') as one of the features of poisoning from snakebites, and in the list of prognostic signs, includes 'oris faetor'.

⁵⁹. I could only find a mention of a dry mouth in the section dealing with the symptoms of bites from vipers in the fourth book of Ibn Sina's 'The Canon of Medicine'.

⁶⁰. Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus (ca. 69/75 -ca.130 ACE), known as Suetonius, was a prominent Roman historian, and author of several biographies, most famously those of the twelve Caesars, which includes the life of Augustus.
"Cleopatrae, quam servatam triumpho magnopere cupiebat, etiam psyllos admovit, qui venenum ac virus exugerent, quod perisse morsu aspidis putabatur." - Divus Augustus; 'De Vita Caesarum': Suetonius Tranquillus.
["He greatly desired to save Cleopatra alive for his triumph, and even had Psylli brought to her, to suck the poison from her wound, since it was thought that she had died from the bite of an asp." - Translation by J. C. Rolfe; Loeb Classical Library, 1913-1914.]

⁶¹. "frustra Caesare etiam Psyllos admovente, qui venena serpentum e vulneribus hominum haustu revocare atque exsugere solent." - Lib. VI; 'Historiae adversum paganos': Paulus Orosius.

⁶². "Ceasar, when that traytour of Egipt
With th'onorable hed did him present,
covering his gladness did represent
Playnte with his teere outward, as is writ:" - Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542ACE), English poet, translating from the102nd of the 'Canzoniere (Rerum vulgarium fragmenta)' by Francesco Petrarch.

⁶³. Marcus Cato, (95-46 BCE), was a Roman statesman, renowned for his incorruptibility, who took his own life in North Africa after his defeat at the hands of Caesar at the battle of Thapsus, in 46 BC.
"(Κάτων)...ἐξώρμησε πεζῇ χειμῶνος ὥρᾳ, πολλοὺς μὲν ὄνους ὕδωρ κομίζοντας συναγαγών, πολλὴν δὲ λείαν ἐλαύνων, ἔτι δ' ἅρματα καὶ τοὺς καλουμένους Ψύλλους ἐπαγόμενος, οἳ τά τε δήγματα τῶν θηρίων ἰῶνται, τοῖς στόμασιν ἕλκοντες τὸν ἰόν, αὐτά τε τὰ θηρία κατεπᾴδοντες ἀμβλύνουσι καὶ κηλοῦσιν." - Κάτων; Μέστριος Πλούταρχος.
["Cato therefore resolved to march toward them by land, it being now winter; and got together a number of asses to carry water, and furnished himself likewise with plenty of all other provision, and a number of carriages. He took also with him some of those they call Psylli, who cure the biting of serpents, by sucking out the poison with their mouths, and have likewise certain charms, by which they stupefy and lay asleep the serpents."- Cato the Younger, Lives by Plutarch, translated by John Dryden.]

⁶⁴. The word is derived from the Greek for snake, 'ophis', and race, 'genos'. Pliny, again, mentions them in the 'Natural History'.
"Crates Pergamenus in Hellesponto circa Parium genus hominum fuisse, quos Ophiogenes vocat, serpentium ictus contactu levare solitos et manu inposita venena extrahere corpori.Varro etiamnum esse paucos ibi, quorum salivae contra ictus serpentium medeantur." - 'Naturalis Historia': ed. by Karl Friedrich Theodor Mayhoff.
["Crates of Pergamus relates, that there formerly existed in the vicinity of Parium, in the Hellespont, a race of men whom he calls Ophiogenes, and that by their touch they were able to cure those who had been stung by serpents, extracting the poison by the mere imposition of the hand. Varro tells us, that there are still a few individuals in that district, whose saliva effectually cures the stings of serpents." - Bk 7; 'The Natural History': ed. by John Bostock, and H.T.Riley.] See also notes which follow.

⁶⁵. "quorundam hominum tota corpora prosunt, ut ex iis familiis, quae sunt terrori serpentibus, tactu ipso levant percussos suctuve modo, quorum e genere sunt Psylli Marsique et qui Ophiogenes vocantur in insula Cypro" - Liber XXVIII; 'Naturalis Historia': Pliny the Elder, ed. by Karl Friedrich Theodor Mayhoff.
["In some men, the whole of the body is endowed with remarkable properties, as in those families, for instance, which are a terror to serpents; it being in their power to cure persons when stung, either by the touch or by a slight suction of the wound. To this class belong the Psylli, the Marsi, and the people called "Ophiogenes," in the Isle of Cyprus." - Bk 28; 'The Natural History': Pliny the Elder, ed. by John Bostock, and H.T.Riley.]

⁶⁶.Aulus Gellius (ca.125 - ca. 180 ACE), Latin author and grammarian, was brought up in Rome. He wrote the 'Noctes Atticae' which provide authentic personal anecdotes and episodes of the 2nd. century AD.
"Gens in Italia Marsorum ...quorum dumtaxat familiae cum externis cognationibus nondum etiam permixtae corruptaeque sunt, vi quadam genitali datum, ut et serpentium virulentorum domitores sint et incentionibus herbarumque sucis faciant medelarum miracula. Hac eadem vi praeditos esse quosdam videmus, qui Psylli vocantur." - Liber XVI; 'Noctes Atticae'.
["It is said that in the Italian people, the Marsi, ..families of which so far are not yet inmixed or corrupted by unrelated consanguinity, a certain propensity is inborn, in a way that they are tamers of the more venomous serpents, and have the use of incantations to make juices from herbs, which heal miraculously. This power, just mentioned, is also said to be possessed, as we can see, by certain others who are called the Psylli." - (my translation) Liber XVI; Noctes Atticae.]

⁶⁷. "mos vero liberos genitos protinus obiciendi saevissimis earum eoque genere pudicitiam coniugum experiendi, non profugientibus adulterino sanguine natos serpentibus. - 'Naturalis Historia': ed. by Karl Friedrich Theodor Mayhoff.
"with them(the Psylli) it was a custom to expose children immediately after their birth to the fiercest serpents, and in this manner to make proof of the fidelity of their wives, the serpents not being repelled by such children as were the offspring of adultery." ? Bk 7; 'The Natural History': Pliny the Elder, ed. by John Bostock, and H.T.Riley.]

⁶⁸. ["I declare there is no particular science in those people who are called Psylli, but a boldness confirmed by experience." - Liber V; 'De Medicina': Aulus Cornelius Celsus, translated by W. G. Spencer, Loeb Classical Library edition, 1935.]

⁶⁹. ["Anyone, therefore, who follows the example of the Psylli and sucks out the wound, will himself be safe, and will promote the safety of the patient." - Liber V; 'De Medicina': Aulus Cornelius Celsus, translated by W. G. Spencer, Loeb Classical Library edition, 1935.]

⁷⁰. Servilius Damocrates, who is mentioned by Pliny as Democrates, ('primis medentium' who had newly named a plant), was a physician who lived in the first century AD. From scattered sources, he is credited with having written several books, the titles of which have come down as 'κλινικὸς', 'φιλίατρος', 'πυθικὸς', 'βιβλία τὤν φαρμακῶν', and 'περὶ τὴς τῶν ἀντιδότων σκευσίας'. Described as 'ἄριστος ιατρὸς', he is quoted frequently by Galen, especially in connection with the theriac of Andromache, (the sixty ingredient preparation that was reputedly administered to Nero, the Roman Emperor), for his versification of several remedies into iambic metre which, according to Galen, was the best way to retain the dosage in the right proportion for all its ingredients, and which could be serviceably memorised. This became reported in many 16th. and 17th.century pharmacopeias as the 'Theriac of Damocrate'. See, for example, Bartolomeo Maranta 'Della Theriaca et del Mithridato', Venezia, 1572.

⁷¹. Carlo Levi's edition of this article gives the Italian translation by the 'egregio' Enrico Bindi of Pistoia, for the verse quoted by Redi in Greek:
["In questo è gran virtude, e ben m'è noto
Chi usonne in beveraggio, allor che grave
Le vipere noman pulicarie,
Gli dier puntura, nel pigliarle in caccia."]
I know little Greek, and, rashly, I render it into English as:
"In this there is a potent virtue, and well I know,
They, who in drink use it, for bad snake bites
Beast hunters have, called
The Psylli."

⁷². "(Ophiogenes)...ex qua familia legatus Euagon nomine a consulibus Romae in dolium serpentium coniectus experimenti causa circummulcentibus linguis miraculum praebuit. signum eius familiae est, si modo adhuc durat, vernis temporibus odoris virus. atque eorum sudor quoque medebatur, non modo saliva." - Liber XXVIII; 'Naturalis Historia': Pliny the Elder, ed. by Karl Friedrich Theodor Mayhoff.
"One Euagon, a member of this (Ophiogenes) family, while attending upon a deputation at Rome, was thrown by way of experiment, by order of the consuls, into a large vessel filled with serpents; upon which, to the astonishment of all, they licked his body all over with their tongues. One peculiarity of this family--if indeed it is still in existence--is the strong offensive smell which proceeds from their body in the spring; their sweat, too, no less than their spittle, was possessed of remedial virtues." - Bk 28; 'The Natural History': Pliny the Elder, ed. by John Bostock, and H.T.Riley.]

⁷³. Bracciano is a small town in the Italian region of Lazio, 30 km northwest of Rome. The grotto, visited by Kircher (see the account in 'Historiae Naturalis De Serpentibus',1653 by John Johnston) is said to have been near "Ulmo, inter Brachianum et Romam" by Kircher [De Magnet. p. 70. 2. ed. Colon]. An account of the grotto, and the Kircher's visit to it during his tour of Italy in 1638, was published by Charles Owen, in 1742, as reproduced below:
"In Italy is a subterraneous cavern, called 'Grotto dei Serpi', large enough to hold two persons, perforated like a sieve; out of which, in the Spring, issues a numerous brood of young snakes, of divers colours. In this cave they expose their leprous, paralytick, arthritick patients, where the warmth of the steams resolving them into sweat, and then serpents clinging variously all around, licking their naked bodies, they are soon restored to health, by repeating the operation. This serpentine cave was visited by Kircher, the celebrated philosopher and mathematician; who says, he saw the holes, and heard a murmuring hissing noise in them, tho' he did not see the serpents, it not being their season to creep out; yet he saw a great number of their exuviae, or sloughs, and an Elm at a small distance laden with them." - 'An Essay Towards a Natural History of Serpents'; Charles Owen,1742.

⁷⁴. Thomas Bartholin, [Bartolinus], (1616-1680 ACE), was a distinguished Danish physician, mathematician, and theologian, and a student of Olaus Worm. He published one of the earliest works on the lymphatic sysytem ('De lacteis thoracis' 1652.), and wrote numerous others besides. After Paris, and then Padua, in the winter of 1643-1644, Bartholin visited Rome and Naples, where he became friends with Marco Aurelio Severino, and while at Venice he joined the Accademia degli incogniti. He visited Sicily, Malta, and Messina, and upon his return to Padua, published 'De unicornu'(1645). A year later, he became a professor of philosophy at Copenhagen, and later occupied the chair in anatomy.

⁷⁵. Athanasius Kircher, (1602 -1680 ACE), was a 17th century German Jesuit scholar who published around 40 works, most notably in ancient Egyptian and oriental studies, geology and magnetism, music, and medicine, and was one of the earliest of microscopists who, from observations made while studying the plague, firmly believed in a 'contagium animatum' . He criticised this letter by Redi when it was first published, adhering to his belief in spontaneous generation of lower animals, and in the notion of 'panspermia'. Redi's subsequent work 'Experienze intorno alla Generazione degl'Insetti' (Experiments on the Generation of Insects), in 1668, upset these ideas, and showed that maggots were caused by egg-laying flies, and not generated spontaneously in the bodies of dead flies, or otherwise. Redi also refuted other ideas broached by Kircher, and later, in 1671, published 'Esperienze intorno a diverse cose naturali e particolarmente a quelle che si sono portate dell'Indie, scritta in una lettera al Padre Atanasio Circher della Compagnia di Gesù' (Experiments on various Natural Objects, in particular on those which have been brought from the Indies, written in a letter to Father Athanasius Kircher, S.J.), specifically addressed to him. For further discussion see O.Breidbach and M. Ghiselin, 'Athanasius Kircher on Noah's Ark: Baroque 'Intelligent Design' Theory' - Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences.Vol. 57, No. 36, pp. 991-1002, (2006), and the references cited in it.

⁷⁶. Thomas Reinesius, (1587- 1667 ACE), was a highly talented German who, while still very young, showed an exceptional gift for languages. After studying at Wittenberg, he was in Jena and Prague, but after 1610, he left for Italy, and stayed in Padua for a while. In 1615, he went to Altdorf, where his relative, Caspar Hoffmann, was professor of medicine, in the hope of being made a professor. He was unsuccessful, and after various posts, he eventually settled in Altenburg as the town physician. He only left Altenburg after thirty three years there, with a pension from Louis XIV of France. Reinesius was a great scholar, widely read and accurate who, besides philology, knew much about ancient Greek science. Of his work, much was left unfinished, or finished by followers, and a lot of his medical work was left out of the collected works published after his death.

⁷⁷. Marcus Valerius Martialis, (ca.40 - 104 ACE), known in English as Martial, was a Latin poet from Hispania (the Iberian Peninsula). He is well known for his twelve books of 'Epigrams', published in Rome, during the reigns of the emperors Domitian, Nerva and Trajan.

⁷⁸. In spite of my severe shortcomings, unable to lay my hands on a translation available in English, I am compelled to convey the sense of this quotation from Martial, (any improvements gratefully accepted), for which I beg the reader's indulgence:
['You think of yourself as sophisticated, Cecil.
You are not, in my opinion. What then? A slave,
A trans-Tiberine peddler merchant
Exchanging sulphurous matches
For broken glass: like him who sells
Soaked chick peas to circles of idlers;
Like the caretaker, and master of vipers,
Or like the trashy boy-slaves of salt-curers.' - Liber I - XLI: Martialis Epigrammaton libri XII.]

⁷⁹. These two verses, with slight variations in the text, formed part of a collection of epigrammata and other poems published under the title of 'Anthologia Graeca ad Palatini' in 1819. I reproduce the Italian translation by Enrico Bindi, and translate them into English thus:
POLYANNE.
An odious viper casting eye
Upon a parturient doe,
Nursing its offspring, struck at
The tumefied udder. The fawn
Sucked on the envenomed nipple,
And of the deadly, devoured;
The unhealthy and bitter milk
Of the wound, inmixed with poison.
By this, for her sake, fate, at once,
Unrelenting exchanged, and thus
Conveying it into its own stomach,
Removed it from the mother's breast.
ILLUSTRIOUS TIBERIUS.
A lethal viper biting into the milk-laden breast
Empoisoned the young deer with a newborn.
The venom's cure, the dame suckling the fawn,
Was that death which the kid drank with its lips.
[ The translation in Italian is:
POLIENO.
Vide un'amara Vipera
La capra partoriente,
E nelle poppe turgide
Vibrò l'ingordo dente.
Succhiò il capretto tossico
Al latte mescolato,
E colla madre il misero
Dovè cambiare il fato.
TIBERIO ILLUSTRIO.
Atossicò una vipera malnata
La poppa d'una damma or or agravata;
E, il latte reo succhiando, il cavrioletto
Bevve la morte dal materno petto.]

⁸⁰. "...εἰς ἕκαστον τῶν ὑποκειμένων αὐτῷ μεταλαμβάνεσθαι, πάλιν τε ἐξ ἐκείνων εἰς ἄλλα κατὰ συνέχειαν, εἶτ' αὖθις ἐκ τῶν εἰς ἄλλα, κᾀπειδαν ἐπί τι τῶν κυρίων μορίων ἀφίκηται, κινδυνεύειν ἀπολέσθαι τὸν ἄνθρωπον. ἐνάγρουσι δ' εἰς τοῦτο μάλιςτα μὲν καὶ οἱ τοῖς ὑπερκειμένοις μέρεσι δεσμοὶ προσφερόμενοι, φανερωτάτην ὠφέλεια ἐνδεικνύμενοι. καὶ γὰρ ἐπὶ τῶν ἐχιδνῶν ἐπειράθημεν τούτου καὶ τῶν σκορπίων, ἤδη δὲ καὶ αςπίδων, ᾧ καὶ μάλιστα ἄν τις ἠπίστησεν διὰ τὸν επικείμενον αὐτίκα θάνατον." - 'Περὶ τῶν Πεπονθοτῶν Τοπῶν'; Κλαύδιος Γαληνός.
["mox ex illis in alias continuas, atque iterum ex iis, quae aficiuntur, in alias; quumque ad principum partium aliquam pervenerit, tum mortis periculum homini instare. Ad hanc rem in primis conferunt vincula superioribus partibus injecta, a quibus praesentaneum praesidium percipitur. Etenim in viperarum scorpionumque ictibus haec expertus sum, item apsidum quoque, quod propter imminens subitariae mortis periculum, magis incredibile est." - 'De locis affectis III'; vol. 8; Galeni opera omnia, edited by C. G. Kühn, 1821 - 1833.]
Avicenna (Book IV; 'The Canon of Medicine'), largely following Galen in the discourse on methods of reducing penetration of the toxin, and enhancing its elimination from the body, also recommends application of ties and barriers to pathways which allow the poison to reach the body fluids, and the principal organs of the body.
"ان تمتنع نفوذ السم في البدن و ذلك اما برباطات و سد طرق..." - من 'كتاب القانون في الطب'; ابن سينا".

⁸¹. Gilbert Anglicus, (c.1180 - c.1250 ACE), is known to us mostly as the renowned name of a physician whose 'Compendium Medicinae' was translated into English in the early 15th century. The most famous reference to him is in 'The Canterbury Tales' by Chaucer, (c.1343 - c.1400 ACE), in the lines listing the 'authorities' who had made the Doctor of Physic such a learned man:
'Wel knew he the olde Esculapius
And Deyscorides and eek Rufus,
Olde Ypocras, Haly and Galyen,
Serapion, Razis and Avycen,
Averrois, Damascien and Constantyn,
Bernard and Gatesden and Gilbertyn.' - Prologue; 'The Canterbury Tales': Geoffrey Chaucer.

⁸². "Viperae caput inpositum, vel alterius quam quae percusserit, sine fine prodest...etc" - see Pliny, Chapters 21/2 in Liber XXIX of the 'Naturalis Historia'.
"Caput autem amputatum diligenter per volsellam teneto, et morsui imponito ex ea parte adhuc calentem quae contigit collum: id enim extrahet venenum." - Cap XXI; 'Aetii medici graeci contractae ex veteribus medicinae tetrabiblios.. per Janum Cornarium...Latine conscripti', 1549.
Historical references to Sammonicus are to Sammonicus, or to Serenus Sammonicus, and appear to apply to a father and a son living in the third century AD. The father was a highly learned man with an extensive library, who dedicated a number of literary, and other works, to Caracalla, and according to the 'Historia Augusta' was killed in a general massacre ordered by him. The son was one of the two poets, the other being Horace, who was sometimes read by Severus Alexander, as mentioned in his life in the 'Historia Augusta'. Macrobius, in 'Saturnalia', also quotes a Sammonicus Serenus, a very erudite man ('vir seculo suo doctus'), who is generally considered to be the father. The work disparaged by Redi is a hexameter poem by a Quintus Serenus Sammonicus, and comprises herbal medicine with folklore, called 'De medicina praecepta'. It is considered to be the work of the son, who is not known to have practised any medicine. The comment occurs in the forty sixth poem:
"Quae nocuit serpens: fertur caput illius apte,
Vulneribus jungi" - XLVI; 'Serpentium morsibus et venenus excludendis'.
The poem, which enjoyed great popularity in the middle ages, is now noted only for its motley superstitions, including the use of the word 'Abracadabra' as a cure for fever. Thomas Browne, arguing against blind faith in 'authority', shared the opinion of Redi, saying: 'It were methinks but an uncomfortable receit for a Quartane Ague (and yet as good perhaps as many others used) to have recourse unto the Recipe of Sammonicus; that is,to lay the fourth Book of Homers Iliads under ones head, according to the precept of that Physitian and Poet, "Moeoniæ Iliados quartum suppone trementi".' - I.vii (pp. 25-29); 'Pseudodoxia Epidemica': Sir Thomas Browne(1605-82 ACE).

⁸³.Athenaeus of Naucratis, [Ἀθήναιος Nαυκράτιος], named after a place in Egypt, was a Greek man of letters. The age in which he lived is uncertain, but some of his work, at least, can be placed after the death of Ulpian, which occurred in AD 228. His major work, 'Deipnosohistae', or 'dining philosophers', is a collection of books, some of which have survived intact. They are in the form of anecdotes recounted by guests, amongst whom are named Galen, and the aforementioned Ulpian, at a dinner party. The reference to citron quoted in an English translation is as follows:
'But that the citron when eaten before any kind of food, whether dry or moist, is an antidote to all injurious effects, I am quite certain, having had that fact fully proved to me by my fellow-citizen, who was entrusted with the government of Egypt. He had condemned some men to be given to wild beasts, as having been convicted of being malefactors, and such men he said were only fit to be given to beasts. And as they were going into the theatre appropriate to the punishment of robbers, a woman who was selling fruit by the wayside gave them out of pity some of the citron which she herself was eating, and they took it and ate it, and after a little while, being exposed to some enormous and savage beasts, and bitten by asps, they suffered no injury. At which the governor was mightily astonished. And at last, examining the soldier who had charge of them, whether they had eaten or drunk anything, when he learnt of him that some citron had been given to them without any evil design; on the.next day he ordered some citron to be given to some of them again, and others to have none given to them. And those who ate the citron, though they were bitten, received no injury, but the others died immediately on being bitten. And this result being proved by repeated experiments, it was found that citron was an antidote to all sorts of pernicious poison.' - Pages 141-2.Bk. III; Vol. I : 'The deipnosophists, or, Banquet of the learned' by Athenæus of Naucratis, edited by C.D.Yonge. London.1854.

⁸⁴. Oswald, [Oswaldus Crollius, Oswald Croll], (ca.1560-1609 ACE), was born near Marburg, where he studied at the end of the 16th century, and after a period at several universities, became a wandering physician in the manner of Paracelsus, whose footsteps he followed also in philosophical outlook. After successful treatment of Prince Christian I of Anhalt-Bernburg, and attending Rudolf II, he settled in Prague. His one work, the 'Basilica chymica', contains three parts, an introduction to the Paracelsian system, a part dealing with chemical preparation of medicines, and a treatise on the doctrine of signatures. His chemistry was pioneering in many ways, and was based on a sound understanding of chemical principles and reagents. The doctrine of signatures, however, because 'the characters of Nature, and these natural signatures, which from the creation, not with ink, but with the very finger of God, are imprinted in all creatures' and 'by which all occult things are read and understood', while it serves to provoke Redi's censure, is regarded by many as one of the earliest movements against the old humoral therapy founded on contraries, because of its emphasis on like curing like, which was much more deeply rooted in German and Eastern European medicine. A strong ingredient in his arguments is the medical self-sufficiency of all natural environments, which he believed to be divinely ordained, and, he thus saw no need to obtain exotic medicines, such as the unicorn?s horn, from distant lands, when equally powerful substances could replace them in the home environment.

⁸⁵. The citation is from the Italian poet, a Neapolitan humanist, called Jacopo Sannazaro, (1458 - 1530 ACE), from the poem 'Arcadia':
"At such times, while talking, he usually
Introduced ancient times, when oxen spoke;
That the sky used to beget more favours then,
When the Gods on high were not too haughty
To lead sheep into woodlands for pasture." - (my translation)
["Tal volta nel parlar soleva inducere
I tempi antichi, quando i buoi parlavano;
Ché 'l ciel più grazie a(l)lor solea producere.
Allora i sommi Dii non si sdegnavano
Menar le pecorelle in selva a pascere;" - Ecloga 6; 'Arcadia' : Jacopo Sannazaro.]

⁸⁶. Celsus in Book IV of 'De Medicina', in discussing acute, lethal diseases affecting the neck and throat, considers the condition, commonly called angina by the Romans, and differentiated in name, according to its type, by the Greeks. Two main forms are identified, synanche, (συνάγχην), and cynanche (κυνάγχην); the former is marked by an absence of redness or swelling, and is accompanied by interrupted breathing, and the latter by the presence of redness and swelling, with effects on the voice, although both affect the ingestion of food and drink; a third, less severe condition, is named as parasynanche, (παρασυνάγχην). It is of interest here to note that Celsus, too, quoted a popular prophylaxis against angina, whereby a man who ate a nestling swallow would not suffer angina for a whole year; but in the acute condition, it helped to mix the ashes of a burnt nestling preserved in salt, in hydromel, and to take it as a draught, adding that he included it because of its relative harmlessness, and the great popular approval it enjoyed, although he had not come across it in medical literature. - 'Id cum idoneos auctores ex populo habeat, neque habere quicquam periculi possit, quamvis in monumentis medicorum non legerim, tamen inserendum huic operi meo credidi.' - Liber IV; De Medicina: Cornelius Celsus.

⁸⁷. أبو مروان عبدالملك إبن زهر; Abū Merwān 'Abdal-Malik ibn Zuhr [Avenzoar, or Abumeron], (1091 -1161AD / 464-557AH), was a Muslim physician, who hailed from a distinguished medical family. He was born and died in Seville, and is nowadays thought to have been an early proponent of experimental medicine, who, famously, and ironically in view of Redi's comment, described the pathology of the larynx and the pharynx in considerable detail, and amongst other research, performed a tracheostomy on a goat. His main work, the 'Kitab al-Taisir fi al-Mudāwāt wa al-Tadbīr - التيسير في المداواة والتدبير', was apparently written at the behest of his pupil, the equally well-known Ibn Rushd, and was later translated into Latin as 'Rectificatio medicationis et regiminis' (Liber al-Taisir) in1490, at Venice.