The use of poisons as adjuncts to other weapons such as the spear or arrow ceased in Western Europe long before the discovery of firearms. Although poisons have continued to be used for both homicide and suicide, their popularity for these purposes has decreased as the popularity of firearms has increased. As a means of suicide, poison often seemed more acceptable than other available means of selfdestruction. Poisons offered a safer means for the assassin of disposing of an enemy than the more visible alternatives that posed the risk of premature discovery and possibly effective retaliation. There is little doubt that the customers of the early toxicologists were interested in assassination or suicide. Although the toxicity of lead was described by Hippocrates, and of mercury by Pliny the Elder, these metals were apparently not deliberately employed as poisons before the Renaissance. These poisons were of vegetable or animal origin, except for arsenic. Albutt (2) according to which the professional toxicologists of Greece and Rome were purveyors of poisons and dealt in three kinds: those that acted quickly, those that caused a lingering illness, and those that had to be given repeatedly to produce a cumulative effect. In the transition to English, toxicum became “toxin,” and the knowledge or science of toxins becomes “toxicology.” There were practicing toxicologists in Greece and Rome. Other Latin words for poison were venenum and virus. Many Latin words are derived from the Greek, but the Romans took only the first of the two Greek works as their equivalent of “poison,” that is, toxicum. Therefore, an arrow poison was called toxikon pharmakon, or drug pertaining to the bow. The Greek word for the bow was toxon and for a drug was pharmakon. Indeed, the word “toxic” derives from the early Greek use of poisoned arrows. C., well before the Pan-Athenian period, an early origin of the use of poisoned arrows can be assumed. Because the earliest literature reference to Homer is dated at 660 B. This particular passage does not occur in modern translations of the Odyssey and, according to Edgeworth, was probably expurgated from the text when Greece came under the domination of Athens, at which time the use of poisons on weapons was considered barbaric and not worthy of such a hero as Odysseus. Edgeworth before the Bristol MedicoChirurgical Society in 1916, to the effect that Odysseus is credited in Homer's Odyssey with obtaining a man-killing poison from Anchialos, king of the Taphians, to smear on his bronze-tipped arrows. Stevenson (1) cites the Presidential Address of F. The Book of Job is generally dated at about 400 B. In the Old Testament we find at Job 6:4, “The arrows of the Almighty find their mark in me, and their poison soaks into my spirit” (The New English Bible version). One of the earliest examples of the deliberate use of poisons in weaponry was smearing arrowheads and spear points with poisons to improve their lethal effectiveness. And humans soon used their knowledge of the poisonous materials they found in their natural environment to enhance the lethality of their weapons. The invention of the bow and arrow was a giant step forward in weaponry, for it gave humans a chance to kill animals or other people from a safe distance. Stone and wood gave way in time to bronze and then to iron as materials for constructing these tools and weapons. In a unique difference from other animals, humans learned to construct tools and weapons that facilitated their survival. Personal survival depended on recognition and avoidance, so far as possible, of the dangerous categories. Humans learned from experience to classify things into categories of safe and harmful. The bite of the asp or adder could be fatal, whereas the bite of many other snakes was not. Some fruits, berries, and vegetation could be eaten with safety and to their benefit, whereas others caused illness or even death. It was in the very early period of prehistory that humans must have become aware of the phenomenon of toxicity. Their earliest tools and weapons were of wood and stone. They found their food among the plants, trees, animals, and fish in their immediate surroundings, their clothing in the skins of animals, and their shelter mainly in caves. Earliest human beings found themselves in environments that were at the same time helpful and hostile to their survival. The beginnings of toxicology, the knowledge or science of poisons, are prehistoric. java-19-openjdk-19.0.2.0. Toxicology: Origins and Trends Eula Bingham, Ph.D., John Zapp, Ph.D., (deceased) 1 Introduction Industrial toxicology is a comparatively recent discipline, but its roots are shadowed in the mists of time.
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