From the beginning of the 19th century to the present day, chemistry has been fighting against poisons - a truly scientific approach has finally won out. The path to this victory was long and thorny, the history of the search for antidotes knows such bizarre means that now you are simply amazed.
A DROP OF POISON
Heated milk, warm water, flaxseed infusion - these drinks date back to the 2nd century BC. e. advised to use in case of poisoning the Greek physician Nikandr from Colophon, who was one of the first to study poisons of animal and vegetable origin. Such drinking made it possible to alleviate the consequences - to induce vomiting and thereby reduce the concentration of poisons in the body.
For centuries, this recommendation remained relevant: emetics, diuretics and laxatives remained the main remedies for healers from different countries. In the Middle Ages, fatty broths were added to them - it was believed that fat prevents the absorption of poison.
But all this is post factum - the poisoning has already happened. The main task has always been the search for a universal agent that neutralizes poisons. However, the pioneer here is not a doctor, but the king of Pontus Mithridates VI Eupator.
When in 120 BC. e. his father, Mithridates V, was poisoned, his son from the age of 12 began to take poisons in minimal doses. The immunity developed in his youth turned out to be so persistent that when in 63 BC. e. Mithridates VI, trying to avoid capture, tried to poison himself, the poisonous substance did not work!
I had to resort to the services of Bitoit's personal bodyguard - he killed the king with a sword. Subsequently, doctors even had the term "mitridatism" - addiction to the action of poison.
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THE DEATH OF THE UNICORN
In the Middle Ages, a very common means was kredenz (in Latin, kredere means “to trust”).
This is an ornate lid for food and drink utensils.
The highlight was the horn (or a piece of it) attached from the inside of the outlandish unicorn beast, which has an important property: to fog up if food or drink is poisoned.
When this overseas miracle was strengthened inside the cup, the drink allegedly began to hiss, warning of the presence of poison. Even Pope Clement VII gave his relative Catherine de Medici such a horn that she did not fear poisoning.
Unfortunately, the popularity of the drug contributed to the mass extermination of rhinos in Africa and Asia, as well as the narwhal (their tusks were often successfully attributed to the unicorn).
"REDUCTION" FOR AGRIPPINA
However, more and more poisonous substances became known - you can't get enough of antidotes! It seemed that theriak, which came from the East, became a panacea - a drug of several components, which, as it was believed, allows you to neutralize a variety of poisons.
For example, Andromachus, the doctor of the Roman emperor Nero, created a complex theriac, which included 70 ingredients - for all variants of possible poisoning. He was regularly received by Nero's mother, Agrippina. We must pay tribute - Andromachus created an effective remedy: when the emperor in 58 AD. e. tried to poison Agrippina, he failed. Although this is how, on the orders of Nero, his brother Britannicus was sent to the next world: the potential contender for the imperial throne neglected Theriak.
The idea of the composition and action of poisons changed - new teriaki appeared. So, in the first Germanic pharmacopoeia (collection of medicines) in 1535, theriak included 12 substances, including valerian, cinnamon, cardamom, opium, honey, etc.
In the French Pharmacopoeia, the composition was much richer - 71 items. By the way, this teriak was excluded from it only in 1788 - an enviable longevity, given, according to the doctors themselves, its low efficiency. It is no coincidence that the justification said that the tool "… goes into the realm of legends."
BEZOAR'S IMPACT
In the XI-XII centuries, again, another universal antidote came from the East, which became very popular. We are talking about bezoar (from Arabic bezodar - "wind") - a stone that dissipates the effects of a poisonous substance. Small, smooth, outwardly resembling sea pebbles, but dark in color with a greenish admixture, these stones are formed in the body of ruminants with gallstone disease. The cost of bezoars went off scale - they were often valued more than gold.
The beauty of the stone itself meant a lot. For example, the bezoar of the second half of the 16th century, which belonged to the English queen Elizabeth I, was quite similar. However, the French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte was skeptical about such a gift from the Persian shah - the stone immediately went to the fireplace in his office.
Actually, not only he had a similar attitude. Back in the middle of the 16th century, Ambroise Paré, the court physician of four French kings in turn (Henry II, Francis II, Charles IX and Henry III), decided to test the effectiveness of the bezoar on the royal cook sentenced to be hanged.
After giving him mercury-containing mercury, Paré tried to neutralize the poison with a miraculous stone: he applied it to his stomach, then scraped it off and made him swallow in powder form. Alas, the poor fellow died.
MUSHROOM MAN
Despite the use of all sorts of miraculous means, poisoning with poisons now and then happened. Therefore, in many noble families they preferred to act in the old fashioned way - they started the “mushroom man”.
His job was to sample the master's grubs. The rest looked: well, how is it, the poor fellow is not getting sick? Well, then you can feed the homeowner himself, his children and household members. Dead? The owner will have to starve, but he himself will remain alive.
At the Russian imperial court, this position was held by a chaser and a chalice. And in 1722, in the European manner, the court ranks of mouthpiece and chief mouthpiece were introduced, respectively. In the Table of Ranks, these people were higher than the chamber-cadet - this was the rank bestowed on Alexander Pushkin.
That is, initially, the position was not intended at all for lackeys, so it is not surprising that the mouthpiece of Peter I, Fedot Kamensky, rose to the rank of major general, and his son Mikhail even became a field marshal.
REPAIR, Dissolve, Revive …
Only in 1813, charcoal was first mentioned as an antidote, capable of absorbing a variety of substances, and poisonous ones too. True, almost 100 years passed until at the beginning of the 20th century in the Czech Republic it was officially prescribed to be used by doctors as an antidote. From there, coal migrated to other countries.
Although here it is worth noting: this simple remedy only reduces the degree of danger of the poison taken internally, and does not heal from it.
By the beginning of the 19th century, experience was accumulated in carrying out chemical reactions with toxic substances, and quite specific recommendations appeared that were tested in laboratories. For example, it turned out that poisons can be converted into an insoluble form - then harm to the body will be minimized. So, in particular, with the help of hydrogen sulfide water, mercury is neutralized.
As in many other areas, the development of military affairs contributed to the emergence of antidotes (or antidotes). British anti-Lewisite (2,3-dimercaptopropanol), created in the mid-1940s in the laboratory of Rudolf Peters in London, became one of the first means of combating chemical warfare agents.
The arsenic-containing lewisite was the "target", but the significance of this development is much broader. For the first time, it was possible to direct the action of the poison not on the organism itself, but on the introduced antidote - the formed ligament "poison - antidote" is then removed through the gastrointestinal tract. Actually, a number of antidotes have been synthesized on this principle.
Advances in the fight against poisons and poisoning have contributed to the emergence of a special field of medicine - toxicology, which is developing successfully. At the beginning of the XXI century, drugs were developed that allow restoring vital activity to the structures of the body damaged by yadmi, or taking over their functions, restoring biochemical processes. In fact, today the main task is to timely deliver the affected patient to the hospital, where toxicologists will take care of him.
Oleg NIKOLAEV, Magazine "Mysteries of the XX century" №19, 2016