No doubt he continued his search for the perfect liquor alchahest, a medicinal solvent whose purpose was similar to theriac, an antidotal compound that was consumed to preserve health and prevent illness.
12.
:" Designed as a pair, these elaborately modeled drug jars were made to contain mithridatum and theriac, used as antidotes to poisons, to ward off the plague, and as general cure-alls.
13.
Al-Tamimi's theriac recension is of particular importance to botanists, as he describes in great detail the recognizable features of the plants used as electuaries, as also the proper season for gathering such plants.
14.
At the time of the Black Death in the mid 14th century, Gentile da Foligno, who died of the plague in June 1348, recommended in his plague treatise that the theriac should have been aged at least a year.
15.
The first scholar to question the text's authenticity was Wen Dingshi ( �e?^ _, 1856-1904 ), who said Ji Han could not have been the author because the theriac entry ( 19, tr.
16.
The following ingredients for the theriac were taken from the " Amsterdammer Apotheek " ( 1683 ) and translated from the old Latin names into the Latin names now used where possible Not all ingredients are known, and identifications and assignments below are tentative.
17.
The most frequent 26 ingredients are : Garden Angelica, Healing Wolfsbane, Birthwort, Bistort, Sweet Flag, Carline Thistle, Dittany, Gentian, Masterwort, viper meat, Mithridate ( another concoction in its own right ), Theriac ( yet another concoction ), white wine, and honey.
18.
""'Seidlitzia rosmarinus " "'is a perennial-green desert species of saltwort that is endemic to the lower alkali soap, and as an electuary in compounding theriac for use in treating scorpion stings, as well as for extracting potassium for other medicinal usages.
19.
Thinking by analogy, Henry Grosmont also thought of theriac as a moral curative, the medicine " to make a man reject the poisonous sin which has entered into his soul . " Since the plague, and notably the Black Death, was believed to have been sent by God as a punishment for sin and had its origins in pestilential serpents that poisoned the rivers, theriac was a particularly appropriate remedy or therapeutic.
20.
Thinking by analogy, Henry Grosmont also thought of theriac as a moral curative, the medicine " to make a man reject the poisonous sin which has entered into his soul . " Since the plague, and notably the Black Death, was believed to have been sent by God as a punishment for sin and had its origins in pestilential serpents that poisoned the rivers, theriac was a particularly appropriate remedy or therapeutic.
