Sambil dengar lagu Degausser dari Brand New dan membaca nota Toxicology, I realized that the historical aspects of Toxicology has really caught my attention. I'm not a big fan of history back then, but yeah, history per se plays an important element in our modern world.
Jadi mari lihat satu-satu tentang perkembangan bidang Toxicology ni.
1. The earliest documented discovery I could find (thanks to Google) was by Shen Nung. He was known as the Father of Chinese Medicine, noted for tasting 36 herbs and died of a toxic dose. If only he knew that all substances are poisons, only the dose differentiates a poison from a remedy --> quoting Paracelsus. Oh the discovery was circa 2696 BC.
2. The next discovery was somewhere around 1500 BC. Although, my text book claimed that this was the real first discovery, but everyone can be biased when inditing history notes, right? Anyway, the Ebers Papyrus is the oldest well preserved medical document from ancient Egyptians. Nobody knows who wrote it, but it is believed to have been copied from earlier text. Now, the Ebers Papyrus is kept at the library of University of Leizpig, Germany. One of the remedies in the Ebers Papyrus is the remedy against death, which you have to take half of onion and some beer. Evidently, we all know this is not true, otherwise Cleopatra would still be alive today.
3. Remember Homer? The ancient Greek poet? He was the one who wrote the epic tale of The Illiad and The Odyssey. Apparently, he mentioned the word Toxikon which means arrow poison in one of his works. The modern word Toxicology was derived from the word Toxikon and Toxikos - a bow.
4. The death of Socrates circa 399 BC marked the use of poisons for suicides and assasinations. Socrates was asked to drink Hemlock, which when ingested can cause paralysis and death. You can read more on this website : http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/socrates.htm
5. Next is King Mithridatess. He studied on how to prevent and counteracts poisons. It was believed that he used himself and the prosoners as 'guinea pigs' to test his poisons and antidotes and he also consumed mixtures of antidotes to protect himself. The word Mithridatic (meaning antidote) comes from this guy. Ohlala.
6. Last but not least, is of course the Queen of Egypt, Cleopatra. Cleopatra did not contribute much in Toxicology world, in my opinion (slamber je haha) but her death has been questioned until today. Some claimed that Cleo (nama manja) comitted suicide from asp poisoning, while others refused to believe so, therefore they claimed it was a murder. Malas nak amek tahu, as I am more interested in her thick eye-liner and her love affair with Caesar. Pardon her hideous hair-cut btw.
Eventho there are plenty of stories linked Toxicology with Western scholars, let us not forget our own Muslim scholars. Besides, the verses of Al-Quran itself can act as the most valuable antidotes and remedies to overcome everything. Read this : http://www.jannah.org/articles/contrib.html and this : http://www.scribd.com/doc/17621/Remedies-From-the-Holy-QurAn if you want to know more.
Wallahualam.
ps : Esok test Toxicology T_T
Jadi mari lihat satu-satu tentang perkembangan bidang Toxicology ni.
1. The earliest documented discovery I could find (thanks to Google) was by Shen Nung. He was known as the Father of Chinese Medicine, noted for tasting 36 herbs and died of a toxic dose. If only he knew that all substances are poisons, only the dose differentiates a poison from a remedy --> quoting Paracelsus. Oh the discovery was circa 2696 BC.
2. The next discovery was somewhere around 1500 BC. Although, my text book claimed that this was the real first discovery, but everyone can be biased when inditing history notes, right? Anyway, the Ebers Papyrus is the oldest well preserved medical document from ancient Egyptians. Nobody knows who wrote it, but it is believed to have been copied from earlier text. Now, the Ebers Papyrus is kept at the library of University of Leizpig, Germany. One of the remedies in the Ebers Papyrus is the remedy against death, which you have to take half of onion and some beer. Evidently, we all know this is not true, otherwise Cleopatra would still be alive today.
3. Remember Homer? The ancient Greek poet? He was the one who wrote the epic tale of The Illiad and The Odyssey. Apparently, he mentioned the word Toxikon which means arrow poison in one of his works. The modern word Toxicology was derived from the word Toxikon and Toxikos - a bow.
4. The death of Socrates circa 399 BC marked the use of poisons for suicides and assasinations. Socrates was asked to drink Hemlock, which when ingested can cause paralysis and death. You can read more on this website : http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/socrates.htm
5. Next is King Mithridatess. He studied on how to prevent and counteracts poisons. It was believed that he used himself and the prosoners as 'guinea pigs' to test his poisons and antidotes and he also consumed mixtures of antidotes to protect himself. The word Mithridatic (meaning antidote) comes from this guy. Ohlala.
6. Last but not least, is of course the Queen of Egypt, Cleopatra. Cleopatra did not contribute much in Toxicology world, in my opinion (slamber je haha) but her death has been questioned until today. Some claimed that Cleo (nama manja) comitted suicide from asp poisoning, while others refused to believe so, therefore they claimed it was a murder. Malas nak amek tahu, as I am more interested in her thick eye-liner and her love affair with Caesar. Pardon her hideous hair-cut btw.
Eventho there are plenty of stories linked Toxicology with Western scholars, let us not forget our own Muslim scholars. Besides, the verses of Al-Quran itself can act as the most valuable antidotes and remedies to overcome everything. Read this : http://www.jannah.org/articles/contrib.html and this : http://www.scribd.com/doc/17621/Remedies-From-the-Holy-QurAn if you want to know more.
Wallahualam.
ps : Esok test Toxicology T_T
1 annotations:
nota toxico ada kt sini..baca baca..ha ha :)
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