Introduction - Uppsala Monitoring Centre

Medicine). Although the Huang Di Nei Jing book’s authorship is
attributed to the Yellow Emperor, it was actually written by several
authors over a long period of time. Differing opinions date the book
between 800 BC and 200 BC. It is a compendium of medical theory
and practice attributed to the Yellow Emperor who is thought to have
lived around 4700 BC or to be a mythical character whose age and
royal status would provide credence to a contemporary work (Hong,
2004). It is in the form of a dialogue between the master and a
student. Translation by Mao Shing Ni, Publisher Shambuala, 1995.
This book is divided into two sections. The first is Suwen (The
book of plain questions). The second part, called the Lingshu (The
vital axis), was written sometime in the second century BC with
revisions taking place up to the Han Dynasty (206 BC- 25 AD). The
three themes that run through the book are the theory of Taoism,
Yin and Yang, and the five elements. ‘ There are toxic herbs and
non-toxic ones. When greatly poisonous herbs are used to treat a
disease the treatment should be stopped when this disease is
recovered 60%. When commonly poisonous herbs are used the
treatment should be stopped when this disease is recovered 70%.’
(xiaopg@public.bta.net.cn.). There is no mention of adverse effects.
c197–130 BC Nicander of Colophon 17 wrote Alexipharmaca (A poem in 630
hexameters), which deals with plant and animal poisons and their
cures. He lists animal, vegetable, and mineral poisons, including
aconite, white lead, hemlock, and opium, together with their
symptoms and specific remedies. He describes poisons in general,
and analyses 19 specific poisons (8 animal and 11 vegetable).
Poppy: ‘Those who drink the juice of the poppy which carries its
seed in the head suffer as follows: learn further that when men drink
the tears of the poppy, whose seed are in the head, they fall fast
asleep; for their extremities are chilled; their eye do not open but are
bound quite motionless by their eyelids. With the exhaustion an
odorous sweat bathes all the body, turns the cheeks pale, and
causes the lips to swell; the bonds of the jaw are relaxed, and
through the throat the laboured breath passes faint and chill. And
often either the livid nail or wrinkled nostril is a harbinger of death;
sometimes too the sunken eyes.’
Henbane: ‘Let no man fill his belly with Henbane, as men often do
in error, or as children who, having lately put aside their swaddling
17 Colophon = ancient Greek city