Introduction - Uppsala Monitoring Centre

an ass or mule, neigh like a horse, as Avicenna writes.’
‘We will first declare what the general signs of poison are, and
then will we descend to particulars, whereby we may pronounce that
one is poisoned with this or that poison. We certainly know that a
man is poisoned, when as he complains of a great heaviness of his
whole body, so that he is weary of himself; when as some horrid and
loathsome taste sweats out from the orifice of the stomach to the
mouth and tongue, wholly different from that taste that meat,
howsoever corrupted, can send up: when as the colour of the face
changes suddenly, somewhiles to black, sometimes to yellow, or any
other colour, much differing from the common custom of man; when
nauseousness with frequent vomiting, troubles the patient, and that
he is molested with so great unquietnesse, that all things may seem
to be turned upside down. We know that the poison works by the
proper, and from the whole substance, when as without any manifest
sense of great heat or coldness, the patient sownes often with cold
sweats, for usually such poisons have no certain and distinct part
wherewith they are at enmity, as cantharides have with the bladder.
But as they work by their whole substance, and an occult propriety of
form; so do they presently and directly assail the heart, our essence
and life, and the fortress and beginning of the vital faculty. Now will
we show the signs whereby poisons, that work by manifest and
elementary qualities, may be known. Those who exceed in heat,
burn or make an impression of heat in the tongue, the mouth, throat,
stomach, guts, and all the inner parts, with great thirst, unquietness,
and perpetual sweats. But if to their excess of heat they be
accompanied with a corroding and putrefying quality, as arsenic,
sublimate, rose-ager 96 or rats-bane 97 , verdisgris 98 , orpiment 99 , and
the like, they then cause in the stomach and guts intolerable pricking
pains, rumblings in the belly, and continual and intolerable thirst.
These are succeeded by vomitings, with sweats some-whiles hot,
somewhiles cold, with sounings, whence sudden death ensues.
Poisons that kill by too great coldness, induce a dull or heavy sleep,
or drowsiness, from which you cannot easily rouse or waken them;
96 Rose-ager=roseager = realgar = AS 2S 2 = disulphide of arsenic
97 Rats-bane = arsenious oxide = As 2O 3 = white arsenic
98 Verdigris = verdigris = green rust = cupric acetate (correct definition) or a sulphate ( CuSO 4.3Cu(OH) 2, or a
carbonate(CuCO 3 Cu(OH) 2 or an acetate in maritime regions = atacmite CuCl 2.3Cu(OH) 2
99 Orpiment = a sulpharsenide (As 2S 3)