The first known law against poisoning was issued in Rome by Sulla in 82 BC to protect against careless dispensing. The Greek physician Dioscorides (AD 50) made a particularly significant contribution to toxicology by lassifying poisons as animal, plant or mineral and recognizing the value of emetics in the treatment of poisoning. His treatise on Muteria Medica was the major work on poisons for fifteen centuries.
So, the origins of toxicology lie in the poisons for murder, suicide and politic. sination. It is well known for example that Socrates committed suicide by taking hemlock (Figure 1.2). There are many examples of poisons being used for nefarious purposes such as the poisoning of Claudius and his son Britannicus with arsenic. In the latter case Nero employed a professional poisoner who put the arsenic into the water used to cool the soup and so avoided the taster. The prolific use of poisons in this way made it necessary for treatments to be devised and Maimmonides (1135-1204) wrote Poisons and Their Antidotes which detailed some of the treatment thought to be effective.
In the middle Ages, especially in Italy, the art of poisoning for political ends developed into cult. The Borgias were infamous during the fif teenth and sixteenth centuries. In seventeenth- century Italy, a woman by the name of Toffana prepared cosmetics containing arsenic (Aqua Toffana) which were used to remove unwanted rivals, husbands and enemies Similarly Catherine de Medici prepared poisons and tested them on the poor and sick of France. noting all the clinical signs and symptoms.