Mithridates VI Eupator

“ Tigranes is the kinsman and son-in-law of Mithridates. Indeed, he will not quietly submit to receive Mithridates as a suppliant; but he will war against us, and, if we strive to eject Mithridates from his kingdom we shall run the risk of drawing upon us Tigranes, who has long been seeking for a pretext against us, and he could [Pg 437] not have a more specious pretext than to be compelled to aid a man who is his kinsman and a king. Why, then, should we bring this about, and show Mithridates, who does not know it, with whose aid he ought to carry on the war against us? ”

“ The virus, however, cannot fail to act, in one way or another, on the animal’s blood or nerves. Might it not lessen the vulnerability which results from the transformation? Can the adult be rendered immune by a habit acquired during the larval stage? Might it be able to resist the virus as Mithridates was able to resist poison? In short, is the insect with a complete metamorphosis whose larva has been stung capable of itself withstanding the sting? ”

“ In our modern pharmacopoeias we have plenty of antidotes against virulent poisons; e. g., atropine for the deadly amanita mushroom. And counter-poisons are often used, as the tincture of foxglove for aconite, atropine for morphia, or morphia for belladonna. According to the tradition, Mithridates gradually inured his system to counter-poisons, and became poison-proof. At any rate, Emerson uses him for his metaphor, which, in untropical speech, is this: "lam tired of the nambypamby and goody-goody; give me things strong and rank; give me evil for a change and a spur. ”

“ The discoverer of this compound; (2) the purpose of the invention; and (3) the reasons why these drugs and no others of the multitude known to us have been chosen for this purpose.”
The lecturer then entered upon a history of Mithridates and his wonderful immunity against poisons; of his defeat by Pompey, of the recovery of his formula, of the additions made to it a hundred years later by Andromachus, and of the preservation of directions [49] for making it which Galen wrote some fifty years after Andromachus had completed his invention. ”

“ Their kinsman garlic bring, the poor man’s mithridate.
Drayton, Polyolbion, xx. (1622) .
Mithridate (3 syl.) , a tragedy by Racine, (1673) . “Monime” (2 syl.) , in this drama, was one of Mdlle. Rachel’s great characters.
Mithrida ́tes (4 syl.) , surnamed “the Great.” Being conquered by the Romans, he tried to poison himself, but poison had no effect on him, and he was slain by a Gaul. Mithridatês was active, intrepid, indefatigable, and fruitful in resources; but he had to oppose such generals as Sulla, Lucullus, and Pompey. His ferocity was unbounded, his perfidy was even grand. ”

“ Mithrida ́tes First, king of Pontus. He was tributary to the crown of Persia: his attempts to make himself independent of that fealty proved fruitless, being defeated in a battle which he had provoked, and having to sue for peace.
Mithrida ́tes, surnamed “Eupator” and “The Great,” succeeded to the throne of Pontus when eleven years of age. The beginning of his reign was marked by ambition and cruelty. At an early age he inured himself to hardships by devoting himself to manly exercises, and sleeping in the open air on the bare earth. ”

“ The character of Mithridates has been drawn by so many different delineators, that his portrait, as taken by the historians, presents a daub in which it is difficult to recognise the true features. So many skilful artists have been employed upon the task, that we hesitate in submitting Mithridates to a fresh canvassing at our hands; nor are we desirous of using the pencil, as some have done, for the purpose of imparting additional blackness. ”

“ The flesh of vipers was an important ingredient in the famous antidote and remedy called theriac, concerning which Galen wrote two special treatises [790] besides discussing it in his works on simples and antidotes. Mithridates, like King Attalus in Galen’s native land, had tested the effects of various drugs upon condemned criminals, and had thus discovered antidotes against spiders, scorpions, sea-hares, aconite, and other poisons. ”

“ That monarch left his dominions by will to the Roman people, and Bithynia was accordingly declared a Roman province; but Mithridates asserted that the late king had left a legitimate son by his wife Nysa, whose pretensions he immediately prepared to support by his arms.
The forces with which Mithridates was now prepared to take the field were such as might inspire him with no unreasonable confidence of victory. He had assembled an army of 120,000 foot-soldiers, armed and disciplined in the Roman manner, and 16,000 horse, besides a hundred scythed chariots. ”

“ It is an herb of the Sun, and under Leo. It provokes urine and women’s courses, being taken either in meat or drink. The seed thereof taken in wine, is an antidote against all dangerous medicines or deadly poisons. The leaves taken either by themselves, or with figs and walnuts, is called Mithridate’s counter-poison against the plague, and causes all venomous things to become harmless; being often taken in meat and drink, it abates venery. ”

“ Nicomedes, at his death, left his kingdom to the Romans, but Mithridates disputed their right to the possessions of the deceased monarch, and entered the field with 120,000 men, besides a fleet of 400 ships in his ports, 16,000 horsemen to follow him, and 100 chariots armed with scythes. Lucullus was appointed over Asia, and entrusted with the care of the Mithridatic war. His valour and prudence showed his merit; and Mithridates, in his vain attempts to take Cyzicum, lost no less than 300,000 men. Success continually attended the Roman arms. ”

“ X — To THE EMPEROR TRAJAN
I WAS greatly obliged, Sir, in my late illness, to Posthumius Marinus, my physician; and I cannot make him a suitable return, but by the assistance of your wonted gracious indulgence. I entreat you then to make Chrysippus Mithridates and his wife Stratonica (who are related to Marinus) denizens of Rome. I entreat likewise the same privilege in favour of Epigonus and Mithridates, the two sons of Chrysippus; but with this restriction' that they may remain under the dominion of their father, and yet reserve their right of patronage over their own freedmen. ”

“ XI. When Mithridates considered that he had proved himself sufficiently, he made Datames more sure that it was time for greater armies to be prepared and war to be undertaken against the king himself, and said that if it seemed good to him, he would come to discuss this matter, in whatever location he chose. After considering the matter, a time for the discussion was selected and a place where they would meet. Mithridates came there with one man, whom he had the greatest faith in, a few days early and buried swords in a number of different places and carefully noted their locations. ”

“ The motive for this war was the very justest on the side of Mithridates, the wrong done by the Romans being too glaring. Mithridates had sprung from a Persian family, which even as early as under the Persian kings had its satrapy in Pontus: the first whom we know of it, in all likelihood was Ariobarzanes, governor of those countries under Ochus. Perhaps it was one of the seven noble families which alone had freedom, being in some sort sacrosancti, and invested with the hereditary dignity of governors of those parts. The nation consisted of Syrians and Assyrians ”

“ The fifth pair is developed into swimming legs with bladelike and extended seventh and eighth segments. Its ninth segment is rudimentary. The ventral membrane of the cephalothorax is separated by a distinct suture from the doublure of the carapace, but no epistoma is formed. The metastoma is oval in outline, but slightly emarginate in front. The tergites and sternites are more or less bandlike and plain as in other genera; the male opercular appendage is small, with simple median lobe ”

“ Many commentaries were written about this time on Hippocrates; and the art of pharmacy, especially the preparation of poisons, was much studied in the second century B.C. Botanic gardens were established, and men began to experiment with antidotes for poisons. “Mithridaticum,” so called after Mithridates the Great of Pontus, was a famous antidote which was used even to recent times. Nicander of Colophon wrote poems on poisons, and antidotes, leeches, and emetics for the first time appeared in poetry, and the symptoms of opium and lead-poisoning were not beneath the attention of the muse. ”

“ Upon which, out of fear, he straightaway left the camp, took horse, and without effect returned to Mithridates. Thus in action as in physic, it is the critical moment that gives both the fortunate and the fatal effect. After this, Sornatius being sent out with ten companies for forage, and pursued by Menander, one of Mithridates's captains, stood his ground, and after a sharp engagement, routed and slew a considerable number of the enemy. ”

“ The description of the branchiae will be found under the description of Sidneyia, the typical genus of the Limulava.
Observations. The suborder Limulava differs from the Eurypterida, to which it is most nearly related, in having a large epistoma similar to that of the Trilobita; in not having a metastoma, chelate antennae, and swimming cephalic appendages; and in having a broad, fan-shaped caudal fin, and branchial appendages more or less unlike the lamellar branchiae of the Eurypterida and Xiphosura. ”

“ From the Limulava to the Eurypterida is a long leap, and before it can be made without danger, many intermediate steps must be placed in position. The direct ancestor of the Eurypterida is certainly not to be seen in the highly specialized Sidneyia, and probably not in Emeraldella, but it might be sought in a related form with a few more segments. The few species now known do suggest the beginning of a grouping of appendages about the mouth, a suppression of appendages on the abdomen, and a development of gills on the thorax only. ”

“ By poisons conveyed through the mouth or wounds, very few of the community are destroyed. The ancient Asiaticks, Greeks, and Romans, were infected with the silly infatuation and apprehension of constantly swallowing poison in their aliment. This was not an epidemical error of the rabble, but had spread amongst their emperors and philosophers: hence the pompous and absurd compositions of mithridate, theriac, and other poisonous antidotes. None of the two hundred genera of the quadruped creation, nor of birds, are poisonous ”

“ They merely suck the blood or feed upon the feathers, scurf and desquamating epidermis. Hence they are termed “non-psoric” mites. A certain number of species, however, called in contradistinction “psoric” mites, give rise by their bites, by the rapidity of their multiplication, and by the excavation of galleries in the skin, to a highly contagious disease known as scabies or mange, which if not treated in time produces the gravest results. These mites belong exclusively to the Sarcoptidae and Demodicidae. ”

“ The postabdomen also is relatively wider or stouter than in the older individuals, while on the other hand, the relative lengths of preabdomen, postabdomen and telson to the total length have remained nearly the same. Still younger individuals would surely show other differences in these ratios. The cephalothorax which in our young and old individuals occupies about one sixth of the length and is a relatively insignificant part of the body, compared with the other eurypterids, has most probably lost in relative proportion during ontogenetic development. ”

“ Among these 58, there were 206 9 cases of typhoid fever, with I death, in a patient who had old mitral disease. "Our experience has been that, while inoculation appears to modify the disease, completely modified attacks are met with in the uninoculated. Again, very severe attacks, with complications and relapse, occur in those who have been inoculated. One cannot from this conclude that inoculation has been valueless, for had not the patient been inoculated, the attack might have been still more severe." ”

“ Myrtle remarks that he has had several cases where mauve-dyed articles of clothing have produced great local irritation, which in one or two cases has proved not only painful, but most difficult of cure. Neckties and socks have furnished obstinate forms of an eruption of an herpetic character, the base of each vesicle being painful and greatly inflamed. The eruption has, in appearance and nature, resembled shingles more than anything else, although it is, as far as my observation goes, a distinct form of skin disease. ”

“ Hypothesis generation
In order to understand the possible causal relationship between the viral infection and microcephaly, we looked for genetic disorders showing the same coincidence of microcephaly with ocular abnormalities as reported from Brazil. As to severe congenital microcephaly in general, a large number of cases can be correlated with inherited gene mutations. Of these, those causing mitotic dysfunctions can be assumed to play a major role in the development of microcephaly. ”

“ The director of the Institut Bacteriologique listened with warm courtesy to the financier’s recital of his many precautions. But he was evasive under direct questioning concerning his own system of defense against the ever-present germ, particularly as to the mission of the Parisian institute over which he had charge. “Some day,” he vouched tantalizingly, as they rose to go; “some day perhaps we can interest you in our system of permanent self-sterilization, which covers every point of defense except against the zymogenic bacteria. ”