Thériaque

History

the thériaque (called θηριον by the Greeks) is a famous antidote described for the first time by Andromaque, doctor of Néron. Taking as a starting point the antidote to Mithridate, Andromaque describes in elegiac worms, a mixture of more than fifty drugs, plants and other ingredients of which the Castoréum, the Opium, the Vipère and the Scille. At the 2nd century, the Greek doctor Galien invented the Thériade, which was on the contrary, the first antidote against the poisons containing juice of poppy.

Prepared by the Apothecary S, the composition of thériaque varied much. That prepared by the Venetian apothecaries and montpelliérains was very famous.

Because of many frauds during its manufacture, the Parisian apothecaries decided at the 17th century to prepare it as a public in front of doctors and of the representative of the authorities. It is Moïse Charas which it first, in 1667, made its formula public. It prepared it during the week of thériaque the , about February. Its preparation required more than one year and half (because it was to ferment) and called upon several tens of vegetable, mineral ingredients and animals of the most varied, without counting the wine and honey: Gentian, Pepper, Myrrh, Acacia, pink, iris, street, Valerian, Millepertuis, Fennel, Anise as well as dried flesh of Viper and beaver.

the thériaque one, which passed for a true panacea, owed the major part of its action with the extract of opium which it contained (approximately 25 Mg for 4 grams). It was removed Codex only at the end of the XIXe century.

Composition

the formula of the thériaque one such as Galien gives it was brought back exactly in various works, and in particular in the pharmacopeia of Johann Zwelfer ( Pharmacopoeia augustana , 1653) and the French Codex of 1758. It enters there then of the trochisques (desiccated discs) of Scille, Vipère and Hédicron. Since Zwelfer, the primitive formula had been slowly modified, but on points of detail only: certain components meeting more in the trade of the hardware store, equivalent products had been substituted to them. The most important modification was, in second half of the XIXe century only, the abandonment of the flesh of desiccated viper.
the legal formula of thériaque, at the end of the XIXe century, was the following one according to the Codex (weight of the components given in grams):

Opium of Smyrna: 120; Ginger: 60; Iris of Florence: 60; Valerian: 80; aromatic Sweet flag: 30; Rapontic (Rhubarb): 30; Cinquefoil (Potentille): 30; root of Aristoloche: 10; root of Asarum: 10; root of Gentian: 20; root of Meum: 20; wood of Aloe: 10; grooves Ceylon: 100; squammes of Squill: 60; Dictame of Crete (marjoram): 30; sheets of bay-tree: 30; sheets of Scordium: 60; celebrities of Calament: 30; celebrities of Marrubes: 30; celebrities of Pouliot: 30; celebrities of Chamaedrys (germandré): 20; celebrities of Cammaepitys: 20; celebrities of Millepertuis: 20; pink red: 60; saffron: 40; flowers of Stoechas (Lavender): 30; bark dries of Citron: 60; long Pepper: 120; black pepper: 60; fruits of Parsley: 30; fruits of Heart: 20; fruits of Fennel: 20; fruits of Anise: 50; fruits of Séseli: 20; fruits of Daucus of Crete (carrot): 10; fruits of Ers: 200; fruits of Turnip: 60; fruits of small Cardamome: 80; white Agaric (champigon of Paris): 60; juice of Liquorice: 120; Catechu: 40; Arabic Gum: 20; Myrrh: 40; Oliban: 30; Sagapénum (seraphic Gum): 20; Galbanum (extracted from Cane): 10; Opopanax: 10; Benzoin: 20; Castoreum: 10; crumb of Bread: 60; ground Sigillée: 20; dry ferrous sulfate: 20; Bitumen of Judaea: 10.

One crushed all these suitably desiccated substances, one passed them to the silk sieve so as to obtain a very fine powder and to leave the least possible of residues: it was the powder thériacale . One then took 1000 grams of this powder, 50 grams of Térébenthine of China, 3500 grams of white Miel and 250 grams of wine of Grenache.

One liquefied in a basin terpentine, and one added enough powder thériacale to it “to divide it exactly”. In addition one dissolved honey and, while it was rather hot, one incorporated it little by little in the first mixture; one then added to it per minor amounts the remainder of the powder and the wine, which was to give a a little soft paste finally.

After a few months, one again triturated the mass in a mortar to make it perfectly homogeneous.

Mode of administration and amounts

The thériaque one was a electuary, i.e. a paste of consistency a little more solid than honey, rather soft when it was recent, rather firm when it had aged (often of several years). Its color was noirâtre because of the juice of liquorice which it contained. For the Affection S interns, one usually managed it at a rate of 4 grams in the adult, and of 50 centigrams to 2 grams in the children, according to the age. One made it take either nature, or in Potion by watering it in water. For the external affections, it could get busy in Pommade, or Teinture after having watered it in Eau-de-vie (in the proportion of part of thériaque for 6 of brandy).

Sources

the composition and the mode of administration of thériaque are extracted from:

- encyclopedic Dictionary of medical sciences under the direction of has. Dechambre and L. Lereboullet, Paris, Masson, and Asselin and Houzeau, 1887, volume XVII, p. 172-175.

One will find the composition of thériaque such as it was usually prepared at the XVIIIe century in

- Nicolas Lémery, universal Pharmacopeia…, Nyon, J. - T. Roughcasting, 1764 (1st edition, Paris, 1697), Volume II, p. 685-688.

NR. B. These works are consultable on line on the Gallica site of the National library of France.

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