Editing Toxicology (section)

== History ==

[[File:susruta-manuscript-folio.jpg|thumb|left|Folio from the ''Kalpasthāna'' (''Dundhubhisvanīya'' chapter), from a manuscript of the ''Śuśrutasaṃhitā'', Nepal, 878 CE.]]

The earliest treatise dedicated to the general study of plant and animal poisons, including their classification, recognition, and the treatment of their effects is the ''Kalpasthāna'', one of the major sections of the [[Suśrutasaṃhitā]], a Sanskrit work composed before ca. 300 CE and perhaps in part as early as the fourth century BCE.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Meulenbeld |first=Gerrit Jan |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/ocm42207455 |title=A history of Indian medical literature |date=1999 |publisher=E. Forsten |isbn=978-90-6980-124-7 |series=Groningen Oriental studies |volume=IA |location=Groningen |pages=289–299 |oclc=ocm42207455}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=The roots of Ayurveda: selections from Sanskrit medical writings |date=2003 |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=978-0-14-044824-5 |editor-last=Wujastyk |editor-first=Dominik |edition=3 |series=Penguin classics |location=London |pages=78-81, 131-146}}</ref> The ''Kalpasthāna'' was influential on many later Sanskrit medical works and was translated into Arabic and other languages, influencing South East Asia, the Middle East, Tibet and eventually Europe.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Meulenbeld |first=G. Jan |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/ocm42207455 |title=A history of Indian medical literature |date=1999 |publisher=E. Forsten |isbn=978-90-6980-124-7 |series=Groningen Oriental studies |volume=IA |location=Groningen |pages=352 |oclc=ocm42207455}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Strauss |first=Bettina |date=1934 |title=Das Giftbuch des Śānāq: eine Literaturgeschichtliche Untersuchung |url=http://n2t.net/ark:/13960/s2hb5j66s95 |journal=Quellen und Studien zur Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften und der Medizin |volume=4 |issue=2 |pages=89--152 followed by Arabic text}}</ref>  

[[Dioscorides]], a Greek physician in the court of the Roman emperor [[Nero]], made an early attempt to classify plants according to their toxic and therapeutic effect.<ref>{{cite book| vauthors = Hodgson E |year=2010 |title=A Textbook of Modern Toxicology |publisher=John Wiley and Sons |page=10 |isbn=978-0-470-46206-5}}</ref> A work attributed to the 10th century author [[Ibn Wahshiyya]] called the ''Book on Poisons'' describes various toxic substances and poisonous recipes that can be made using [[alchemy|magic]].<ref>{{cite book| vauthors = Levey M |year=2017|title=A Companion to Islamic Art and Architecture|pages=525–526 | veditors = Arnold E, Flood FB, Necipoğlu G |publisher=Wiley |isbn= 978-1-119-06857-0}}</ref>  A 14th century [[Kannada]] poetic work attributed to the Jain prince Mangarasa, ''Khagendra Mani Darpana'', describes several poisonous plants.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Bhat S, Udupa K | title = Taxonomical outlines of bio-diversity of Karnataka in a 14th century Kannada toxicology text Khagendra Mani Darpana | journal = Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Biomedicine | volume = 3 | issue = 8 | pages = 668–72; discussion 672 | date = August 2013 | pmid = 23905027 | pmc = 3703563 | doi = 10.1016/S2221-1691(13)60134-3 }}</ref>

[[File:Mathieu Joseph Bonaventure Orfila.jpg|thumb|left|[[Lithograph]] of [[Mathieu Orfila]]]]

The 16th-century Swiss physician [[Paracelsus]] is considered "the father" of modern toxicology, based on his rigorous (for the time) approach to understanding the effects of substances on the body.<ref>{{cite web|title=Paracelsus Dose Response in the Handbook of Pesticide Toxicology WILLIAM C KRIEGER / Academic Press Oct01|url=http://www.mindfully.org/Pesticide/Paracelsus-Dose-ToxicologyOct01.htm}}</ref> He is credited with the classic toxicology maxim, "''Alle Dinge sind Gift und nichts ist ohne Gift; allein die Dosis macht, dass ein Ding kein Gift ist.''" which translates as, "All things are poisonous and nothing is without poison; only the dose makes a thing not poisonous." This is often condensed to: "[[The dose makes the poison]]" or in Latin "Sola dosis facit venenum".<ref name="Ottoboni">{{cite book| vauthors = Ottoboni MA |url= https://archive.org/details/dosemakespoison00otto |title=The dose makes the poison: a plain-language guide to toxicology |publisher=Van Nostrand Reinhold |year=1991|isbn=978-0-442-00660-0 |edition=2nd |location=New York, N.Y |url-access=registration}}</ref>{{rp|30}}

[[Mathieu Orfila]] is also considered the modern father of toxicology, having given the subject its first formal treatment in 1813 in his ''Traité des poisons'', also called ''Toxicologie générale''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nlm.nih.gov/visibleproofs/galleries/biographies/orfila.html |publisher=U.S. National Library of Medicine |title=Biography of Mathieu Joseph Bonaventure Orfila (1787–1853)}}</ref>

In 1850, [[Jean Stas]] became the first person to successfully isolate plant poisons from human tissue. This allowed him to identify the use of [[nicotine]] as a poison in the Bocarmé murder case, providing the evidence needed to convict the Belgian Count [[Hippolyte Visart de Bocarmé]] of killing his brother-in-law.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Wennig R | title = Back to the roots of modern analytical toxicology: Jean Servais Stas and the Bocarmé murder case | journal = Drug Testing and Analysis | volume = 1 | issue = 4 | pages = 153–155 | date = April 2009 | pmid = 20355192 | doi = 10.1002/dta.32 }}</ref>{{clear left}}