[p. 261] But Plinius Secundus, in his work On Natural History, wrote 1 that hellebore could be taken with the greatest safety in the island of Anticyra. 2 That for this reason Livius Drusus, the former tribune of the commons, when he was suffering from the so-called “election” disease, 3 sailed to Anticyra, drank hellebore in that island, and was thus cured of the ailment. I have read besides that the Gauls, when hunting, dip their arrows in hellebore, because the wild animals that are struck and killed by arrows thus treated become tenderer for eating; but because of the contagion of the hellebore they are said to cut out a large piece of flesh around the wounds made by the arrows.
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[16arg] That Pontic ducks have a power which is able to expel poisons; and also of the skill of Mithridates in preparing antidotes.IT is said that the ducks of Pontus commonly live by eating poisons. It was also written by Lenaeus, 4 the freedman of Pompey the Great, that Mithridates, the famous king of Pontus, was skilled in medicine and in antidotes of that kind, and that he was accustomed to mix the blood of these ducks with drugs that have the power of expelling poisons, and that the blood was the very most powerful agency
