In the eighteenth century this compound became a popular household opiate, and was frequently given to children for soothing purposes, especially as the Pharmacopœia had substituted syrup of meconium (poppies) for the honey. As the preparation was rather a strong astringent it was doubly harmful as a frequently taken remedy. In the P.L. 1746 two species of diascordium were prescribed, one with and one without opium; at the same time a “pulvis e bolo compositus” was introduced in which the scordium, the dittany, the sorrel seeds, the storax, the sealed earth, the bistort, and the galbanum, as well as the wine, were omitted. Edinburgh likewise omitted the scordium and other ingredients, and made the preparation still more astringent by the addition of catechu and kino. This was called Confectio Japonica. The mangled remains of the various formulas are represented in the British Pharmacopœia by Pulvis Catechu Compositus. THERIACA. Theriaca was invented by Nero’s physician, Andromachus, and was devised as an improvement on Mithridatium which until then was the great antidote in Roman pharmacy. The most important addition which appeared in the new formula was the introduction of vipers. Andromachus named his electuary “Galene,” which meant tranquil, probably to suggest that it was a soothing, anodyne medicine. It soon, however, acquired its permanent name, for it is referred to as Theriaca by Pliny, who would have been a contemporary with Andromachus. Pliny, it may be remarked, was rather contemptuous of the polypharmaceutic compounds which were then becoming so popular. They were devised, he says, “ad ostentationem artis;” just to “show off,” as we should say. Andromachus (or it may have been his son, a physician of the same name) wrote his formula, and described the virtues of his compound in Greek elegiac verses which he dedicated to Nero, and which Galen has preserved. The object of giving the formula in verse was that it should be less easy to modify it. The enumeration of the medicinal properties of the antidote left very little room for any other remedy. First it would counteract all poisons and bites of venomous animals. Besides, it would relieve all pains, weaknesses of the stomach, asthma, difficulty of breathing, phthisis, colic, jaundice, dropsy, weakness of sight, inflammation of the bladder and of the kidneys, and plague.