It is clearly shewn by the earliest records, that the ancients were in the possession of many powerful remedies; thus Melampus of Argos, the most ancient Greek physician with whom we are acquainted, is said to have cured one of the Argonauts of sterility, by administering the rust of iron in wine for ten days; and the same physician used Hellebore as a purge, on the daughters of King Prœtus, who were afflicted with melancholy. Venesection was also a remedy of very early origin, for Podalerius, on his return from the Trojan war, cured the daughter of Damethus, who had fallen from a height, by bleeding her in both arms. Opium, or a preparation of the poppy, was certainly known in the earliest ages; and it was probably opium that Helen mixed with wine, and gave to the guests of Menelaus, under the expressive name of _nepenthe_, (Odyss. Δ,) to drive away their cares, and increase their hilarity; and this conjecture receives much support from the fact, that the _nepenthe_ of Homer was obtained from the Egyptian Thebes, (whence the Tincture of Opium has been called _Thebaic_ Tincture;) and if the opinion of Dr. Darwin may be credited, the Cumæan Sibyll never sat on the portending tripod without first swallowing a few drops of the juice of the cherry-laurel. “At Phœbi nondum Patiens, immanis in antro, Bacchatur vates, magnum si pectore possit Excussisse deum: tanto magis ille fategat Os rabidum, fera corda domans, fingitque premendo.” ÆNEID, l. vi. v. 78.