Scribonius Longus (Latin Scribonius Largus listen)) was a Roman physician of the 1st century AD. who served at the court of Emperor Claudius (AD 41-54) and apparently accompanied the Roman army in the conquest of Britain. He is famous for having written a pharmacopoeia (list of recipes) that was used in Europe until the 17th century, and also for being the first known to have used electricity as a remedy. However, his life is a mystery.
Because all we know about him is through his own writings. Major ancient sources like Suetonius or Pliny the Elder do not even mention him. Something especially strange in the latter, since they were contemporaries (Scribonius was 20 years older than Pliny) and both explain the usefulness of the index in books in almost identical terms:to make it easier to find what you are looking for . Many historians have wondered how it is possible that Pliny did not know Scribonius Longus.
One reason may be that Scribonius's text, entitled De compositione medicinalum liber , would not have circulated widely in the Latin world. He is, however, mentioned by the Greek physician Galen, who was active during the second half of the second century AD. in Pergamon and then in Rome from 162 A.D., where he would come into contact with his work, and through which he would go on to medieval era compilations.
Although he belonged to the gens Scribonia, it is believed that he was probably a freedman or a son of a freedman who therefore bears the name of his former master, but that he would have achieved the status of citizen. He could have been born in Sicily and his teachers, as he himself states, were:Apuleius Celsus (one of the first doctors who wrote in Latin instead of Greek), from whom he transmitted two prescriptions, one for cough and the other against Rage; and Vecio Valente, also a student of Celsus and who became the personal doctor of Messalina, the third wife of Emperor Claudius.
Some historians believe that he actually must have been Greek and he wrote in this language, later translating into Latin. Hence, his prose is little elaborated and very colloquial. In any case, Scribonius agreed to the environment of the Emperor Claudius recommended by Gaius Julius Callisto, one of the most influential freedmen in the court. Proof of his good relations among the imperial family is that he speaks in the texts of the medicines and remedies used by some of his present and past members, such as Augustus, Tiberius, Octavia, and Messalina.
When Claudius decided to invade Britain in AD 43, Scribonius participated in the campaign, although it is unknown whether he did so as an army physician or as a private physician to one of the expedition commanders.
Four years later, in A.D. 47, he publishes the only one of his works that has come down to us, known as the Compositions , in which he collects a collection of pharmaceutical formulas and traditional remedies that includes 271 recipes, the vast majority of his own invention. In the text, which Scribonius dedicates to Callisto, he also acknowledges his debt to his teachers, friends and the writings of important previous physicians.
In the preface, Scribonius affirms himself as the heir to Hippocratic ethics, establishing a series of ethical norms in pharmaceutical prescription that had a great influence on medical humanism in later centuries. In fact, the work of Scribonius is the oldest documentary reference to the Hippocratic Oath . Medical prescription should be governed, according to him, by two principles or virtues:humanitas and mercy , because medicine should be the art of healing and not harming (scientia sanandi ).
The 271 recipes are divided into three main sections. The first is made up of 162 recipes and is organized by disease, from head to toe. The second is a list of 37 antidotes for poisons, bites, and stings, and the third deals with poultices, dressings, and salves used by surgeons.
Although many of these recipes come from the works of previous doctors, he also used to buy recipes of dubious origin from anyone who could prove that they worked. He condemns superstitious remedies that are outside the medical profession and uses plant substances that have therapeutic properties (and can be found in modern herbal shops). Many of them continued to be used until at least 1655.
But perhaps the most famous recipe is his treatment of gout and headaches with electricity, the first documented use in history. Evidently, at that time it was animal electricity.
Specifically, the application of a Mediterranean torpedo fish or marbled ray (Torpedo marmorata ) or an Atlantic torpedo (Torpedo nobiliana ) on the patient's forehead, between the eyebrows. In this way the fish discharged its electricity until the patient's senses went numb . Hence the resulting state is called torpor . In the case of gout, the fish was placed under the feet.
He also recommends having several lines on hand, as sometimes two or three are not enough for the treatment to work .