Page:Chronicles of pharmacy (Volume 1).djvu/180



Abracadabra was the most famous of the ancient charms or talismans employed in medicine. Its mystic meaning has been the subject of much ingenious investigation, but even its derivation has not been agreed upon. The first mention of the term is found in the poem "De Medicina Praecepta Saluberrima," by Quintus Serenus Samonicus. Samonicus was a noted physician in Rome in the second and third centuries. He was a favourite with the Emperor Severus, and accompanied him in his expedition to Britain 208. Severus died at York in 211, and in the following year his son Caracalla had his brother Geta, and 20,000 other people supposed to be favourable to Geta's claims, assassinated. Among the victims was Serenus Samonicus. The poem, which is the only existing work of Serenus, consists of 1,115 hexameter lines which illustrate the medical practice and superstitions of the period when it was written. The lines in which the word "Abracadabra," and the way to employ it are introduced are these:—

Inscribis chartae, quod dicitur Abracadabra, Saepius: et subter repetas, sed detrahe summae, Et magis atque magis desint elementa figuris Singula, quae semper rapies et coetera figes, Donec in angustam redigatur litera conum. His lino nexis collum redimire memento.

In a paper on Serenus Samonicus by Dr. Barnes of Carlisle, contributed to the St. Louis Medical Review, the following translation of the above passage is given. A semitertian fever of a particular character is the disease under discussion.

"Write several times on a piece of paper the word 'Abracadabra,' and repeat the word in the lines