psilli

Updated: June 25, 2025

The vegetable poisons, like the animal ones, produce more sudden and dangerous effects, when instilled into a wound, than when taken into the stomach; whence the families of Marfi and Psilli, in antient Rome, sucked the poison without injury out of wounds made by vipers, and were supposed to be indued with supernatural powers for this purpose.

Erasmus Darwin - The Botanic Garden. Part II.: Containing the Loves of the Plants. a Poem.: With Philosophical Notes.