UNASSIGNED: Socrates\' death has almost always been attributed to his drinking an extract of poison hemlock, Conium maculatum, despite apparent discrepancies between the clinical features described in classical translations of the Phaedo and general clinical experience of poisoning with the toxic alkaloids it contains.
UNASSIGNED: Recent acute philological analysis of the original Greek text has resolved many of the discrepancies by showing that the terms used in the classical translations were misinterpretations of the clinical signs described. It is also likely that the unpleasant clinical effects, such as vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhoea and muscle fasciculation commonly described in modern reports of poison hemlock poisoning, were not mentioned to present the death of Socrates in a way consistent with his philosophical ideals and those of his pupil Plato.
UNASSIGNED: Seen in this way, the death of Socrates can be accepted as a limited case report of Conium maculatum poisoning. Even after reaching that conclusion, intriguing scientific questions remain about the toxicity of the coniine alkaloids and the mechanisms of their effects.
■苏格拉底的死亡几乎总是归因于他喝了毒铁杉提取物,黄斑Coniummaculatum,尽管Phaedo的经典翻译中描述的临床特征与其中包含的有毒生物碱中毒的一般临床经验之间存在明显差异。
■最近对原始希腊文本的急性语言学分析通过表明经典翻译中使用的术语是对所描述的临床体征的误解,解决了许多差异。也可能是令人不快的临床效果,比如呕吐,腹痛,腹泻和肌肉震颤通常描述在现代报告毒物铁杉中毒,没有提到以符合他的哲学理想和他的学生柏拉图的方式提出苏格拉底的死亡。
■这样看,苏格拉底的死亡可以被接受为黄斑Conium中毒的有限病例报告。即使在得出这个结论之后,有趣的科学问题仍然是关于球虫生物碱的毒性及其作用机制。