Above the double-flowering sweet violets (ca.1870, right), W. H. Prestele depicted Snowdrops from the genus Galanthus of winter/spring blooming plants with dark roots and down-facing white flowers. Snowdrops were linked (1722) by British poet Thomas Tickell to the herb Moly that wing-helmeted Hermes (left, A. Carracci’s ca.1590 Mercury Protecting Ulysses from the Charms of Circe) gave Odysseus (Ulysses) to counteract the potion of the witch-goddess Circe. Plaitakis and Duvoisin (1983) have suggested that the Snowdrop’s anticholinesterase inhibitor, galant(h)amine, could be apotropaic (warding off evil) against the tropane alkaloidal effects of Circe’s anticholinergic potion. (Copyright © the American Society of Anesthesiologists, Inc.)
Above the double-flowering sweet violets (ca.1870, right), W. H. Prestele depicted Snowdrops from the genus Galanthus of winter/spring blooming plants with dark roots and down-facing white flowers. Snowdrops were linked (1722) by British poet Thomas Tickell to the herb Moly that wing-helmeted Hermes (left, A. Carracci’s ca.1590 Mercury Protecting Ulysses from the Charms of Circe) gave Odysseus (Ulysses) to counteract the potion of the witch-goddess Circe. Plaitakis and Duvoisin (1983) have suggested that the Snowdrop’s anticholinesterase inhibitor, galant(h)amine, could be apotropaic (warding off evil) against the tropane alkaloidal effects of Circe’s anticholinergic potion. (Copyright © the American Society of Anesthesiologists, Inc.)
George S. Bause, M.D., M.P.H., Honorary Curator, ASA’s Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology, Schaumburg, Illinois, and Clinical Associate Professor, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio. UJYC@aol.com.
