Orvietan

Orvietan or "orviétan" was a medical concoction popular during the 17th and 18th centuries. It was used as a panacea against poisonings with criminal intent, as well as against mushroom poisonings, snakebite, scorpion stings, bites by rabid animals, and the plague.
Origins.
Gerolamo Ferranti started producing and selling "orviétan" in early 17th-century Paris. He was a fairground attraction, asking onlookers to give him unknown poisons to swallow and watch him cure himself with the remedy. Other charlatans in the business were Jean Vitrario, Desiderio Descombes, and Cristoforo Contugi. Though most physicians and pharmacists were skeptical, the reputed medical doctor Johann Schröder published his own recipe in "Pharmacopeia Medico-Chymica" in 1655. The first pharmacist to include "orviétan" in his compendium was Moyse Charas in "Pharmacopée Royale Galénique et Chymique", 1676.
Ingredients.
Orvietan was a concoction of partially toxic herbs, wine, and dissolved honey, but existed in powdered form too (sold in lead boxes). Patrizia Catellani and Renzo Console analyzed 35 different recipes for mixing "orvietan", published between 1655 and 1857. The number of ingredients varies from 9 to 57. The most frequent 26 ingredients are: garden angelica, healing wolfsbane, birthwort, bistort, sweet flag, Carline thistle, dittany, gentian, masterwort, black salsify, tormentil, valerian, blessed thistle, dittany of Crete, rue, germander, laurel berries, juniper berries, cinnamon, cloves, viper meat, and the two concoctions mithridate and theriac, as well as white wine and honey.
Literary references.
Literary works mentioning orvietan include: