CHAP. III. Whether there be any such poysons as will kill at a set time?
* 1.1TO the propounded question; whether there may be poysons which within a certain and definite time (put case a mouth or year) may kill men. Theophrastus thus answers; of poysons, some more speedily perform their parts, others more slowly; yet may you find no such as will kill in set limits of time, according to the will and desire of men; For that some kill sooner or later then others; they do not this of their own or proper nature, as Physicians right∣ly judg, but because the subject upon which they light, doth more or less resist or yield to their efficacy.* 1.2 Experience sheweth the truth hereof; for the same sort of poyson in the same weight and measure, given to sundry men of different tempers and complexions, will kill one in an hour, another in six hours, or in a day, and on the contrary will not so much as hurt some third man. You may also observe the same in purging medicines. For the sume purge given to diverse men in the same proportion, will purge some sooner, some later, some more sparingly, others more plentifully, and othersome not at all; also with some it will work gently, with othersome with pain and gripings. Of which diversity, there can no other cause be assigned, then mens different natures in complexion and temper, which no man can so exactly know and comprehend, as to have certain knowledg thereof, how much and bow long the native heat can resist and labour a∣gainst the strength of poyson, or how pervious or open the passages of the body may be, whereby the poyson may arrive at the heart and principal parts. For in such (for example sake) as have the passages of their arteries more large, the poyson may more readily and speedily enter into the heart, together with the air that is continually drawn into the body.