William Withering- He was a British physician that used foxglove extracts to treat congestive heart failure. He heard rumors of the foxglove's curing abilities, so he decided to test it. He studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh Medical School. He worked at Birmingham General Hospital in 1779. The story behind his discovery of Digitalis is that he noticed a man with congestive heart failure miraculously recover after taking an herbal remedy. He became famous because he discovered the active ingredient of the mixture, which was foxglove. It is now known as Digitalis.
Socrates- He was a Greek philosopher who was sentenced to death after drinking a potion that was made of the fruit and seeds of hemlock. It contained the alkaloid called Coniine. It is the poisonous component of the hemlock plant, explaining what caused Socrates's death. He was also convicted of corruption of young men of Athens, along with irreligion.
William Shakespear- In Shakespear's Romeo and Juliet, he makes many references to the mandrake plant. The mandrake is a plant with a long medicinal, magical, mystical properties associated with it. Mandrake is a term mainly used to describe its roots, which contain poisonous alkaloids and have been used medically as a pain reliever. Rumor has it that when it is pulled from the ground, you can hear piercing screams. It was referenced in Romeo and Juliet, where Juliet says, " ...with loathsome smells, and shrieks like mandrakes' torn out of the Earth."
Sigmund Freud- He was a pshychiatrist who considered cocaine as a medicine. He prescribed it for its stimulating properties. He aslo used it to treat morphine addiction. But it was soon discovered that cocaine itself was extremely addictive. It produces rapid and extreme euphoria, along with equally extreme depression.
Albert Hofmann- He was a chemist that worked for a Swiss pharmaceutical company known as Sandoz. He was working in the research laboratories of Sandoz, preparing another synthetic derivative of lysergic acid. This would be the 25th derivative he has made. He called lysergic acid Diethylamide LSD-25, now known as just LSD. Nothing was noted about its properties. It was not until 1943 that Hofmann made this derivative again and he experienced the first of what is now known as an acid trip. LSD is not absorbed through the skin so he more than likely transferred it from his finger to his mouth. A slight trace of it would have caused hallucinations, or what Hofmann described as "an uninterrupted stream of fantastic pictures, extraordinary shapes with intense kaleidoscope play of colors." Hofmann decide to take LSD to test his hypothesis that this was the compound that caused hallucinations. In 1947, the Sandoz company began marketing LSD as a tool that treated alcoholic schizophrenia.
Saint Anthony- He was a was a man considered to have special powers against fire, epilepsy, and infection. That made him the saint to appeal to for relief from ergotism. The "dance" of Saint Vitus' dance refers to convulsive contortions and twitching due to the neurological effects of some of the ergot alkaloids.