SC - Poisonous Tomatoes?

[Trierarch@aol.com]

At 5:20 PM -0500 11/25/00, Liam Fisher wrote:
>  >
>>  Do we have any evidence that tomatoes were considered poisonous, and
>>  if so when and where? I've seen lots of third hand assertions, but I
>>  don't think I have seen any primary source evidence. What, for
>>  example, does Gerard's Herbal say?
>
>Dunno, what DOES it say? but we DO have evidence that people such as Pliny
>had bad evidence as to whether or not something was poisonous and it
>was refuted at at later time such as in the case of Platina's entries on
>some of
>the herbs.

What examples were you thinking of? What did Pliny think was 
poisonous that wasn't?

>
>If they weren't considered poisonous then why the assertion that they took a
>long time to come into usage and a statement that they were cooked in
>sauces because it was though to reduce the poisons in them?


Where do these assertions originate? Once one writer has published 
the assertion that people thought tomatoes were poisonous--with or 
without evidence--other people can easily enough expand on it with 
such assertions. That's why I am asking for the original sources.

>  I merely
>stated that it you ate something and it made you sick, you would tend
>to think it was poisonous and probably not consider eating it again.

Maybe. But you shouldn't assume people were any stupider then than 
now--and they surely knew that there were some things that make you 
sick if you ate them raw but were good cooked.

>
>So if people would not eat them because of the plant family the belonged to
>where is the evidence that they WEREN'T considered poisonous in period?

The fact that they were being eaten in Italy in the 16th century. The 
fact that they were described as eaten, raw, in the mid 18th century, 
which is after our period but earlier than some of the supposed 
anecdotes about people thinking they were poisonous.

In any case, I don't think one can argue that something was 
considered poisonous just because you can't find anyone saying that 
it isn't. People in this thread seem to be accepting what is, so far, 
an undocumented assertion as fact and arguing from it. It might be 
true, but I would like some evidence. So far the only period 
references--to 16th c. usage in Italy, and Gerard early in the 17th 
century, provide no support at all for the idea that tomatoes were 
considered poisonous.
- -- 
David Friedman
Professor of Law
Santa Clara University
ddfr at best.com
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/