Coturnism

Coturnism is an illness featuring muscle tenderness and rhabdomyolysis (muscle cell breakdown) after consuming quail (usually common quail, Coturnix coturnix, from which the name derives) that have fed on poisonous plants.

History

The condition was certainly known by the 4th century BC to ancient Greek, and subsequently Roman, naturalists, physicians and theologians. The Bible (Numbers 11:31-34) mentions an incident where the Israelites became ill after having consumed large amounts of quail in Sinai. Philo gives a more detailed version of the same Biblical story (The Special Laws: 4: 120-131). Early writers used quail as the standard example of an animal that could eat something poisonous to man without ill effects for themselves. Aristotle (On Plants 820:6-7), Philo (Geoponics: 14: 24), Lucretius (On the Nature of Things: 4: 639-640), Galen (De Temperamentis: 3:4) and Sextus Empiricus (Outlines of Pyrrhonism: 1: 57) all make this point.

Central to these ancient accounts is the thesis that quail became toxic to humans after consuming seeds from hellebore or henbane (Hyoscyamus niger). However Sextus Empiricus suggested that quail ate hemlock (Conium maculatum), an idea revived in the 20th century. Confirmation that the ancients understood the problem, comes from a 10th-century text Geoponica, based on ancient sources. This states, "Quails may graze hellebore putting those who afterwards eat them at risk of convulsions and vertigo....".