Squill is one of the oldest drugs known to man, and is also one of the oldest heart remedies used to-day. It is a bulbous plant with white or blue flowers, which grows abundantly in the sandy soil in countries on the Mediterranean coast, and also in Malta. It is mentioned in the Ebers papyrus (about 1500 B.C.), and in the works of the great physicians of the ancient world such as Dioscorides, Celsus, Theophrastus, and Galen. Hippocrates used it. Preparations of the bulb of the sea onion (Squill, Scilla maritime L., Urginea maritime Baker) were used therapeutically by the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans, i.e. by peoples of the Mediterranean region where the plant grows. With the passing of the centuries it assumed an important place in therapeutics especially for the dropsy. The drug was held in such high esteem at one time that a temple was erected to it in Pelusium. However, it fell into disfavour because of its tendency to produce nausea and vomiting. Squill was introduced again into clinical practice in the middle of the 18th century but, with the publication by William Withering in 1785 of his classical monograph on digitalis, squill was again relegated to a period of relative obscurity. During the latter pert of the last century and in recent years the position of squill as a 2 cardioactive drug was recognised and established by experimental work in animals and in patients with cardiac failure. However, at the present day the use of squill or any of its official galenical preparations is practically obsolete.