Note 53 — USES.

Amadou is largely used in Italy, where it is called esca; the Latins likewise knew it by this name, though their more common appellation for it was fomes; the Byzantine Greeks hellenicized esca into ὕσκα, which was their word for it; the ancient Greeks called it ζώπυρον. Salmasius tells us how it used to be made in his time, which indeed was the same as now: the fungus was first boiled, then beaten to pieces in a mortar, next hammered out to deprive it of its woody fibres, and lastly, being steeped in a strong solution of nitre, was left to dry in the sun. It appears, on the testimony of the anonymous author of the article “Fungo” in the ‘Dizionario Classico di Medicina,’ that it is also eaten when young; but I cannot speak of it from personal experience:—“In prima età mangiasi colto di fresco affettato e condito d’ogni modo; specialmente nelle provincie di Belluno ed Udine, o salasi per la quadragesima.”