Note (10) — BOOK IV.

10. Syrian oil.) I suppose our author must here mean what was called from its sweetness elæomeli—which Pliny says is produced spontaneously in the maritime parts of Syria. It flows from the trees, fat, thicker than honey, thinner than resin, of a sweet flavour, and is used by the physicians. Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. xv. cap. 7.—And to the same purpose Dioscorid. lib i. cap. 37.—To this account P. Ægineta adds, that about two cyathi of this taken in a hemina of water discharge crude and bilious humours by stool; but that this draught is apt to stupefy a person, which, however, is not dangerous, but he would require to be excited. P. Æginet. lib. vii. cap. 3.