BOOK SEVENTH. (continued 10)

Χαλκὸς κεκαυμένος,

Æs ustum, Burnt Copper, is acrid, with a share of astringency. It therefore is the best of remedies for the cicatrization of ulcers upon dry bodies; but if washed it agrees better with tender bodies.

Χαλκοῦ ἄνθος,

Æris flos, the Flower of Copper, is possessed of more subtile powers than burnt copper, or than the squama æris. Wherefore, when added to collyria, it clears away asperities and sycoses of the eyelids.

Commentary. Though there can be no doubt that this term is generally used by the Greek classical authors to signify bronze, or a combination of copper and tin in the proportion of from 2 to 14 per cent. of the latter, it is also certain that it was frequently applied to native copper, as it is in general by the authorities on the Materia Medica. The ancients, it may be proper to remark cursorily in this place, were acquainted with the formation of brass, which they made by compounding together copper and cadmia. See Watson’s ‘Chemical Essays,’ and Beckmann’s ‘History of Inventions.’ Brass was their aurichalcum or orichalcum. The Æs ustum, according to Geoffroy, “is copper reduced to a calx or crocus, either by itself or mixed with sulphur or salt, by a long calcination in a reverberatory furnace.” “The Squama æris, or flake of copper,” he adds, “is little different from the Æs ustum, being only the particles of burnt copper which fly off when it is hammered.” He says of the Flos æris, “it is nothing but copper reduced to small grains like millet seed, which is done by pouring cold water upon melting copper, which thereupon immediately flies every way into grains.” In short it was fine granulated copper. These preparations of copper are described by all the ancient authorities. See in particular Dioscorides (v, 87, 88), who describes the process of making the flos æris very minutely. He recommends it as a detergent and caustic medicine for various purposes, such as removing dimness of the cornea, wasting polypi in the nostrils, and protuberances about the anus; and also for the cure of deafness when blown into the ear with a syringe in the form of a powder, and in complaints of the gums and tonsils. He also says that given to the amount of three oboli it evacuates thick humours. He also describes several processes for burning the copper, and recommends the æs ustum as a cleansing and detergent medicine for various ulcers, especially those of the eye, and also as an emetic when taken in a draught with hydromel, or in a linctus with honey. None of the other Greek authorities treat so fully of these preparations as Dioscorides. Celsus prescribes them frequently as caustic and corrosive substances. (v, 6, 7, et pluries.) The Arabians used these articles not only as external applications, but as emetics and purgatives. See Avicenna (ii, 2, 231); Serapion (c. 414); Rhases (Cont. l. ult. iii, 48); Averrhoes (Collig. v, 43); Haly Abbas (Pract. ii, 48); Ebn Baithar (ii, 551.) The flowers of copper, and burnt or calcined copper, are noticed in the works of all our earlier writers on medicine, and recommended to be administered both internally and externally. See Platearius (De Simpl. Med.) The process of preparing calcined copper is minutely described by Moses Charras in his ‘Royal Pharmacopœia,’ published at Paris in 1676. They are briefly described by Dr. Hill, who says of the æs ustum that “it was much used externally by the ancients.” (Mat. Med. 32.) Neither of these preparations of copper occurs in the Complete English Dispensatory of Quincy, published in 1763. They are omitted also in Pemberton’s London Dispensatory, published in 1746. They would appear, however, to have been longer retained in use by the Continental physicians, since a formula for preparing the Calx æris is given in Crantz’s Mat. Med. (ii, 91. Vienna, 1765.) He says that the Flos æris, and Squama æris, were preparations not in use. Rutty ranks them among the obsolete medicines of the ancients. A formula for Æs ustum is given in Gray’s Suppl. to Pharmacop. (p. 242.) It is the same as that of Dioscorides. (v, 37.)

Χαμάιδρυς,

Chamædrys, Germander, is heating and drying in the third degree. It therefore melts down enlarged spleens, proves diuretic and emmenagogue, and removes visceral obstructions.

Commentary. It clearly is the Teucrium Chamædrys L. Theophrastus says that its fruit purges bile. (H. P. ix, 10.) Dioscorides commends it in spasms, scirrhous spleen, dysuria, and incipient dropsy; and as an emmenagogue; and, by the way, Dr. Hill confirms this account of it. Galen and all the other authorities treat of it in nearly the same terms. We have not been able to find it in the works of Hippocrates. For the Arabians, see particularly Serapion (c. 180); Avicenna (ii, 2, 132); Rhases (Cont. l. ult. i, 152.) One of Serapion’s Arabian authorities recommends the syrup in chronic coughs, dyspepsia, and incipient dropsies, and the decoction in black jaundice. Avicenna joins both Dioscorides and Serapion in regard to the virtues which they ascribe to it. Whether or not this be the “trixago” of Celsus (iv, 6) has never been satisfactorily determined. The Arabian translators adopt this name. It has still the reputation of being a pectoral medicine. Lindley (Veg. Kingd. 661.)

Χαμαίκισσος,

Hedera, Ground Ivy; the flower being considerably bitter, removes obstructions of the liver. It is also given in ischiatic diseases.

Commentary. We see no good reason for disputing its identity with Glechoma hederaceum, or Ground Ivy, which we believe to have been introduced into this country by the Romans for the Chamæcissos. Dioscorides gives it nearly the same characters as our author, that is to say, he recommends it in sciatica and jaundice. (iv, 124.) Galen and the other Greek authorities treat of it in nearly the same terms as our author. The Arabians notice it under the same head with the other species of ivy. See Serapion (De Simpl. 41); Avicenna (ii, 2, 169); Rhases (Contin. 190.) The ground-ivy maintained a place in the Dispensatory with a high reputation as a hepatic, splenitic, diuretic, and nephritic medicine in the days of Quincy. (117.) In the modern Greek Pharmacopœia the glechoma hederaceum stands for the χαμαίκισσος. (75.)

Χαμαικέρασος. This occurs in the “Euporiston” generally ascribed to Dioscorides. It is referred by Sprengel to the Convallaria majalis, or Lily of the valley.

Χαμαιλέυκη,

Chamæleuce, Ground Poplar, is calefacient in the third order and desiccative in the first.

Commentary. Sprengel maintains that we should read χαμαιπέυκη, and refers it to Stachelina Chamæpeuce L. In Dioscor. (iv, 125.) Dioscorides merely recommends it in lumbago. All the other authorities assign it the same general characters.

Χαμαιλέων,

Chamæleon; the root of the black chamæleon is calefacient and desiccative in nearly the third order. It is also a detergent application to the skin, and a discutient and emollient one to indurated tumours. When applied in a cataplasm it cures phagedænic ulcers. But when taken internally it is poisonous. The root of the white chamæleon is like that of the black, but more bitter. When drunk with austere wine to the amount of an acetabulum, it kills the broad intestinal worms. It is also useful in dropsical complaints.

Commentary. We stated in the Fifth Book, Sections 37, 46, that we were inclined to refer the black chamæleon to the Carthamus corymbosus, and the white to the Carlina acaulis, and we see no good reason for changing this opinion. Some good authorities, however, prefer the C. gummifera. See Lindley (Veg. Kingd. 708.) The virtues, however, which Dr. Lindley ascribes to the C. acaulis, agree very well with those of the ixia, or white chamæleon, as stated by the ancient authorities; whether, however, it produces the gum resembling mastich, as the white chamæleon is described by Dioscorides as doing, we are not so sure. Parkinson says it produces such a gum “sometimes, and in some places.” (Theatre of Plants, 968.) See also Gerard (1157.) Dioscorides recommends its root as a vermifuge; in dropsy and dysuria when taken in wine. (iii, 8.) The root of the black chamæleon he recommends with other articles for the cure of lichen, for toothache, and various other purposes. (9.) Our author borrows mostly from Galen under this head. Aëtius remarks that the root of the black species is poisonous, and hence is to be applied only externally in scabies, lichen, leprosy, and the like. This species is noticed in the Hippocratic works. (De Ulcer.) The other occurs in the works of Celsus, who prescribes it as an ingredient in a malagma for gout. (v, 18, 33.) The Arabians treat elaborately of both species. See Avicenna (ii, 2, 197, 455); Serapion (c. 274, 275); Rhases (Cont. l. ult. ii, 208); Averrhoes (Collig. v, 42.) Upon the whole their characters of them agree with those by Dioscorides and Galen.

Χαμάιμηλον ἢ Ἄνθεμις,

Chamæmelum, or Anthemis, Chamomile, heats and dries in the first order. It is also attenuant, discutient, relaxant, and aromatic.

Commentary. It certainly applies to the Anthemis nobilis, but probably is not restricted to it. It appears to be the ἄνθεμον of Theophrastus. (H. P. vii, 8, 14.) It is the ἄνθεμις of Dioscorides, who describes three species, which it has been found very difficult to distinguish and identify. He says the roots, the flowers, and the stem are calefacient and attenuant, that both when drunk and in a hip-bath they promote the evacuation of the menses, fœtus, calculi, and urine; that they are drunk for tympanitis and ileus; cure jaundice and diseases of the liver; and that the decoction is used in a fomentation for complaints about the bladder. He says the chamomiles cure fistula lachrymalis in a cataplasm, and aphthæ as a masticatory, and that the oil prepared in a manner described by him, is useful in intermittent fevers when the body is rubbed with it. (iii, 143.) Aëtius strongly recommends the whole body to be rubbed with oil of chamomile in such cases to promote perspiration. According to Galen this is the ἐυάνθεμον of Hippocrates. (Morb. Mulier., i, 625.) We cannot find it in Celsus. Galen, in the preliminary dissertation to his ‘Mat. Med.,’ strongly eulogises the oil of chamomile as being calculated to soothe pain, relieve contracted parts, soften hardened, and to dispel fevers not accompanied with visceral inflammation. (iii, 133, ed. Basil.) The Arabians appear to have been very partial to this plant, of which they treat at great length. See Avicenna (ii, 2, 118); Serapion (De Simpl. 22); Rhases (Contin. l. ult. ii, 154, i, 156); Averrhoes (Collig. v, 42); Haly Abbas (Pract. ii, 34.) In a word, they entirely concur in the characters given to the chamomiles by Dioscorides and Galen.

Χαμαιπίτυς,

Chamæpitys, Ground Pine, heats in the second order, but dries in the third. It is therefore a cathartic and detergent of the viscera, especially of the liver. It is diuretic and emmenagogue, agglutinates large wounds, and cures putrid ulcers. It also discusses scirrhous swellings, and the decoction of it is useful in ischiatic diseases.

Commentary. It appears probable that our author’s plant is Ajuga chamæpitys, but here commentators are by no means agreed. It is briefly mentioned by Nicander (Alex. 65), and by Celsus as a medicine which opens the pores or mouths of vessels (v, 4), but it does not occur, we believe, in the Hippocratic treatises. Of the three species described by Dioscorides, the first is probably this plant, the second is a species of teucrium, and the third ajuga iva. His characters of the first agree in the main with those given to it by our author, who, as well as Galen, Aëtius, and Oribasius, evidently copy from him. The other two species, he says, are possessed of similar powers. All the Arabians concur in representing it as being diuretic, emmenagogue, a medicine that expels the fœtus, and a laxative. See Rhases (Cont. l. ult. i, 153); Avicenna (ii, 2,131); Serapion (c. 179); Averrhoes (Collig. v, 32.) Avicenna in particular recommends it for the cure of sciatica and gout, and for this virtue it was celebrated as long as it retained a place in our Dispensatory. See Quincy (116.) It was an ingredient in the famous Portland powder. It is still to be found in the shops, where it bears the names of Iva arthritica and Teucrium chamæpitys. See Gray (Suppl. to Pharmacop. 49.)

Χαμάιδρωψ,

Chamædrops; some call this plant Chamædrys, and some Teucrium, being possessed of similar powers to the Chamædrys.

Commentary. According to Dioscorides it is the same as the Χαμάιδρυς.

Χαμαισύκη,

Chamæsyce, Ground Fig, has detergent and acrid powers, so that the twigs and juice of it remove myrmecia and acrochordones. They therefore clear away thick cicatrices in the eyes with honey, and cure dimness of vision and incipient suffusions.

Commentary. From the place assigned to it by Dioscorides it was evidently a spurge. It is acknowledged to be the Euphorbia chamæcyce. Our author appears to have borrowed the characters which he gives it from Dioscorides. (iv, 167.) Galen and the others do the same. It does not occur in the works either of Hippocrates or Celsus, nor have we been able to find it in those of the Arabians. We are not aware of its having been used by modern authorities.

Χαμέλαια,

Chamelæa, Mezereon, or Spurge Olive, is possessed of detergent powers. It therefore cleanses foul ulcers and eschars with honey.

Commentary. Notwithstanding the difference of opinion which has prevailed among the commentators regarding this plant, we see no good grounds for doubting that it was the Daphne Mezereon, which we believe to have been naturalized in this country by the Romans for its medicinal uses. Dioscorides says of its leaves that they are like to those of the olive, but more slender and thick, biting to the taste and scarifying the trachea. Its leaves, he adds, purge phlegm and bile downwards, especially if taken in a pill with double the quantity of southernwood mixed with one part of the chamelæa; let it be taken in water or honey as a pill; but it is insoluble, for it is evacuated as it was taken; the powdered leaves mixed up with honey cleanse foul ulcers, and such as are covered with eschars. (iv, 169.) We do not meet with it in the works of Hippocrates nor of Celsus. Galen and the other Greek authorities treat of it in very general terms like our author. Beyond all doubt is this the mezereon of Serapion, who commences his chapter on it by giving extracts from the descriptions of the chamelæa given by Dioscorides, Galen, and our author. He then gives a very lengthy account of it from Arabian authorities, first from Alcanzi and next from Aben Mesuai, which we regret that our necessary limits prevent us from giving a proper abstract of. He says that persons of a gross constitution, and more especially old men, bear this medicine best, and he recommends us to administer it with myrobalans, or tamarinds, or prunes. He further directs it to be given in water that has been boiled. Altogether there is not a more important chapter in Serapion than the one on Mezereon. (c. 373.) Mesue also gives a very interesting account of the mezereon, which he illustrates with extracts from Dioscorides and Galen on the chamelæa. He assigns to it powers to purge yellow and black bile, and says that its greatest use is in dropsy. It is also, he says, anthelminthic. He recommends tents smeared with it for fistulæ and sinuous ulcers. (De Simpl. 22.) Haly Abbas also gives an excellent account of it, representing it as a medicine which purges phlegm, yellow and black bile. (Pract. 2, 54, 564.) Rhases describes the two chamæleons and the chamelæa together under the head of Laureola. He quotes “the Book of Poisons” as stating that in the dose of two drachms it proves fatal. He gives quotations from Dioscorides, Galen, and our author. (Cont. l. ult. i, 413.) Avicenna, in like manner, describes the two chamæleons and the chamelæa under the head of mezereon, but evidently recognised the distinction between the last and the first two. He commends the mezereon particularly in dropsy. (ii, 2, 455.) The above sketch, it will be remarked, clearly proves the identity of the χαμέλαια of the Greeks, and the Mezereon of the Arabians. We admit, however, that it does not prove their identity with the Daphne Mezereon. To us it appears, however, that the physiological effects of the mezereon, as described by our best authorities of the present day, correspond very well with the effects of the chamelæa or mezereon as described by Dioscorides and Serapion. In particular compare Pereira (805) with Serapion (l. c.) It is proper to mention, however, that Sibthorp held the χ. to be Daphne oleoides. Both the Daphne Mezereon, and D. Gnidium are retained in the modern Greek Pharmacopœia. (108.)

Χελιδόνιον,

Chelidonium, Columbine or Celandine; the great is calefacient in the third order, and powerfully detergent. The juice of it contributes to acuteness of sight. The root when drunk with anise removes icteric obstructions, and also when taken with wine. When masticated it cures toothache. The smaller species, which belongs to the fourth order of calefacients, is more acrid, so as to ulcerate the skin in a cataplasm. It also removes leprous nails. The juice of it purges by the nose.

Commentary. That the first species is the Chelidonium majus L. admits of no dispute. The other would seem to be the Ranunculus Ficaria, or Fig-wort. Pliny praises it as an application to strumous tumours, and a remedy for impairment of sight. From the experiments of Orfila, it appears that the C. magus acts as a very acrid poison. Dioscorides describes the great celandine very minutely, and recommends it in jaundice and toothache. (ii, 201.) He gives the same character of the less as our author. (ii, 212.) Galen and Aëtius treat of them like our author. Neither of them is to be found in the works of Hippocrates. Celsus prescribes the juice of the “chelidonia” as an application to enlarged tonsils. (vi, 14.) Both species are distinctly treated of by the Arabians. See Avicenna (ii, 2, 295, 727); Serapion (c. 196); Rhases (Cont. l. ult. i, 200.) They all recommend the juice of the greater celandine in jaundice, in toothache, and in affections of the eyes. It long held a place in our Dispensatory, retaining its character for curing jaundice and removing films from the eyes. See Quincy (117.) Even at the present day rustic farriers use the acrid juice of the celandine for removing films from the eyes of cattle. The chelidonium majus occurs in the modern Greek Pharmacopœia. (46.)

Χελιδόνες,

Hirundines, Swallows; when burnt their ashes, if rubbed in with honey, cure inflammatory cynanche. They also contribute to acuteness of sight.

Commentary. It is the Hirundo rustica. Celsus also recommends the ashes of swallows in cases of cynanche and diseases of the eyes. (iv, 4.) Dioscorides speaks of their use in these and in other cases. (ii, 6.) Galen gives the same account of them as our author. The Arabians repeat the descriptions given by Dioscorides and Galen. See Serapion (c. 443); Avicenna (ii, 2, 347); Rhases (Contin. l. ult. i, 741); Ebn Baithar (i, 375.)

Χολὴ,

Fel, Bile, or Gall, is the hottest of all animal juices, but differs according to the colour, for the yellow is hotter than the pale, and the violet-coloured than the yellow; and also according to the difference of the animals which produce it; forasmuch as that of swine is the weakest of all, so that it agrees with ulcers in the ears, and does not prove pungent; but that of sheep is more acrid, and still more that of goats, to which the galls of bears and oxen are allied. But the gall of bulls is stronger, and still more so that of the hyæna, next that of the fish called callionymus, and that of the scorpion which answers in suffusions, dimness of vision, and leucomata, and likewise that of the sea-tortoise. The gall of the wild goat is believed to cure nyctolopia. The gall of all fowls is more acrid and desiccative than the gall of quadrupeds. But of them the best is the gall of cocks and partridges. Those of hawks and eagles are in so far more acrid and corrosive, and of a violet colour, but sometimes black.

Commentary. Our author’s account of the medicinal properties of bile is abridged from Galen. Bile is an article which, although now excluded from the British Pharmacopœias, still holds its place in the Continental. Scarpa recommends the gall of certain animals for the removal of albugo. Pliny thus states its virtues as a medicine: “Vis ejus excalfacere, mordere, scindere, extrahere, discutere. Minorum animalium subtilius intelligitur, et ideo ad oculorum medicamenta utilius existimatur.” (H. N. xxviii, 40.) See Dioscorides (ii, 96.) Avicenna calls it a hot, abstergent medicine. Of quadrupeds, he says, the strongest is that of a calf, and the weakest that of a sheep. He treats largely of the subject, but draws liberally from Dioscorides and Galen (ii, 2, 250.) See also Serapion (De Simpl. 459); Haly Abbas (Pract. ii, 50); Rhases (Cont. l. ult. i, 291); Ebn Baithar (ii, 510.) The gall of a bull is retained in the modern Greek Pharmacopœia.

Χονδρίλη,

Chondrile, Gum Succory, being a species of Endive, is bitterish, and is therefore so far more desiccative than it.

Commentary. Without doubt it is the Chondrilla juncea, or Gum Succory. It produces a gum similar to Lactucarium, for which it is still cultivated in Lemnos. See Lindley (Veg. Kingd. 708.) Dioscorides describes another species which is supposed to be Apargia tuberosa. Dioscorides describes accurately the gum of the former species which he compares to mastich, and says of it that when applied on a linen cloth with myrrha to the size of an olive it is emmenagogue; that along with natron it cleanses mild leprosy; that the gum is used for glueing the hairs of the eyelashes; that the fresh root does the same when a needle is dipped into it and applied to the hairs; that it is beneficial in the bites of the viper; and that its juice is an astringent of the bowels. He describes the second species as being also glutinous. (ii, 160.) Galen and the other Greek authorities treat only of the former species, and that in very brief terms. Neither of them are described either by Hippocrates or Celsus. We find difficulty in discovering traces of it in any of the works of the Arabians, except Ebn Baithar (i, 395.) The Chondrilla juncea is still not wholly unknown in the shops. See Gray (Suppl. to Pharmacop. 63.)

Χόνδρος,

Chondrus, is like wheat, but more glutinous than it.

Commentary. In the First Book we have explained its nature. (Vol. I, 123.) It would appear to have been the article now called Farro, being prepared from the spelt wheat, exactly as pearled barley is from barley. See Gray (Suppl. to Pharmacop. 16.)

Χρυσοκόλλα,

Chrysocolla; one kind of it is found in metal mines, and another is prepared in a mortar of red copper with a pestle of the same, it being triturated with the urine of a boy not come to puberty during the heat of the dog days. It therefore is detergent, having discutient and desiccative powers greater than those of the kind found in metal mines, so that it consumes flesh without being pungent. It therefore agrees with ill-conditioned ulcers. By burning it you may render it less pungent.

Commentary. In order to understand this very complicated subject, it will be necessary in the first place to give an exposition of what the ancients themselves have written upon it. Dioscorides writes thus of the Chrysocolla: “The best is the Armenian, which is of an intense leek colour; the second in quality is the Macedonian; and then the Cyprian, of which the kind that is pure must be selected; but that which is full of earth and stones must be rejected. The aforesaid article is to be worked thus: Having pounded it, throw it into a mortar, and having poured in water, rub strongly with the flattened hand to the mortar; then allowing it to settle, strain; and pouring in more water, again rub, and do this alternately until it becomes clean and pure; then having dried it in the sun, lay past for use. But if you wish to burn (calcine?) it, do so in the following manner: Having triturated it sufficiently, put it into a pan, place upon the coals, and do otherwise as we previously said in the former cases. The chrysocolla has the power of deterging ulcers, repressing and cleansing fungous flesh; is styptic, calefacient, mildly septic, with a certain amount of pungency. It belongs to the class of medicines which excite vomiting, and which may prove fatal to life.” (v, 104.) This chrysocolla is evidently the same as that which Theophrastus has described as “being found in great quantity in gold mines and the parts around them.” (De Lapid. 47.) Now we may here say at once that every person conversant with mineralogy, must recognise the chrysocolla, described above, as being the mineral called “common copper-green” by Jameson, being an impure carbonate of copper. For a clear description of it, see Cleaveland (Mineralogy, p. 570.) This, it will be remarked, is the only substance to which Dioscorides applies the name of Chrysocolla; but in a preceding chapter, treating of the varieties of verdigris, he says, “There is a certain kind of verdigris made by the goldsmiths, by means of a mortar and pestle, of Cyprian copper and the urine of a young person, with which they solder gold.” (v, 92.) Now to this variety of the verdigris, as we shall soon see, the name Chrysocolla (from its being used in soldering gold) was also applied by the writers subsequent to Dioscorides. Thus Pliny (H. N. xxxiii, 26, 27, 28) first gives a very elaborate description of the true chrysocolla; and then in the following chapter he briefly notices the other kind, which he says was also called “santerna,” and was prepared from Cyprian verdigris, the urine of a boy, with the addition of nitrum (soda?) pounded in a Cyprian mortar with Cyprian copper or bronze. This, he adds, forms a solder to gold. This, however, he does not say was ever used in medicine. The former kind or true chrysocolla of Dioscorides, he says was used in medicine for cleansing wounds along with wax and oil, and also in a dry powder; that it was given in a linctus with honey for orthopnœa and angina; that it was used as an emetic; was added as an ingredient to collyria for specks on the eyes, and to green plasters for relieving pain and contracting cicatrices. This chrysocolla, he says, in conclusion, the physicians call acesis (a term, by the way, synonymous with medicinal), and was different from the orobitis which he had previously described as being artificially tinged with a herb called by him “lutum,” meaning thereby, we suppose, woad, or the Isatis tinctoria. (l. c.) Galen describes the two kinds together, and treats of their medicinal powers as follows: This medicine, chrysocolla, is one of those that consume the flesh, and is not strongly pungent; but it is moderately discutient and desiccant. Wherefore some call only the fossil by this name, but some also the substance which is prepared in a bronze (copper?) mortar with a copper pestle by means of the urine of a boy, which some value according to the differences of the verdigris. But it is better to prepare it in summer, or at least in hot weather, pounding the urine in the mortar. And it answers more excellently if the bronze, of which you make the mortar, be red, and the pestle too, for more is thus rubbed off by the turning round of the pestle when the bronze is of a softer nature. This medicine is most suited to malignant sores, both by itself and mixed with other substances. He concludes by saying of the fossil chrysocolla, that the more desiccative the less stimulant it is, as being so much the more attenuated; and that when burnt (calcined), it becomes still more attenuated. (De Simpl. ix.) It is clear from this statement that Galen included under his list of Simples both the fossil chrysocolla and the kind prepared from verdigris. Aëtius merely abridges the account of the chrysocolla given by Galen. (ii, 81.) And as Oribasius professedly copies his descriptions of the fossils used in medicine from Dioscorides, we need not say anything further of his account of chrysocolla, than that it coincides entirely with that of Dioscorides. (Med. Coll. xiii.) Celsus ranks it with the corrosive (v, 6) and the caustic substances. (v, 8.) We now turn to the Arabians. Avicenna, in the first place, treats of this substance under the name of chrysocolla, of which he describes two species; the one, the artificial, made with the urine of a boy in a bronze mortar, as already explained; the other the fossil, of which he says he will now treat. He describes its general characters, namely, that it is abstergent, caustic, septic, and so forth. Referring to Dioscorides and Galen, he calls it an emetic and astringent medicine, and good for malignant sores. (ii, 2, 358.) He there refers to sect. 696, where he treats of tincar, of which he says that it consists of two kinds, the fossil and the factitious, the latter of which is called the gold-solder (capistrum auri). It is useful, he says, in toothache and carious teeth. Averrhoes describes it under the names of Laçacolaap, i. e. Consolidatura auri; in Arabic, Cumbar. He gives exactly the same account of the two species as Galen. He says the factitious kind is best prepared in a mortar of red bronze with the urine of a young person; which species is more efficacious than the other. (Collig. v, 43.) Serapion in the portion of his work devoted to minerals, writes thus of Tincar, i. e. Borax. “Ebn Amram says of it, it is of the species of salts, and is found with the taste of baurach (nitrum?), and has some bitterness; and it is either fossil or factitious. And the fossil is in the banks of the sea; it is hot, dry, and subtile; is useful in toothache, and kills the worm in them, and in stopping the throbbing in them it has wonderful powers.” Rhases and Aben Mesuai say of it, that the basis (radix) of it is the urine of a boy, we mean of the factitious, and it is the solder of gold (chrysocolla.) It would appear to be the chrysocolla which is described by Haly Abbas (Pract. ii, 48, 495), but we must admit ourselves incapable of interpreting correctly his meaning as expressed in the barbarous translation of his works. Ebn Baithar first treats of chrysocolla under the name of Tankâr in an extract from the works of Ebn Amram which we have given above as quoted by Serapion. (i, 214.) And again in the 2d volume (434), he first gives descriptions of the chrysocolla in extracts from Dioscorides and Galen, and concludes with the remark that some people called it the tankar chrysocolla, but that the chrysocolla of Dioscorides and Galen was a totally different article from the tankar. Rhases gives merely extracts from Dioscorides and Galen. (Cont. l. ult. i, 25.) He calls it adhesio auri. From what has been stated above, we now draw the following conclusions regarding the matters treated of under this head: 1. That the mineral known by the names of “copper green,” “mountain green,” “native carbonate of copper,” was the true chrysocolla of Dioscorides, the said term signifying Gold solder. 2. That Dioscorides further describes a preparation of verdigris which was also used for soldering gold, to which the name chrysocolla was likewise applied by Pliny, Galen, and others. 3. That under the names of Tincal, Tankâr, and Borax, the Arabians described a species of salt, which most probably was our Sodæ Biboras, to which they sometimes applied the name chrysocolla from its being used in the soldering of gold, but their best authorities (as for example, Avicenna, and Ebn Baithar) were well aware that this borax was a totally different substance from the chrysocolla of Dioscorides. The name borax is probably a corruption of Baurach, which is the term applied by the Arabians to the nitrum of the Greeks and Romans, that is to say, natron, or soda. If the reader will take the trouble to read what has been written on the chrysocolla of the ancients by many learned men in modern times, as, for example, Alston, Hill, Geoffroy, Quincy, Sprengel, and Kidd, he will be the better able to judge whether or not we have succeeded in illustrating what has always been considered a very obscure subject.

Χρυσοκόμη ἢ Χρυσῖτις,

Chrysocome or Chrysitis; its root has at the same time acrid and astringent powers, and therefore is not much used. Only in peripneumonia and hepatic affections it is given boiled in honeyed water. It also promotes menstruation.

Commentary. Pliny complains that it had no name in the Latin language; and Anguillara and Matthiolus were unable to make out what it is. It now holds a place in the Linnæan system by the name of Chrysocoma Linosyris. Our author borrows his characters of this article from Dioscorides (iv. 55.) Galen describes it in almost the same words. It is not to be found in the works of Dioscorides or Celsus, nor, as far as we can discover, in those of the Arabians.

Ψευδοβούνιον,

Pseudo-Bunion, Bastard Rape; its properties being like those of rape, it is heating, discutient, and detergent. It, therefore, removes tormina, stranguries, and pains of the sides. It also discusses scrofulous swellings when applied along with salts and wine.

Commentary. It would appear that it is the Pimpinella tenuis or Slender Burnet. Our author copies from Dioscorides. Galen treats very lightly of this article. It does not appear that it is treated of by the Arabians.

Ψευδοδίκταμνον,

Pseudo-Dictamnum, Bastard Dittany, has the powers of weak dittany.

Commentary. We are inclined to join those who refer it to the Marrubium Pseudodictamnum. Galen and Dioscorides join in representing it as an article of little consequence.

Ψιμύθιον,

Cerussa, White Lead, is refrigerant and emplastic.

Commentary. We have treated of it as a poison in Book V. § 59. Alston says: “Our white lead is certainly the Ψιμύθιον of Dioscorides and the Cerussa Plinii” (xviii.) The ancient ceruse consisted of the carbonate of lead which had been exposed to the vapours of vinegar, and was, therefore, little or nothing different from the modern ceruse. Geoffroy’s description of the process is taken, in fact, from Dioscorides. It would appear to have been sometimes administered internally, if, as Dr. Hill remarks, it is an ingredient in the Trochisci albi of Rhases. We have not been able to find, however, this trochisc in Rhases, nor in any of the ancient authorities. Perhaps Dr. Hill confounded it with the Emplastrum album, of which ceruse is an ingredient. (See Galen, De Comp. Med. sec. gen. vi, and Celsus, 222 ad Milligan.) Galen in fact expressly says that ceruse ought not to be administered internally (Meth. Med. iv.) He recommends it as an anodyne collyrium in pains of the eyes (Comment. in App. vi, 31), and as an astringent and soothing application in general. (De Simpl. Med. ix.) Dioscorides describes minutely the preparation of ceruse, and the different kinds of it, but gives its medicinal properties in brief terms like our author. (v. 103.) Celsus recommends it in burns and ulcers (vi, 7), but internally taken he treats of it as a poison (v, 27, 15.) All the other Greek and the Arabian authorities after Galen give ceruse exactly the same characters as we have stated them above. See in particular Serapion (De Simpl. 378); Avicenna (ii, 2, 117); Haly Abbas (Pract. ii, 48); Ebn Baithar (i, 63.) The last of these says of it, that it is useful in the same class of cases as Minium; that dissolved in vinegar, and more especially when mixed up with rose-oil, it is a good application in cephalalgia; that it forms a proper ingredient in collyria for inflammations of the eyes,—and dissolved in a woman’s milk or mixed up with the white of an egg,—that it is dropped into the eye with advantage in such cases.

Ψύλλιον,

Psyllium, Fleawort; the seed belongs to the second order of refrigerants. With regard to heating and moistening powers it holds an intermediate place.

Commentary. Sprengel remarks, that there can be no difficulty about it; it is the Plantago Psyllium L. Dioscorides and Pliny recommend it pounded with hog’s lard as an application to malignant ulcers; Pliny also says that its seed is a good application to the bites of serpents. (H. N. xxvi, 66.) Dioscorides says it cures tumours, arthritic diseases, intestinal hernia, and other complaints, with rose-oil, vinegar or water. It is, he says, a powerful refrigerant. (iv, 70.) Galen and the other Greek authorities give its characters succinctly like our author. Celsus puts it in his list of agglutinative substances (v, 2.) The Arabians recommend it for the same purposes as the Greeks, and also for allaying the inflammation of acute fevers. See Avicenna (ii, 2, 533); Serapion (De Simpl. 230); Ebn Baithar (i, 132); Rhases (Cont. l. ult. i, 567); Mesue (De Simpl. 20.) We have treated of it as a poison in Book V. § 40. According to Crantz its poisonous qualities have been exaggerated by Dioscorides. (Mat. Med. iii, 117.) Accordingly we do not find it treated of by the late writers on toxicology. Although it has long ceased to occupy a place in our dispensatory, it has been celebrated in modern times for its medicinal virtues. Platearius commends it highly as a cooling and astringent medicine, in acute fevers, dysenteries, hemorrhages, &c. (De Simpl. Med.) Prosper Alpinus mentions that the modern Egyptians make frequent use of its mucilage as a medicine, and hence he finds fault with Dioscorides and Mesue for setting it down as a poison. (De Med. Ægypt.); and Rutty (Mat. Med. 415.) Its seeds form with boiling water a rich mucilage, which it appears is still much used in India, in catarrh, gonorrhœa, and nephritic affections. Lindley (Veg. Kingd. 643.) A recent authority on pharmacy says of it that its seeds are mucilaginous and purgative. Gray (Suppl. to Pharmacop. 44.)

Ψωρικὸν,

Psoricum, is formed by mixing two parts of chalcitis with one of litharge, triturating them in vinegar, and, having put them into a new pot, by burying them in dung for forty days. It becomes more desiccative, more subtile, and less pungent than chalcitis.

Commentary. Dioscorides and Pliny call it a mixture of cadmia and chalcitis; Galen, Aëtius, and our author say of litharge and chalcitis. Avicenna follows Dioscorides. (ii, 2, 273.) Celsus also directs it to be made of chalcitis and cadmia. (vi, 6, 31.) It derives its name from its being used as an application to parts affected with scabies (psora.) The psoricum has been long unknown in the practice of medicine.

Ὠὸν,

Ovum, An Egg; the white and thin part is free from all pungency, being moderately cooling. It is to be used for the eyes, ulcers in the pudendum, and all ill-conditioned ulcers. It is also mixed up with the medicines which form styptic plasters. And the yelk of an egg being possessed of similar powers, is mixed up with anti-inflammatory remedies. When roasted it becomes more desiccative but less soothing. If a whole egg be boiled in vinegar, and eaten, it dries up alvine fluxes. But if, having received the addition of some sour substances, such as galls, sumach, or the flowers of the wild pomegranate, it be fried, it becomes considerably more drastic. A whole egg applied raw immediately relieves burns. When taken in a supping state, it concocts and soothes affections in the chest, and proves demulcent for asperities of the trachea. New eggs are to be preferred to old, and those of hens to the eggs of all other animals.

Commentary. Galen gives, in his usual copious and elegant style, a somewhat lengthy dissertation on the medicinal properties of eggs, but the narrow limits to which we are necessarily restricted, prevent us from transferring the substance of it to our pages, although it contains much that is highly interesting. (De Simpl. xi.) Galen recommends eggs for various medicinal purposes; and in particular he says that wool dipped in the white of an egg proves a serviceable application to burns. Dioscorides states their virtues more briefly, and to him our author is more particularly indebted. (ii, 54, 55.) He recommends the white of an egg in a tepid state for severe pains of the bladder and ulceration of the kidneys, roughness of the windpipe, vomiting of blood, catarrhs, and defluxions of the chest. Pliny, Dioscorides, and Sextus Platonicus say that eggs pounded with oil form an excellent application in cases of erysipelas, the leaves of beet being laid on the place. Pliny and Dioscorides recommend them for affections of the eyes. Avicenna recommends the white of an egg with melilot in ulcers of the intestines. He says eggs boiled in vinegar are useful in diarrhœa and dysentery. He recommends a suppository of the albumen of an egg in prolapsus ani, and other affections of the fundament. Like the preceding authorities he speaks favorably of it as an application to the eyes. (ii, 2, 520.) See also Ebn Baithar (i, 193); Serapion (c. 446); Rhases (Ad Mansor.; Antid. iv.)

Ὤκιμον,

Ocimum, Basil, belongs to the second order of calefacients, and has also some recrementitious humidity, hence it is of no use when taken internally; but when applied externally, it is discutient and digestive.

Commentary. It most probably is the Ocimum Basilicum. Dioscorides not only recommends it for many medicinal purposes externally, but also says of it that it loosens the bowels, is carminative, diuretic, and creates milk, but is of difficult digestion; the seed, he adds, when taken in a draught, is beneficial in melancholy, dysuria, and flatulence, and it is also sternutatory. (ii, 170.) Our author follows Galen very closely. Aëtius also condemns the internal administration of basil, but praises highly a decoction of it as a fomentation to the eyes, and particularly those of children. Oribasius as usual follows Dioscorides, and, therefore, like him approves of the internal use of it. It occurs in the works both of Hippocrates and Celsus, the latter of whom says of it that it moves the bowels, and is diuretic. (ii, 29, 31.) The Arabians treat of it still more fully than the Greeks. Avicenna says it is a cordial medicine, that it generally binds the bowels, but also moves them, if there be humours in them, that it is useful in hæmoptysis and in difficulty of breathing. (ii, 2, 101.) See also Serapion (c. 167); Ebn Baithar (i, 110); Rhases (Cont. l. ult. ii, 121.) The basil held a place in our English dispensatory down to the times of Quincy and Lewis. It holds a place in the modern Greek Pharmacopœia, where it is stated that it is indigenous in Persia, and only cultivated in gardens in Greece. (p. 27.)

Ὠκιμοειδὲς,

Ocimoides, which some call Philetærium. Its root is useless, but the seed is composed of subtile matter, and is desiccative without pungency.

Commentary. Matthiolus held it to be a species of lychnis, but this opinion is rejected by Dodonæus. Sprengel agrees with Lobelius and Dalecampius in referring it to the Saponaria ocimoides. This is one of the most disputed articles of the ancient Mat. Med. Of the conjectures which have been made respecting it, the most probable then is that it was either a species of Lychnis or Saponaria. See Parkinson (Theatre of Plants, 630, 760.) We are disposed to acquiesce in opinion with those who hold it to be the Saponaria ocimoides. Dioscorides says of it, that its seed when drunk in wine is calculated to benefit those who have been stung by scorpions, and is useful for the bites of all other kinds of reptiles, and that it is given in sciatica with myrrh and pepper. (iv, 28.) Galen states its character in nearly the same terms as our author. It is not described by Aëtius, by Hippocrates or Celsus, nor, as far as we can discover, by any of the Arabians, with the exception of Ebn Baithar, whose notice of it is entirely made up from Dioscorides and Galen. (i, 93.) It has been long unknown to our Dispensatory, and does not occur in the Pharmacopœia of the modern Greeks.

APPENDIX TO THE THIRD SECTION. On the Substances introduced into the Materia Medica by the Arabians.

Having thus given a brief account of all the Simple Substances described by the Greek and Roman writers on the Materia Medica, we are now called upon to supply what information we can procure regarding the additions made to their list by the Arabians. This, we need scarcely say, is a field of research, which, having been hitherto but little cultivated, is attended with difficulties of a particularly formidable nature; for, although we have been enabled to avail ourselves of the learned labours of Professor Sprengel, Dr. Royle, Dr. Ainslie, and of certain other oriental scholars who have touched cursorily upon these matters, we have been more thrown upon our own resources on the present occasion than at any other stage of our progress in executing this work. We trust, then, that our readers will receive with peculiar indulgence our present essay, which, however imperfect, will be found, if we mistake not, to have opened up a mine of valuable knowledge from which some more skilful labourer in the same line will yet draw additional stores of information to the profession. Of course it will be readily seen, that we do not pretend to give an account of all the articles introduced into the practice of medicine by the Arabians; that, even if we were possessed of the requisite knowledge of the oriental languages, would evidently be out of the question within our narrow limits. For Ebn Baithar alone, if his laborious work were properly explored, would furnish a large volume of new matters added by his own individual exertions to the accumulated treasures of his predecessors; but, of the articles first treated of by him there are unfortunately many which are but very doubtfully determined, and not a few which are left wholly undetermined by his translator Dr. Sontheimer. And here it is but right that we should acknowledge that the translation itself would have been to us “a sealed book” if our learned friend, Professor Blackie, of Aberdeen, had not come to our assistance, and in so far made up for our own very imperfect acquaintance with the German language. But, besides the stores of Ebn Baithar, there is much in those of Avicenna, Serapion, Rhases, and Haly Abbas, which still remain to be unfolded by some fortunate savant who is acquainted both with the languages of the East and the sciences of the West.

It may be proper to mention, that the articles which are here described are set down in the same order as the notices of them were composed, because we could not satisfy ourselves with regard to any methodical arrangement which would conveniently apply to them and be in unison with the general plan of this work.

Ambra grisea.

A recent writer on the Materia Medica gives the following description of Ambergris: “The substance called Ambergris (ambra grisea) is procured from the Cachalot or spermwhale. In this country it is used as a perfume only; on the continent it is employed in medicine. It appears to be the indurated fæces (perhaps somewhat altered by disease) of the animal. Mr. Beale collected some of the semi-fluid fæces, and found that the dried mass had all the properties of ambergris. It is a solid, opaque, grayish, striated substance, having a pleasant musk-like odour, and which is derived from the squid (sæpia moschata) on which the animal feeds.” Pereira (Mat. Med. 1392.) No one who compares this account of ambergris with what is said of it in the extracts we have given from Serapion and Avicenna under Electrum, can entertain a doubt that these authors were well informed as to the nature of this substance. Ebn Baithar gives a similar account of the origin of ambergris. He says, it is furnished by sea monsters which swallow it and vomit it up again. It swims on the surface of water, and the blackish kind is of little value. He calls it the most excellent of all aromatics, and praises it for strengthening the heart and brain, and for curing cramp and similar complaints. Among other powers which it possesses, it is said to be intoxicating. (i, 210, 405.) See also Haly Abbas (Theor. v, 33.) The Greeks and Romans would appear to have been unacquainted with this species of Amber until after the Arabian period. It is accurately described by Symeon Seth, as we have already stated above in the commentary on Electrum. He holds it to be a good cordial and stomachic medicine.

Bezoar.

As this article is now but little known in this country, it may be proper to prefix some account of it from recent authorities. Lewis writes of it thus: “Lapis Bezoar orientalis, oriental Bezoar stone, supposed to be produced in the pylorus or in a cavity at the bottom of the fourth stomach of an animal of the goat kind, which inhabits the mountains in different parts of Persia.” (Mat. Med. 217.) But Bontius is, perhaps we may say, the most accurate of the modern authorities who have described the oriental bezoars. He describes them as being alvine concretions which form in goats or gazelles, and have generally a little piece of chaff as a nucleus. He had also seen them taken from the bodies of monkeys. (Med. Ind. c. 45.) See further Gray (Suppl. to Pharmacop. 179, 136.) Now, it is certain that these Bezoars were much used in medicine by the Arabians as they are in the East at the present day; and yet, as far as we have been able to discover, they are not described in any of the Arabian works on the Mat. Med., with the exception of Ebn Baithar, and his account of them is very indistinct and unsatisfactory. We may gather from his description, however, that the term was applied to more substances than these alvine concretions. One of his authorities speaks of the best kind being found in the heart of the stag. Like all his countrymen, he recommends the bezoar as an amulet and an antidote to poisons. (119.) Indeed the term Bezoar would appear to have been used as signifying alexipharmical. See Avicenna (ii, 2), and Serapion (c. 441.) Frequent mention of it occurs in the works of the Arabians. See Haly Abbas (pluries); Rhases (Cont. l. ult., and xxxv, 6, 8, 1); Avicenna (iv, 6, 1, 4.)

Camphora.

This article is so important, that we shall be excused if we dwell upon it at some length. It is well known to be a secretion procured from several trees of the genus Laurus in the East; but more particularly from the tree which has been named Camphora officinarum. Serapion is the ancient authority who gives the fullest account of Camphor. In the first place, owing no doubt to his using some interpolated translation of Dioscorides into Syriac, he quotes him as stating that it is procured from India and China and is produced in most abundance during seasons when there is much thunder. One of his Arabian authorities, Isaac Ebn Amram, gives a distinct account of the origin of camphor and a description of the qualities of the different kinds of it, with a brief notice of the mode of clarifying it by sublimation, which is the process by which it is still produced. As to its medicinal virtues, he holds it to be cold and dry in the second degree, and says it is applicable in cases of inflammations, vertigo, and cholera; in fumigations with myrrh, rose-oil, and sandal-wood; that it is anaphrodisiac, induces premature hoariness of the hair; that in a masticatory with lettuce, it cures the hot intemperament of the brain and induces sleep; removes vertigo; stops hemorrhages from the nose and all fluxes in general; and, in short, that it is a common ingredient in all fumigations and ointments. Rhases, as quoted by him, pronounces camphor to be cold and attenuate (volatile?); says it is calculated to remove hot intemperaments in the head and the whole body; when too much used that it induces insomnolency; that it brings on coldness of the kidneys and bladder; coagulates the semen, and engenders coldness, and principally in the colder members of the body. Another Arabian authority, Meseab, calls it cold and dry in the third degree, and recommends it in epistaxis as a masticatory with raisins. Mesarugie, another authority, says, in large doses it induces indigestion and stops the formation of semen. Another of his Arabian authorities, Aben Mesuai (Mesue the elder?) says, it is astringent of the bowels, induces premature hoariness of the hair, and is useful in hot apostemes. Aben Amram, as quoted by him, says, Camphor is cold in the third degree, and is useful when applied to inflamed parts with rose-water, and comforts the members of the body and the senses; and is useful in cholera along with other astringents. He gives a quotation from the ‘Medicina Antiqua’ to this effect, that camphor is an astringent of the bowels, and that its use induces hoariness of the hairs. (De Simplicibus, 344.) Avicenna’s account of it is much more succinct; he describes several species of it; says it is procured from a very large tree capable of giving shelter to a multitude of animals; that he had often seen the wood of it, and that it was white, brittle, light, and contained in its pores some vestiges of camphor. He holds that its nature is cold and dry in the second degree. He recommends it in exactly the same cases as Serapion does, namely, in inflammatory complaints, epistaxis, hot vertigo, and acute ophthalmy. He also, like Serapion’s authorities, holds that it is anaphrodisiac and represses fluxes. (ii, 2, 130.) Rhases gives a brief account of camphor upon the authority of Misib, Mesarguil, and Bimasui; the first of whom merely recommends it in fluxes; the next relates of it that an acquaintance of his took six drachms of camphor at one dose, which impaired his digestion and brought on impotence without inducing any other complaint; the third, like some of Serapion’s authorities, represents it to be cold and dry in the third degree, and recommends it for fluxes, and further says that it induces premature hoariness of the hair. (Contin. l. ult. i, 147.) In another work he calls it cold, humid, and subtile (volatile?), and gives it the same characters as the other authorities. (Ad Mansor. iii, 22.) Mesue gives a formula for troches of camphor, which he recommends in ardent fevers, heat of the bile and of the blood, hot intemperaments of the stomach and of the liver, for intense thirst, jaundice, phthisis, and hectic. (De Trochiscis. i.) Haly Abbas frequently recommends camphor in the course of his works, but we have not been able to discover any distinct account of it in the very barbarous translation of his Materia Medica. Ebn Baithar gives a very circumstantial account of the formation of camphor on the tree which produces it, and describes its characters very accurately. He says it is cold and dry in the second degree, and is useful in hot intemperaments and bilious headaches. Like some of the others quoted above, he says it is produced most abundantly in times of thunder. In an over-dose, he says, it is anaphrodisiac, and induces sleeplessness, and relates a case in which it destroyed the tone of the stomach, and occasioned impotence. He says it is used in collyria, and as a sternutatory, and to stop the hole in a carious tooth. Symeon Seth is the only one of the Greek authorities that treats fully of camphor (caphura.) He says it is cold and dry in the third degree; that it is the gum or tear of a tree growing in India; that the tree which produces it is said to be very large, so that a hundred men could be sheltered by its shade; that it is produced on the mountains near the sea; and that the wood of the tree is light and fistulous. He recommends camphor as being most useful in acute diseases, in headaches from heat, and in inflammations, especially those of the liver; says that it induces coldness of the kidneys and spermatic vessels, and coagulates the blood. He mentions a test of its purity. (De Alimentis.) Myrepsus in one place mentions the herb camphor, but it is doubtful whether he means the substance we are treating of;—most probably not. (De Unguent, iii, 46.)

Cassia Fistula.

Serapion, in the first place, gives a pretty accurate description of it, and states the localities from which it is procured, namely, India, Babylonia, and Arabia. Upon the authority of Aben Mesuai he states it to be of a sweet taste, and laxative of the bowels, and says it has virtues to extinguish the sharpness of the blood, that it relieves apostemes and boils in the mouth, and is useful in jaundice and pains of the liver. In a dose of three to ten drachms he says it is cholagogue and laxative. Abengnefit, as quoted by him, says it purifies the nerves. Rhases, as quoted by him, says it is laxative and efficacious in apostemes, especially those of the throat. (De Simpl. xii.) Avicenna’s account of it is but little different from that of Serapion. Having described it, he says it is of an equal temperament as to heat and cold, but is of a moistening nature, and that in action it is resolvent and laxative. It is useful, he says, in hot apostemes of the bowels, and especially of the throat when a gargle of it is prepared with a decoction of nightshade. He praises it in a liniment for gout and arthritic pains. He speaks well of it in dyspnœa. He says it cleanses the liver, and is of use in jaundice and pain of the liver. He says it is a gentle laxative, bringing away heated bile and phlegm, and opens the bowels safely without griping. (ii, 2, 192.) Badagorius, as quoted by Rhases, says of cassia fistula, that it is alterative, an evacuant of bile, and a cleanser of the blood. The son of Mesue, as quoted by the same, recommends it, like Serapion, in jaundice, pain of the liver, of the throat, &c. Priscianus, as quoted by Rhases, says it is a safe purgative to pregnant women, brings away bile, clears away jaundice, and is efficacious in pain of the liver and throat. Marsenuce (?) recommends it in the same affections of the throat as the others. (Contin. l. ult. i, 187.) Of all the ancient authorities, Mesue the younger gives the fullest account of it, but it is in nearly the same terms as Serapion’s. His description of it is full and accurate. Any injurious action which it has, he says, may be removed by the mixture of myrobalans, rhubarb, the water of mastich, and spikenard; and in dryness of the bowels by mixing almond oil with it. Diuretics also are said to determine it to the urinary passages. He says it is useful to add some laxative to it. As to its virtues, he says it cleanses the blood, allays all sharpness in it, assuages thirst, with the juice of endive, &c., clears the stomach, brings away yellow bile and phlegm, and that safely, also purges the breast and throat, and is useful in heat of the kidneys, when taken with diuretics and the infusion of liquorice, that it prevents the formation of stones, and is useful in ardent fevers. (De Simpl. vi.) Ebn Baithar also gives a very elaborate and correct account of this article, but as it is nearly the same as that of Mesue, we need not say much about it. He calls it a well-known tree growing in Egypt; says in moderate doses it is a safe purgative, even to pregnant women, but in large doses occasions hypercatharsis. If the root is not sound, it is apt to produce disturbance of the bowels. He says it purges hot bile, softens the breast, and cleanses the nerves, &c. (i, 401.) Actuarius describes it by the name of the Black Cassia, and recommends it as a gentle purgative both alone and with other medicines. (Meth. Med. v, 2.) It occurs among the ingredients in the antidotes of Myrepsus. See Antidot. (i, xi.) Of course the article we have been treating of will be recognised as being the Cassia fistula L., the pudding-pipe tree, or purging cassia. The pulp of the pods is still sometimes used in medicine as a gentle purgative. See Paris (Pharmacol. i, 271); Pereira (M. M. 1172); Gray (Suppl. to Pharmacop. 150); Royle (M. M. 355.)

Senna.

If the work of Serapion (De Simplicibus) which we possess, be the production of the elder Serapion (and after being long familiarly acquainted with it we are inclined to think so), he is undoubtedly the first author who has described senna as an article of the Materia Medica. First on his own authority he describes very accurately the pods, stalks, and seeds of the plant. On the authority of Isaac Ebn Amram he recommends it for removing the inquietude accompanying melancholy, for aches and disturbances of the nerves, for alopecia, phthiriasis, chronic headache, scabies, pustulæ parvæ, pruritus, and epilepsy. Abix, another authority, declares it to have great power of purging black and yellow bile, and of acting as a cordial when mixed with suitable medicines such as violets. His last authority under this head is Rhases, who says that senna and fumitory purge adust humours, and prove useful in scabies and pruritus. (De Simpl. 58.) Under the head of sahane Avicenna briefly notices an article which he recommends as being abstergent and desiccant in pruritus and scabies, in pain of the neck, fetid breath, and watery stomach (waterbrash?). This account we are inclined to think must refer to senna. (ii, 2, 651.) Rhases gives almost exactly the same description of the sahane. (Contin. l. ult. i, 596.) In his work ‘Ad Mansor.’ (viii, 54), he gives the account of Sene quoted above from Serapion, and again at ‘Divis.’ (i, 144.) Haly Abbas describes it accurately in his chapter on Purgatives. (Pract. ii, 54.) He recommends it as a medicine which purges both yellow and black bile, and is useful in gout and rheumatism, and in colics when mixed with raisins, oil of almonds, &c. Mesue describes senna as the folliculus of a plant resembling the tare. The best part of the plant, he says, is the folliculus (legume?), and next the leaves; and both these parts are said to be best when of a green colour. As senna has a tendency to weaken the stomach by its operation, he recommends it to be mixed with ginger, sal gem, Indian salt (sugar?), and cordials. He quotes Galen (through some mistake, as is generally supposed) as recommending it boiled in the soup of fowls. He also speaks of giving it in whey, or in milk, or in must, that is to say, the fresh juice of the grape. The last of these preparations he praises as cleansing the brain and senses, and creating joy. He also speaks favorably of a decoction of it with prunes and spikenard. As to its virtues, he says it readily purges black and adust bile, cleanses the brain, heart, liver, spleen, the senses, and lungs, proves deobstruent and dispels sorrow. He also speaks favorably of the leaves when applied to the head in the bath as improving the senses of sight and hearing, and as proving a remedy to fevers arising from black bile, and to chronic fevers. (De Simpl. xv.) Ebn Baithar gives an interesting description of it. He says in Arabia it is used as a dye, and that its leaves are mixed with those of the plant now called Lawsonia inermis. He calls it cholagogue and melanogogue, says it penetrates the inferior extremities, and purges them in cases of gout. He also praises it in scabies, epilepsy, and a great many other diseases. By some mistake he quotes Paulus. He says it is better in decoction than in powder. The dose of the latter is from two to three drachms, of the former from four to seven drachms. (i, 57.) Actuarius says of sene, that it purges moderately in doses of one drachm. (Meth. Med. v, 8.) Sene occurs as an ingredient in several of the antidotes of Myrepsus, as c. 112, 465, 472. Under this head we would beg, before concluding, to refer the reader to Ainslie’s Mat. Ind. (i, 205). It will be there seen that in Æthiopia senna is still used as a dye.

Berberis.

Rhases gives extracts from Badigorius, Oribasius, Mesue, and others on the virtues of this substance, which he represents as being lithontriptic, styptic, and alexipharmic. He says it is called calmuris in Greek. (Contin. l. ult. i, 121.) Serapion gives extracts from Dioscorides and Galen under this head, but there seems no reason to suppose that they were at all acquainted with this article. He recommends it as being cooling and incisive, and a strengthener of the stomach and liver. He also praises it in all fluxes. (De Simpl. 229.) Ebn Baithar calls it astringent, stomachic, and hepatic, and says it binds the bowels and quenches thirst. He recommends it in diarrhœa connected with weakness of the liver, and in diseases of the stomach and uterus. See also Avicenna (vi, 9.) The berberry (Berberis vulgaris) is recommended by Gerard, Parkinson, and all our old herbalists as an astringent medicine in diseases of the stomach and liver. Even at the present day it is admitted to possess these virtues. See Gray (Suppl. to Pharmacop. 102) and Lindley (Veg. Kingd. 438.) The former of these seems to acknowledge it as the Oxyacantha of the Greeks, but we think incorrectly. Dr. Royle supposes the Lycium Indicum of Dioscorides to be the berberry. It seems to us more probable, however, that the berberry was but the succedaneum of the lycium. See Schröder (Chemical Dispensatory, 475.)

Galanga.

Rhases calls it stomachic. (Antid. iii.) Serapion having described it, upon the authority of Isaac ebn Amram says of it, that it is hot and dry in the third degree, is useful to phlegmatic persons, and in humidity of the stomach (waterbrash?); promotes digestion by its heat and the solution which it occasions in the stomach, and thus relieves colic, gives fragrance to the breath, and warms the kidneys; it sets the semen in commotion, and when a piece of it is held in the mouth, it occasions erections of the membrum virile. The same virtues in the same cases are assigned to it by Aben Mesuai, and also Aben Mesabah, who recommends it in flatulent colic and eructations. (De Simpl. 332.) Avicenna, having described it, delivers the same account of its medicinal powers as Serapion, that is to say, he holds it to be hot and dry in the second degree, of subtile parts and carminative, says that it renders the breath fragrant, is good for the stomach, promotes digestion, is useful in colic and pains of the kidneys, and is aphrodisiacal. (ii, 2, 314; v, 2, 6.) The same account of it is given by “the Son of Mesue,” in the ‘Continens’ of Rhases (l. ult. i, 323.) In the pharmaceutical work of Myrepsus there is an “antidotus a Galanga,” which is said to be beneficial in affections of the stomach and spleen, and in indigestion; also for singultus, acidity of the food in the stomach, cachexia, dropsy, and coldness of the whole body: it contains cloves, ginger, cinnamon, galangal, &c. (i, 63; also, 222.) Ebn Baithar ascribes the same virtues to it as Serapion; thus he says it is a wonderful aphrodisiac, promotes digestion, cures colic, is carminative, and so forth. Although now little used, galangal root is not yet wholly unknown to the writers on the Materia Medica. Dr. Pereira says of “radix galangæ officinalis; its odour is agreeably aromatic, its taste peppery and aromatic. It is the rhizome of the Alpinia Galanga Roxb.” (Mat. Med. 698.) See also Lewis (Mat. Med. 452); Hill (Mat. Med. i, 447); Quincy (72); Gray (Suppl. to the Pharmacop. 26); Lindley (Veg. Kingd. 166.) There are two species of galangal, which Dr. Lindley refers to the alpinia racemosa and galanga. He says of them, “the warm and pungent roots of the greater and lesser galangals are not only used by the Indian doctors, but are considered useful in coughs, given in infusion.” (Ibid.) On the Galangal see further Ainslie (Mat. Ind., i, 140.)

Zeduaria and Zerumbeth.

In order to understand this subject it will be necessary in the first place to see the descriptions of these substances given by modern authorities. Dr. Pereira says of the former of these: “The Zeduary root (Radix Zeduariæ officinalis) of English druggists appears to me to agree with Professor Guibourt’s description of round Zeduary (Zeduaria rotunda). It is the sliced tuber of Curcuma Zeduaria Rox. It has a warm, aromatic, bitter taste, and an aromatic odour.” (Mat. Med. 698.) And of the Zerumbet the same author says: “Cassamunar root is considered by English druggests to be identical with Zerumbet root. (Private information; also, Gray, Pharmacop.) It appears to me to be the Turmeric-coloured Zeduary of Ainslie (Mat. Ind. i, 490.) Is it the product of Zinziber Cassamuniar Roxb.? The Zerumbet root which I received from my friend Dr. Royle is very similar in shape to a curved and arched piece of long turmeric.” (Mat. Med. 698.) Dr. Ainslie gives an interesting disquisition on the Zeduary of which he describes three species: 1. Zeduary Kæmpferian (Kæmpferia rotunda.) 2. Zeduary Zerumbet (Curcuma Zerumbet.) 3. Zeduary turmeric-coloured (Curcuma and Amomum Zeduaria.) We shall now be better able to ascertain the meaning of the ancient descriptions of these substances. Serapion describes separately the Zerumbet Zeduaria and Zerumbet, but in such terms that one is at a loss to see any real distinction between them. (De Simpl. 172, 271.) He calls Zeduary an odoriferous tree for which cinnamon is often substituted. He refers to Galen and Paulus, but what passages in their works he alludes to it is not easy to discover. He describes it as being a great tree which grows on Mount Lebanon, and produces no fruit, but has the odour of citron, and is hot and dry in its nature, and is astringent so as both to open and astringe the bowels. Mesarugie, one of his authorities, compares its virtues to those of nutmeg; praises it as being sternutatory, and also stomachic and hepatic. This, without doubt, is the Zeduary, and the Zarnabum of Avicenna, who describes it separately from the Zerumbet, but mentions that the latter is much the same as the Zeduary. (ii, 2, 736, 738.) Rhases, in like manner, compares the Zerumbet to the Zeduary as being possessed of similar powers. He treats most fully of the former, recommending it as being alexipharmic, a good application to apostemes, &c. (Contin. l. ult. ii, 765.) Ebn Baithar treats fully of the Zerumbeth, which he describes minutely, and compares it to the great Cyperus. He says it is called camphor-root in the West. He calls it alexipharmical, cordial, intoxicating; an excellent medicine in inflation of the uterus, and possessed of emmenagogue and diuretic powers. He says it is good in affections of the liver and surrounding parts. It is said to determine downwards when applied to the soles of the feet in complaints of the head, to prove useful in leprosy when rubbed into the part affected, and to remove impotence. He also treats separately, and at considerable length, of the Zeduaria nigra. (ii, 95.) From the above account it will be seen that these two substances were nearly allied to one another, and in fact there is no doubt that the one was often taken for the other. See further Moses Charras (Royal Pharmacop. 68); Gray (Pharmacop. 26.) The Zeduary was often used as a succedaneum for the costus (Pemberton, Dispensatory, 340) in the composition of the Mithridate, and hence these two substances have been sometimes erroneously taken for the same. See also Manardus ad Mesue (De Trochiscis, 154); and Quincy (English Dispensatory, 483.)

Amomum Grana Paradisi.

There seems to be no doubt that this is the article which Ebn Baithar means to describe (i, 272). He calls it a spicy plant which comes out of Yemen and India. He describes two kinds, and says of them that they are hot, fragrant, and astringent, and hence prove stomachic and promote digestion. He says they are useful in epilepsy and faintings, and cure headaches in a sternutatory. He describes the smaller kind as being weaker but more attenuant than the larger. We are not aware of the grains of paradise, or Guinea grains, as they are sometimes called, being described by any other of the ancient authorities. We need scarcely remark that they are now well known, and occasionally used in the practice of medicine. See Gray (Suppl. to Pharm. 27); Pereira (Mat. Med. 697); Lindley (Veg. Kingd. 167.)

Macis and Nux moschata.

We have shown in the proper place that the Macer of the Greeks and Romans was not mace. The Arabian authorities, it is true, in describing Mace quote what the Greeks had written on Macer, but this does not prove their identity, for many such instances of confused reference occur in their works. Avicenna says, upon the authority of Mesue, that mace is the cortex (meaning, of course, the involucre) of nux moschata. He recommends it as a good stomachic, hepatic, and uterine medicine, and says it proves an astringent in fluxes of the bowels and in dysentery (ii, 2, 448.) The nutmeg, or nucleus of the myristica officinalis, he says, is of the size of a gall, brittle, having a fine rind (involucre), and a sharp smell. He recommends it as a styptic in complaints of the liver, spleen, and stomach, and in difficulty of urine. In oils he says it is a sedative of pain, and also in pessaries, and it stops vomiting. (ii, 2, 495.) He quotes no Greek authorities under this head. Rhases, in his ‘Continens,’ says briefly of the nux moschata, that it resembles cloves, and is good for the stomach and liver. (l. ult. 507.) In his other work (Ad Mansor. iii, 30,) he calls it hot and dry, and recommends it as an astringent in coldness of the stomach and liver. Mesue, in his electuary of lignum aloes, which he recommends for affections of the heart, stomach, and coldness of the liver, mentions nutmeg and mace as two of its ingredients. (De Electariis, i.) The ancient writer, however, who gives the fullest account of these articles is Serapion, who under this head quotes only from Arabian authorities, namely, Aaron, Isaac ebn Amram, Aben Mesuai, Miseaben, Albasari, and Rhases. They all agree in representing them to be aromatic and astringent, useful in flatulence and other complaints of the stomach, in fetid breath, indigestion, and enlargements of the spleen and liver. (De Simpl. 161.) Ebn Baithar’s extracts under this head are principally from Rhases and Avicenna. He evidently disapproves of the opinion of those that held Macer and Mace to be identical. On the nutmeg and mace we would beg to refer to Ainslie (Mat. Ind. 202, 249.) It will be there seen that the Hindoos still use these articles as cardiac, hepatic, and stomachic medicines. It appears doubtful to us whether the Greeks and Romans were at all acquainted with the nutmeg. For we have always suspected the genuineness of the last chapter but one of Aëtius, which contains a number of Indian aromatics not to be found elsewhere in the works of the Greek authorities. Our suspicions, which are of old date, have been much strengthened by the discovery that many of the formulæ contained in that chapter as given in the Latin translation are wanting in the two MSS. of Aëtius in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. This we have positively ascertained through the kindness of Dr. Greenhill, who examined this part of these MSS. at our request to ascertain the fact. It may be well to take this opportunity of stating that with the original of the last eight books of Aëtius we have no personal acquaintance further than from a cursory examination of these MSS. during a very brief visit to Oxford in 1845. In the MS. named ‘Canon. Gr.’ (109), the nuces Indicæ are called κάρυα Ινδικά. From what we have stated above, it must now be obvious that we have arrived at the positive conclusion that the νάσκαφθον of the Greek Mat. Med. was not mace. (See the Commentary on this article.)

Nux Indica.

According to Sprengel (R. H. H. i, 268) the first mention of the Cocos nucifera, or cocoa-nut, occurs in the Itinerary of Abuzeid and Wahab. No mention of it is made in the works of the Greek writers on medicine. The Arabians describe it minutely as an article of food, so that it ought to have been noticed by us in our Commentary on the 81st sect. of Book I. Rhases treats of it very fully as a dietetical article, and also as a medicine, saying of it that it purges away the tapeworm, that the oil of it is useful both internally and externally in pains and flatulence of the back, loins, knees, and in hemorrhoids; and he further quotes Bemasuy in confirmation of this character of it. All his authorities held it to be a hot and dry medicine. (Cont. l. ult. i, 506.) Avicenna gives, almost word for word, the same account of it. The flesh of the cocoa-nut, he says, is intensely white, and its juice sweet; and when there is not much juice in it, we are to understand that it is old. The inner bark, he says, is to be taken off, as being wholly indigestible. He recommends it in exactly the same complaints as Rhases does, only as a vermifuge he does not say that its oil brings away the tapeworm, but ascarides and lumbrici. (ii, 2, 498.) Serapion gives a somewhat fuller description of the cocoa-nut, which he knew to be the fruit of a palm-tree, but otherwise his account of it is the same as that of the two authorities already quoted. Of his Arabian authorities, one says that it is laxative, and another that it is astringent. (De Simpl. 228.) Haly Abbas recommends the Nux Indica as a comforter of the nerves in hemicrania, paralysis, and epilepsy. (Pract. ii, 38, 248.) Mesue notices the “oleum ex nuce Indica,” which, he says, is useful in nervous pains, purges the lungs and chest, clears the voice, fattens, and engenders semen. (De Oleis, i.) Ebn Baithar gives an interesting account of the cocoa-palm both as a medicine and an article of food. He says its milk is at times intoxicating and aphrodisiac, and that it is useful in certain complaints of the urine, in tænia and other intestinal worms. The reader will find it interesting to compare the above account of the cocoa from the ancient authorities with what Ainslie says of it in his work, ‘Materia Indica,’ i, 451; and Dr. Lindley in his late admirable publication on the ‘Vegetable Kingdom,’ (136.)

Bdellium.

It has been supposed that under this head Avicenna (ii, 2, 112), and other oriental writers, have included either that species of Palm called Borassus flabelliformis; or another congener, Hyphæne Thebaica. See Sprengel (R. H. H. i, 272); Ainslie (Mat. Ind. i, 452); Royle (Antiq. of Hindoo Med. 90); Lindley (Veg. Kingd. 136.) The term, however, was applied to other substances, as we have stated under the proper head.

Tamarindi.

There is no doubt that we are indebted to the Arabians for our first knowledge of this important medicine. Serapion, in describing this article, quotes only from Arabian authorities, which implies that he held the Greeks to have been unacquainted with it. Its leaves are said to resemble those of the willow. His first authority, Abohanifa, says it grows in Cæsaria; and his next, Aben Mesuai, says its fruit, which is of a ruddy colour, and has much pulp, is brought from India. In temperament it is said to be cold in the third degree, and has the power of purging yellow bile gently, and of repressing its pungency; of stopping vomiting, and removing pruritus. His other authorities, Abugerig, Mesebab, and Mesarugie, give a similar account of it. (De Simpl. 348.) Rhases writes of it in nearly the same terms: thus, he says, it extinguishes yellow bile, opens the bowels, removes thirst and vomiting, and strengthens the stomach. Its action is said to be similar to that of prunes. (Contin. l. ult. i, 699.) On his own authority Rhases says of Tamarinds in another place, that they are of a cold nature, loosen the bowels, repress intense bile and blood. (Ad Mansor. iii, 49.) Avicenna calls Tamarinds cold and dry in the second degree, says they are laxative, and more attenuant than prunes, and contain less juice: that they stop excessive vomiting, and thirst in fevers, and brace the stomach when it is relaxed. They are beneficial, he adds, in syncoptic fevers, and other disorders in which it is necessary to open the bowels gently. (ii, 2, 691.) Mesue describes Tamarinds as being acidulous dates, or the fruit of wild palms growing in India. He gives a very minute description of them, which we need not copy. As to temperament he says, they are cold and dry in the second degree; and in order to correct their bad effects in cold affections of the stomach, he directs them to be mixed with mace, spikenard, mastich, fennel, parsley, endive, &c. He further directs their action to be increased by giving them in the whey of goats, the infusion of fumitory or of hops. He gives very minute directions for preparing Tamarind whey, both simple and compound. As to its virtues, he says, it brings away bile, represses the ebullition of it, and the heat of the blood, is beneficial in inflammation of the liver and stomach, quenches thirst, removes all heat connected with it, is useful in jaundice, stops vomiting, and is a good medicine in acute fevers which require to be repressed. Being of a weak nature, Tamarinds, he says, require to be given to the amount of from two to five ounces. (De Simpl.) Ebn Baithar’s description of Tamarinds is full and accurate, but does not contain anything of importance in addition to the information which we have extracted from the other authorities who preceded him. (See Vol. I, 212.)

Myrobalani.

We have stated under the head of Balanus, that the Greek authorities before the Arabian period were entirely unacquainted with the stone fruits which now bear the name of Myrobalans. As these substances are now scarcely known in this country, we shall find it convenient again, in the present instance, to give, in the first place, a brief account of them from modern authorities. They are well described by Geoffroy, Alston, the Commentators on Mesue, and many other writers on the Mat. Med. They held a place in the British Dispensatory as late as the time of Quincy, and are described by Boerhaave in his Mat. Med. They have not lately been used in the practice of medicine either in Europe, or by our English physicians in the East Indies, as far as we have been able to learn. Five species are described by all writers on them, both ancient and modern, namely, the Citrine, Belleric, Chebulic, Emblic, and Indian. For a particular description of them see Sprengel (R. H. H. i, 262); Ainslie (Mat. Ind. i, 236), and Royle (Antiq. of Hindoo Med.) According to the last of these authors, the Black or Indian, the Yellow or Citrine, and the Chebulic, are the product of the Terminalia Chebula; the fourth or Beleric, of the T. Belerica, all belonging to the natural tribe of medicines now called Combretaceæ; while the fifth or Emblic is the fruit of the Phyllanthus Emblica, now called Emblica officinalis. See Lindley (Veg. Kingd. 280.) We shall now be able to apprehend the descriptions of the ancient authors.

Rhases quotes several Arabian and Indian authorities on Myrobalans. The Citrine or Yellow, according to Badigorias (Pythagoras?), is cholagogue, and the Black stomachic. The other authorities quoted by him agree in generally holding that myrobalans are cholagogue and stomachic, and that they are useful in hemorrhoids and palpitation of the heart. Sarac, the Indian, recommends them as purgative and stomachic medicines in mental diseases, hemorrhoids, headache, dropsy, and diseases of the spleen. They all seem to be agreed in holding that myrobalans are possessed of a purgative power compounded with astringency. (Contin. l. ult. i, 473.) In his other works he recommends myrobalans for purging yellow bile, and melancholy or black bile, and also as astringents. (Divis. i, 144, and Ad Mansor. viii, 54.) In the latter work he says, that in order to purge, the proper dose of citrine myrobalans is from ten to twenty drachms. Avicenna describes four species of myrobalans, namely, the Citrine, unripe, the black Indian, the Kebulic, and the Chinese, meaning by the last, we suppose, the Emblic, or fruit of the Emblica officinalis. He describes minutely their specific differences, and states of their general virtues as medicines, that they are cold in the first degree and dry in the second; that they all extinguish yellow bile, and are useful in bilious complaints; that the black brightens the colour, and all kinds are useful in leprosy. He recommends them in diseases of the eyes, and in those of the chest accompanied with palpitation and sorrow. He also states several minute distinctions among them as to medicinal powers, which we do not think it necessary to enter upon. (ii, 2, 449.) Serapion writes very elaborately on myrobalans, of which he describes four species, the Citrine, the Black or Indian, the Kebulic, and the Chinese citrine (Emblic?). The authorities quoted by him are generally agreed, that myrobalans possess astringency with bitterness, purge bile and whet the stomach; are cordial, and prove useful in melancholy, &c. Sarac, the Indian, as quoted by him, maintains of myrobalans, that they are hot and astringent, and at the same time eccoprotic, that they strengthen the senses and the nerves, are useful in leprosy, colic, old hemorrhoids, vertigo, and dropsy, and that they induce nausea and vomiting. Honain gives minute directions for the preparation of them, but these we shall not enter upon. Some apothecaries, he says, fall into the mistake of selling Kebulic myrobalans of a black colour for the true black kind. For the true black myrobalans, he says, are brought from India, whereas of the Kebulic, some are yellow and others black according to the time of their growth at which they are gathered from the trees. He gives very minute directions for administering them with other substances, such as prunes, Sebesten plums, jujubes, and the like; but as most of these substances are not now much known, it would not be interesting to most readers to learn his remarks on this subject. (De Simpl. 107.) Mesue also gives a very elaborate and circumstantial account of myrobalans, which our necessary limits prevent us from giving at full length. He ranks them with the Blessed Medicines (medicinis benedictis); for, he adds, in loosening the bowels, they do not weaken but strengthen the stomach, heart, liver, and the whole body. The only bad effect, he says, which they ever produce, is obstruction. Their operation, he adds, is wonderfully increased by combining them with scammony. He says, of all the kinds, that they are cold in the first degree and dry in the second. His directions for correcting any bad effects from the use of them, and for increasing their operation, are most circumstantial, and bespeak an intimate acquaintance with the subject. He eulogises them in the strongest terms, declaring that they restore youth, improve the complexion, the breath, and the perspiration, impart joy and hilarity, strengthen the stomach, heart, and liver, are useful in palpitations, cleanse the stomach, are useful in hemorrhoids, extinguish heat in cholera, and this more especially the citrine. He also speaks favorably of them in a prescribed preparation for complaints of the eyes, and for tertian and bilious fevers. The Kebulic, he says, are phlegmagogue, and especially the prepared kinds; they improve the sight, cleanse and comfort the stomach, and are useful in dropsy and chronic fevers. The Black bring away black and adust bile, are useful in melancholy and palpitations, clear the colour, cure leprosy, remove sadness, and are beneficial in quartans. The dose from two to five drachms. (De Simpl. ii.) He treats separately of the Emblic and Belleric, but we need not enter upon his account of them. And here we would refer our readers to Costa’s commentary on this part of Mesue, as containing all the interesting information which can be gleaned from ancient authors on the subject of myrobalans. For the other Arabians, see Haly Abbas (Pract. ii, 54); Averrhoes (Collig. v, 42); Ebn Baithar (pluries); and Avenzoar (Antidot.) None of these supply much that is important after what we have given from the other authorities. Of the Greek writers on medicine, Actuarius is the only one that gives any distinct account of myrobalans, and he professes to derive his information from “the wise barbarian doctors,” meaning the Arabians. He first describes the Citrine, the Kebulic, and the Black or Indian, and represents them as possessing purgative powers, combined with some astringency and tonicity. Besides these three kinds he mentions, as possessing purgative powers of a like nature, two medicines, which he calls empelilez and empletze, by which he no doubt meant Emblic and Belleric. (Meth. Med. v, 8.) The five kinds of myrobalans, namely, the Citrine, the Kebulic, the Indian, the Belleric, and the Emblic, occur in one of the antidotes of Nicolas Myrepsus, who recommends them in various remittent and intermittent fevers. (i, 24.) Myrobalans have always been much esteemed by the Hindoo physicians. See the Susruta, and Wise’s Book on Hindoo Medicine (pluries.)

Manna.

Though the Arabians would certainly appear to have been the first to introduce the substance now used medicinally under this name, it is impossible to believe that the Greeks and Romans can have been wholly unacquainted with it. It, we need scarcely inform our professional readers, is procured principally from the Ornus Europæa or flowering ash, either by incision, or the puncture of an insect. The ancients, however, applied this term to a variety of the thus, as we have stated in the preceding commentary on this section, and also to the honey-dew described in Vol. I, pp. 178, 179 of this work. We have further mentioned under the head of Elæomeli, that it probably was some species of manna. Altogether then the term we are now considering is often a puzzle in reading the works of the ancient authorities. See further Ainslie (Mat. Ind. i, 209); Sprengel (R. H. H.); Pereira (M. M. 928); Lindley (Veg. Kingd. 547, 617, 737, 341, 342.) Even the Arabians, who appear to have been perfectly well acquainted with its medicinal properties, confound it with the honey-dew, and seem to say that it falls from heaven upon the trees. Serapion describes it by the name of Tereniaben or mel roris, and says it falls from above upon certain trees, and resembles granulated honey. Its virtues he states, upon the authority of Isaac ebn Amram, to consist in opening the bowels, and moistening the chest, and he adds that it suits with persons of a hot temperament, especially when dissolved in water of jujubes, or of prunes. His other authorities recommend it in the same complaints, and also in the inflammation of ardent fevers and for quenching thirst. The dose is said to be from ten to twenty drachms. (De Simpl. 10.) We may mention that Serapion and all the other authorities mention that manna is found most abundantly on thorns. Avicenna’s account of this subject is so like to that of Serapion that it would be superfluous to give any abstract of it. (ii, 2, 694.) Rhases also gives nearly the same description of manna upon the authority of Abinerog, Mesaurice, Mesue, and Chuz. (Contin. l. ult. i, 711.) All these authorities represent it as being a gentle purgative and expectorant, and as being useful in acute and intermittent fevers. In another of his works (Ad Mansor. ix, 14), treating of hoarseness and coryza, he prescribes an expectorant decoction, one of the ingredients of which is “manna, quam aërium appellant.” In his chapter on angina (ix, 51) he prescribes a laxative medicine containing tamarinds, cassia fistula, and “manna quam veteres mel aërium appellant.” Mesue gives an elaborate account of the origin, characters, temperament, and virtues of manna, which is well worth consulting, although it contains nothing of any great importance in addition to what is stated above on the authority of Serapion, Avicenna, and Rhases. He would appear moreover to confound the manna thuris with the manna of the ash. Like the other authorities, he holds manna to be a gentle cholagogue, and says it softens the throat, the chest, the bowels, and quenches thirst. The dose from six to fifteen drachms. (De Simpl. 8.) We have not found anything further of interest in the works of Averrhoes, Haly Abbas, and Ebn Baithar. The last of these says the Ros Melleus is a substance which falls upon trees in Chorasan; that it is useful in ardent fevers, moistens the chest, proves more detergent than sugar, cools thirst, improves the memory, purges yellow bile, &c. He evidently alludes to the true manna of the ash. Actuarius mentions cassia fistula and manna as two purgative medicines which may be safely given to children and pregnant women. (Meth. Med. v.)

Turpeth.

There can be no doubt that it is the Convolvulus Turpethum. Rhases recommends turpeth for purging crude and recrementitious humours from the knees and other joints. His two authorities, Mesue the elder, and Chuz, give it the same character. (Contin. l. ult. i, 729.) Avicenna, after describing it, represents it as being efficacious in diseases of the nerves and joints, as being phlegmagogue, and if mixed with ginger, as bringing away crude humours. (ii, 2, 701.) Serapion confounds it with the tripolium of Dioscorides and Galen, as we have stated under that head. Upon the authority of Aben Mesuai he assigns it the property of purging viscid phlegm, but says that it brings on mental depression by its horrid taste, and, therefore, it ought not to be taken alone. Other Arabian authorities, quoted by him, give it the same character. He describes the medicine very minutely, and the marks by which we may determine whether it be sound or not. The dose is from one to two drachms. (De Simpl. 337.) Haly Abbas treats of it in his chapter on purgatives, but confines himself principally to a description of the medicine itself. (Pract. ii, 2, 557.) The ancient author who has treated most fully of turpeth, is Mesue the younger in his work ‘De Simpl.’ (11.) He gives a circumstantial description of it, and full directions for correcting its bad qualities by mixing it with other substances, such as scammony, dates, ginger, almonds, &c. He recommends it principally as a phlegmagogue, and an evacuant of gross humours in diseases of the joints, and as a preservative from leprosy and other diseases of the skin. It has been much disputed whether or not the turpeth of Mesue be the same as that of the other Arabians. (See his Commentators l. c.) We see little reason for questioning their identity. We have not found anything additional of much interest in the great work of Ebn Baithar under this head. The turpeth of Actuarius is the root of the pityusa, that is to say of the Euphorbia pityusa. (Meth. Med. v, 9.) Dr. Ainslie, treating of the Convolvulus turpethum, says: “Our present article had long a place in the Mat. Med., but of late years has fallen into disuse. Alston (M. M. ii, 530) speaks of turpeth as being a strong resinous cathartic, recommended in his days in gout, dropsy, and leprosy.” (Mat. Ind. ii, 384.) It is still known in the shops as a rough purgative. See Gray (Suppl. to Pharm.) We are satisfied that it was not known to the Greeks before the Arabian period, that it was neither the Tripolium, as we have already stated, nor yet the Alypias, as some have supposed. It has been long used as a purgative medicine by the Hindoo physicians. See Wise (Hindoo Med. 145.)