Chapter XIX: Book IV: , 58, and Pereira (Mat. Med. 1101). It has been a question, by the (5)

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.