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._