Hippocrates makes frequent mention of the _caput-purgia_, or medicines
which purge the head. On the composition of these medicines, see in
particular Aëtius (iii, 140-1); Nonnus (Epit. 17); and Serapion (de
Antidotis, vii, 31.) They contain such articles as these: pepper, nitre,
white hellebore, spurge, gith, pellitory, mastich, turpentine, mustard,
chalcitis, alum, and the like. The errhines were used principally in
obstructions of the nose, and when the sense of smell was impaired. The
_apophlegmatismi_ were supposed to prove useful in chronic affections of
the head, impairment of the senses of smell and sight, and also when the
tongue and throat were affected.
Prosper Alpinus gives a full account of the errhines, masticatories,
and cough medicines of the ancients. (Med. Meth. iii, 11.) He makes the
_caput-purgia_ to be the same as the errhines, and the _apophlegmatismi_
the same as the masticatories of the moderns.