A Pharmaceutical Vocabulary.
The subjoined list of technical terms is limited to the names of pharmaceutical processes, products, and apparatus; and only (as a rule, with some exceptions) of such as are not dealt with in other sections. Many of the terms are obsolete, but are to be met with in old treatises. Occasionally rather more than a bare definition has been thought desirable.
Acetabulum. Originally a vessel used by the Romans for holding vinegar at the table. Then a liquid measure about 2½ oz.
Acetum Philosophicum. Vinegar made from honey.
Acopon. A stimulating or anodyne liniment, almost of the consistence of an ointment. If acopa contained aromatics they were called myracopa.
Adept. An alchemist who “had attained.”
Adust. A dried up condition of the humours.
Aggregatives. Pills devised by Mesué which were intended to purge all the humours.
Alabaster. A special kind of carbonate or sulphate of lime used by the ancients for ointment containers which were sometimes called alabastra. The name is supposed to have been derived from a town in Egypt.
Album Rhasis. White lead ointment, which Rhazes was believed to have introduced.
Alembic. The Arabic name for a still. It was adapted by the Arabs from the Greek ambix, a vase, to which was prefixed the particle al. The word became corrupted in English to Limbeck.
Alembroth. Sal Alembroth was the double chloride of mercury and ammonium. Also called the salt of wisdom. The word has not been traced, but has been supposed to be a Chaldaic term meaning the key of art.
Alexipharmic (in Greek alexipharmakon). A remedy against poison.
Alexiteria. Remedies against the bites of venomous animals.
Alhandal. The Arabic name for colocynth which was applied to certain lozenges or tablets of that drug.
Alkahest. The universal solvent, or menstruum. The word has an Arabic appearance, but cannot be traced to that language. It is believed to have been one of Paracelsus’s many etymological inventions. The derivation has been guessed to have been from the German al-geist, all spirit, Paracelsus said it was a liquid to cure all kinds of engorgements. Van Helmont’s Alkahest was capable of restoring to their first life all the bodies of nature. Glauber’s Alkahest was nitrate potash which had been detonated on live coals. It was carbonate of potash.
Alkali, in Arabic al-qaly. Qaly meant to fry, and the technical term was applied to the ashes of plants after frying or roasting.
Alkekengi. The Winter Cherry, formerly in much esteem as a remedy in kidney and urinary complaints.
Alkool. This name was given to powders of the finest tenuity. It was also applied to spirit of wine rectified to the utmost extent. Boerhaave employed the term to indicate the purest inflammable principle.
Aloedarium. A purgative medicine with aloes as the principal ingredient.
Aludels. Pear-shaped pots constructed so that they could be fitted one into another, a series of them being used for sublimations. The name is supposed to have had an Arabic origin, or it may have meant “not luted.”
Amalgam. A compound of mercury and some other metal. Believed to have been a perversion of malagma, a soft ointment, with the Arabic article prefixed.
Amphora. An earthenware vessel with two handles wherewith to carry it. Used by the Greeks and Romans for wine and oil. The Greek vessel contained about 9 gallons; the Roman amphora was equivalent to nearly 7 gallons.
Analeptica. Restorative remedies.
Anoyntment. An old term for ointment.
Antidotary. A frequent title of books of formulas for medicines.
Antidote. Something “given against.” Originally, perhaps, an adjective, and in old medicine employed for various remedies; now limited to substances which will counteract the effect of poisons.
Apozems. Strong decoctions or infusions. A Greek word meaning “boiled off.”
Aqua Mirabilis. Once a popular household remedy. Water distilled from cloves, cardamoms, cubebs, mace, ginger, and other spices.
Aquila Alba. An old name for calomel.
Arcana meant secrets. The original idea of the word was things shut up and protected as the occupants of Noah’s Ark were shut up. The alchemists used the word arcanum freely, but it came to be applied to medicines of known composition but of mysterious action. Arcanum tartari was acetate of potash. Arcanum duplicatum was another name for the Sal de Duobus or sulphate of potash which was supposed to combine the virtues of nitre and vitriol.
Athanor was a self-supplying furnace, the coals or fuel being provided in a reservoir above the fire and intended to be supplied to the furnace automatically.
Balm and Balsam, which are words with the same origin, have always been suggestive of medicinal and healing virtues. Probably balsam has descended through the Greek and Latin from Semitic terms meaning spices. The Hebrew Besem or Bosem, often translated “spices,” in one place “cinnamon,” in another “calamus,” always meant some grateful aromatic. But the opobalsamum or juice of the Balsam tree, the famous Balm of Gilead, was Tsori in Hebrew. Old etymologists, supported by Littré and other moderns, consider that Baal-schaman, prince of oils, was the original word from which balsam was derived. The Arabic Abu-scham, father of perfumed oils, was a name for the balsam tree. Paracelsus taught that the human body contained a natural balsam which tended by itself to heal wounds.
Basilicon ointment is first met with in Celsus. It means royal ointment but no explanation of the origin of the term is given. He compounded it of panax, (perhaps opopanax), galbanum, pitch, resin, and oil. Mesué made a basilicon minus, composed of wax, resin, pitch, and oil. This he also called unguentum tetrapharmacum, because it was made from four drugs. Both of these were black ointments. Later the pitch was omitted and the ointment was then named yellow basilicon. A green basilicon ointment was also formulated in the early London Pharmacopœias, containing verdigris, and used as a detergent. It is sometimes stated that the ointment acquired its name because it contained the plant basil (Ocimum basilicum) among its ingredients; but I find no authority for this statement.
Baths. The most usual form of digesting substances in a gentle heat was in a Balneum Mariæ, Bain-Marie, or as old English writers translated it a St. Mary’s bath. It was supposed to have been derived from balneum maris, as if sea water was used; but there is no justification for this guess. Littré thinks it was called the bath of Mary because of its gentleness. Sand-baths, cinder-baths, horse-dung baths, and iron-filings baths were also ordered.
Bezoards. Mineral bezoard was diaphoretic antimony. Silician earth was also called mineral bezoar.
Blisters. Freind says these were introduced into medicine in Venice and Padua during the plague of 1576. Jerome Mercuriali wrote about them. They superseded dropaxes and metasyncretics.
Bolus was a medicine of the consistence of an electuary or rather stiffer, taken in pieces about the size of a bean. The Greek word meant a lump of earth, and it was used medically by the Romans. It was the same as katapotia.
Calx was the name applied to lime which had been burnt, and from this it came to be applied to the white powdery product yielded by burning metals. Thus came the calx Lunæ, the calx Saturni, the calx Jovis, the calx Mercurii, and others. The ancient theory was that in burning the metal the sulphur principle was driven out, and this was the parent of Stahl’s phlogiston theory.
Caput mortuum and terres damnées were names applied to residues in retorts after operations.
Carminative. A medicine which expels winds. One theory traces it to carmen, a charm, but most authorities consider that it was an application to medicine of the term carminare, to card wool, and suggested that the remedy acted by combing through the humours.
Cataplasm. From Greek kata-plassein, to apply over. Used originally for both poultices and plasters. Cataplasmata were perfumed powders sprinkled over the clothes, or sometimes depilatories.
Catholica. Electuaries which purged all the humours.
Cerates were ointments made solid by wax, but not so hard as plasters.
Cerevisiæ (Beers). Medicinal preparations made by adding medicines to malt wort and letting them ferment together were popular in the early part of the 18th century. It was believed that the process of fermentation extracted the properties of drugs more effectively than mere digestion. Quincy (1739) names thirty cerevisiæ, aperient, antiscorbutic, diuretic, hysteric, stomachic, &c. Many of these were compounded with numerous drugs.
Ceruse. Old Latin name for white lead. Flowers of antimony were called ceruse of antimony. The name is supposed to have had some association with wax, but the connection is not clear.
Cochleare. The usual prescription term for a spoonful, was in Latin the twenty-fourth of a cyathus or wineglassful. It was an egg-spoon, but owed its name to a pointed tip used to extract winkles from their shells as we use pins, and, the cochlear being a small snail, the name was transferred to the instrument. From it has descended the French cuillier, a spoon.
Cohobation came to mean only the repetition of distillation, the distillate being poured on the material from which it had already been distilled, and again distilled. Paracelsus uses the term cohob to signify a repetition of the same medicine.
Colcothar. The name was applied to the prepared rust of iron now called rouge, but originally to the residue left in the retort after oil of vitriol had been distilled from sulphate of iron. Paracelsus used, and some say invented, the word; but Murray traces it through the Spanish to an Arabic origin, qolqotar, which Doxy believes to have been a corruption of the Greek Chalcanthos, a solution of blue vitriol (from chalkos, copper, and anthos, flower). Colcothar was the same as crocus Martis.
Collutories. Medicines of the consistence of honey for applying to the gums and mouth. Honey and borax is an example. A fluid mouth-wash was called a collution.
Collyrium. Collyria were “dry,” or powders such as alum, sulphate of zinc, or calomel, which were insufflated into the eye; soft, or pomades applied to the eyelids; and liquid, or eye lotions. The term kollyrion was used in Greek medicine with the same meaning; it was originally derived from kollyra, a roll of bread.
Conserves properly consisted of only one medicament and sugar.
Crocus (Saffron). The term was applied to certain metallic combinations of a saffron colour, such as crocus Martis (rust of iron), crocus Veneris (a copper oxide), and crocus Metallorum (liver of antimony). Damocrates left a formula for Crocomagma, tonic cakes or trochiscs, of which saffron was the principal ingredient.
Crucible. A vessel in which metals are melted. The word is generally attributed to a supposed association with crux, crucis, a cross; but this is not proved. It was originally the name of a night-lamp, and several authorities consider it owes its name to the crossing of the wicks.
Cucupha. A cap to be worn on the head in which certain aromatic drugs were fixed with the idea of curing headaches.
Cucurbit. A gourd-shaped vessel of glass or earthenware used as a retort.
Cyathus, translated wineglassful when the word appears in prescriptions, was the ladle with which the wine was scooped out from the cratera into the poculum. It was also a Roman measure, about the twelfth part of a pint.
Decocta have been attributed to Nero as the inventor. At least they appear to have originated in his household. They were simply boiled water refreshed by ice, and often flavoured by fruits. These were employed as beverages. “Et hæc est Neronis decocta” exclaimed the fallen tyrant as he fled from Rome and allayed his thirst by scooping some dirty water from a pond.
Deliquium. Deliquescence; as when salt of tartar was resolved into “oil of tartar” by mere exposure to the air. This was called “deliquium per se.”
Despumation. The removal of the froth from boiling honey or syrup.
Dia in the “Vision of William concerning Piers the Plowman” written by Langland in 1377 occur the lines:
Lyf leuede that lechecraft lette shulde elde
And dryuen away deth with dyas and dragges.
Translated into modern English these lines would read “Life believed that leechcraft should let (hinder) age, and drive away death with dyas and dragges.” The dyas and dragges were evidently the means which leechcraft employed. At that time and for long afterwards a large number of compounded medicines bore titles with the prefix dia-. Diachylon, diagrydium, diabolanum diakodion, diasulphuris are examples of scores. Dia was the Greek preposition, meaning through or from, which appears in a multitude of English words. In medicine it always implies a compound, and in old English it is occasionally found alone as in the instance quoted from “Piers Plowman.” Another given in the Historical English Dictionary is from Lydgate (1430) “Drug nor dya was none in Bury towne.”[5] In combination a few survivals remain in the language as Diachylon, Diapente, and Diacodion, but in the old medical formularies its use is very frequent. Generally it meant an electuary or confection. Thus for example the P.L. of 1746 changed the old Diascordium into Electuarium e Scordio. Apparently the dia- was then going out of fashion.
Diagredium or Diagrydium. This term was often applied to scammony but it was correctly reserved to a prepared scammony (see Dia); the object being to modify the purgative action. One method was to place some scammony in the hollow of a quince and keep it for some time in hot ashes. This gave Diagredium cydoniatum. Or sulphur was burned under a porous paper on which scammony was spread, and the preparation was known as Diagredium sulphuratum. It was also combined with liquorice and called Diagredium glycyrrhisatum.
Dropax was the name of a plaster employed as a depilatory. It was applied warm and pulled off, with the hairs, when cold. It was the Greek term for a pitch plaster.
Drug. The word “dragges” in the “Vision of Piers Plowman” (refer to “Dia”) has been generally supposed to have been an earlier form of drugs; but Skeat contended on philological grounds that the two terms could hardly be the same. Dragges occurs also in Chaucer in the description of the Doctour of Phisike:—
Ful redy had he his apothecaries
To send him dragges and his lettuaries.
and Skeat presumed that the dragges were a kind of medicinal sweetmeat corresponding with the French dragées. But Murray has shown that in most of the texts of Chaucer the word is droggis or drugges. So that it is probable that the poet was using the term which we now almost invariably confine to the raw materials of pharmacy. It might easily be shown that in the past it was more generally applied. The etymology of drug is doubtful. The majority of philologists trace it to Anglo-Saxon dryg, and Dutch droog, both meaning dry, the sense originating from dried herbs. There is, however, a Celtic word, drwg, in Irish, droch, which has the meaning of something bad. But Littré suggests that the primary signification of that word is that of an ingredient, and therefore might have been the derivation of our drug. Most likely it is the original of the word when employed as indicating something worthless, as “a drug in the market.” It may well be therefore that the word used in different senses has distinct derivations. (Two interesting articles on this subject will be found in The Chemist and Druggist for February and March, 1882.)
Eclegma. Thick syrups given on a piece of liquorice root to suck with the object of relieving coughs. (See Electuary for Derivation.)
Ecussons. Compounds of theriaca with some added opium used as plasters.
Edulcorate. To deprive substances of their acrid taste. Generally by the addition of syrup.
Electuary. Old dictionaries give the origin of this word as from the Latin electus, on the theory that an electuary was a composition of selected drugs. It is, in fact, a Latin corruption of the Greek ekleikton, which meant something that could be licked. See Eclegma.
Elixir. An Arabic word, al-iksir, which Littré says signified the essence or the quintessence. Murray suggests that it may have had a Greek origin. Xerion, a late Greek medical term, meaning a desiccative powder for wounds, is the word which he supposes the Arabs may have adopted. It is probable that elixir was from the first used to denote a medicine; perhaps the medicine, the great panacea which Arab chemists sought for. For although alchemy, the name at least, may be traced to their laboratories, it is certain that their early efforts were rather in the direction of the discovery of remedies than in that of the production of gold. By the alchemists of Europe and England, however, elixir was understood in both senses. It meant both the philosopher’s stone and the elixir of life. In “The Alchemist,” Ben Jonson (1610) alludes to an old superstition thus:
He that has once the “flower of the sun”
The perfect ruby which we call elixir
... by its virtue
Can confer honour, love, respect, long life,
Give safety, valour, yea, and victory
To whom he will. In eight and twenty days
He’ll make an old man of fourscore a child.
The word has been a useful one for empirics many times since.
Emplastra are noted by Celsus, many of his formulæ being made with a lead plaster basis as ours are to this day, litharge (spuma argenti) and olive oil being boiled together.
Emulsion, from emulsus the past participle of emulgere, to milk out, was originally applied to the milky liquid extracted from almonds. Subsequently extended to other milky fluids.
Enchrista. Liquids, Celsus says, “quæ illinuntur,” but the word linimentum had not been formed in his time. He uses the word Linamentum for a sort of lint. Acopa were a kind of liniment.
Enema or clyster or glyster are all used to signify either the injection or the instrument by which the injection is applied. Enema (properly pronounced with the accent on the first syllable) means something sent; clyster was the Greek word for the instrument.
Ens. A favourite term with old metaphysicians and alchemists with the same meaning as essence. Supposed to have been derived from Esse, to be.
Epithema. An alcoholic fomentation or liquid medicine applied to the heart and stomach as a stupe.
Epithemation was the name of an application described by Galen as of a consistence between that of a cerate and that of a plaster.
Errhines, called Nasalia in Latin, are substances snuffed up the nostrils to excite sneezing.
Gas was a word invented by Van Helmont. Several guesses have been hazarded as to the idea which suggested the term. The Dutch geest, spirit or ghost, seemed the most likely. The German gäschen, to ferment, has also been proposed. But in 1897 Dr. F. Hurder discovered a paragraph in Van Helmont’s writings which stated definitely that he had derived the word from chaos.
Gilla Vitriola. The name first given to white vitriol. Gilla meant simply salt.
Gutteta. A term for epilepsy. Pulvis de Gutteta was a remedy against epilepsy.
Hepars were chemicals of a liver colour, as hepar antimonii, hepar sulphuris.
Infusions first appeared in the London Pharmacopœia of 1720. In the revised edition of that issue (1724), however, the three infusions of 1720 appear as Decocti, the title of Infusum being abandoned, but the directions for the three preparations referred to still give “infunde” and not “coque.” In the edition of 1746 Infusa re-appear as such, and “Macera” appears in the directions for the first time. In the 1788 edition Inf. Amarum Simplex becomes Infusum Gentianæ Compositum, and aqua bulliens gives place to aqua fervens. In 1809 the number of Infusions is raised from four to eighteen.
Julep, a term made popular in medicine by the Arabs. It was used by them exclusively for clear, sweet, liquids. Nothing oily or with a sediment could be a julep. The name is said to be a Persian compound from gul, rose, and ap, water; applied to rose tinted waters. It has lingered in modern pharmacy as camphor or mint julep, but in neither of these cases is it correctly applied, as they are not sweetened. The old way of making camphor julep was to hold a piece of camphor by pincers, inflame it, and plunge it in water, repeating this operation frequently until the water acquired a strong flavour of camphor.
Katapotia. The most usual form of medicine among the Greek pharmacists was the confection or electuary, a composition of drugs made to a proper consistence generally with honey. Frequently these electuaries were called “antidotes,” things given against this or that disease. There were antidotes against gout, against stone, against colics, against phthisis, etc. The taste of these antidotes was always unpleasant, so it became the custom to order them to be made up into little balls of such or such size. The Greeks called these little balls “katapotia,” that is, things to be swallowed. “Take a katapotium the size of a bean” would be an ordinary Greek direction. Galen describes a composition of 1 part of colocynth, 2 parts of aloes, 2 of scammony, 1 of absinth juice, and a little mastic and bdellium, which was to be formed into katapotia, each of the size of a dried pea. Trallien refers to this same pill, but names the size as that of a kokkion, a seed. This was the origin of our pil. cochiæ or cocciæ as they came to be known. By this time the names globulus, glomeramus, and pilula had taken the place in Latin of katapotium. Actuarius says expressly that what the Greeks called katapotia the Romans knew as pilulæ. Trochisci were katapotia made very hard.
Lac Virginale. The name was applied to a dilute solution of acetate of lead (Goulard’s water) and also to water made milky by the addition of a little tincture of benzoin. Both were used by young girls for their complexions.
Lapis Infernalis. Nitrate of silver.
Lapis Medicamentosus. An astringent stone of which oxide of iron was the principal ingredient.
Lapis Mirabilis. An application for wounds, of which green vitriol was the essential ingredient.
Looch—sometimes loch, lohoch, lohoth—was a thick liquid, between a syrup and an electuary, almond emulsion being frequently the basis, which formerly patients were ordered to suck on a stick of liquorice cut in the form of a pencil for throat and lung irritation. Sometimes stronger medicines, like kermes mineral and ipecacuanha, were administered in this way. The word was of Arabic origin, and was derived from the verb la’aka, to lick.
Maceration is the digestion of a solid body in a liquid for the purpose of dissolving its active principles.
Magdaleon. Originally a mass or paste such as crumb of bread (Greek, magdalia), or it may have been used for pill masses made up with crumb of bread. The term became limited to plasters in cylindrical form.
Magistery. A word much in favour with the alchemists and old pharmacists. It had not a very definite meaning, but was understood to be a substance so converted as to present the virtues of the material from which it had been made in their most effective form. Boyle mentions that Paracelsus uses the word to signify many different things, and Boyle himself has not a clear idea of what he understands by it, for, he says, “the best notion I know of it is that it is a preparation whereby there is not an analysis made of the body assigned, nor an extraction of this or that principle, but the whole or very near the whole body, by the help of some additament, greater or less, is turned into a body of another kind.” Boerhaave, however, takes the pretensions of the makers of magisteries to be that they change a body into another form, as, for instance, solid gold into liquid, without any addition. According to Littré, precipitates generally were considered to possess the properties of the bodies from which they were obtained, and thus became magisteries. The magistery of bismuth is the one which has survived the longest with us. Resin of jalap was also regarded as a magistery.
Magma was the residuum left in the press after pressing out the menstruum. It was also used to describe other substances of a soft consistence.
Magnes Arsenicalis was a compound of sulphur, arsenic, and antimony, which, either in the form of powder or made into a plaster, was applied to syphilitic sores to draw out the virus. Angelo Sala was the inventor of the plaster.
Malagmata were substances applied to the skin to soften it, such as poultices.
Malaxation was the process of making a pill mass or a plaster soft enough to be worked.
Manica Hypocratis (Sleeve of Hippocrates) was a long linen bag used to filter pharmaceutical preparations.
Manipulus, a handful, often prescribed as an approximate measure of the quantity of herbs or flowers to be used in a pharmaceutical process.
Manus Christi was the name of a tablet made of sugar and flavoured with rose into which some prepared pearl entered.
Manus Dei was the name of an old plaster containing myrrh, frankincense, ammoniac, and galbanum.
Marmalades were conserves of various fruits, the pulp of which was preserved in sugar. Said to have been originally the pulp of the quince (in Portuguese marmelo). Some old medical books say the pharmaceutical preparations known by this name, which often contained manna, were derived from the French marc mêlé.
Masticatories. Substances chewed with the object of exciting the saliva. Sage, betony, pyrethrum, and tobacco have been employed for this purpose.
Matrass. A round or oval glass vessel used in chemical operations to digest or evaporate liquids. It was provided with a long straight neck, and is supposed to owe its name to this, matras or matrat being an old word for an arrow or javelin.
Mellites were syrups made with honey instead of sugar.
Mensis Philosophicus, a philosophic month, or forty days.
Menstruum. The alchemists used this term much as the word solvent is now used, and some etymologists think it was adopted to indicate that a month was necessary for a solvent to exercise its full power. Dr. Johnson says the idea originated “in some notion of the old chemists about the influence of the moon in the preparation of dissolvents.” Sir J. Murray says “Menstruum was a mediæval term used in alchemy to express belief that the base metal undergoing transmutation into gold corresponded with the seed within the womb which was being acted upon by the agency of the menstrual fluid.” It is possible, however, that the old belief in the extraordinary solvent power of the menstrual fluid may have better accounted for the adoption of the term in pharmacy. Dr. C. S. Carrington, of Brooklyn, has quoted from a French narrative of the conquest and conversion of the natives of the Canary Islands, published in one of the Hakluyt volumes, a passage written by two monks giving an account of the Flood. Describing the Ark, they say it was so perfectly joined by “Betun,” a glue so strong that the pieces united by it could not be separated by any art “sinon par sang naturel de fleurs de femmes.”
Moxa. In the middle of the seventeenth century Ten Rhyn and afterwards Kaempfer, both surgeons in the service of the Dutch East India Company, described a process of cauterisation largely adopted in China and Japan in the treatment of various maladies. They used the hairy leaves of the Chinese artemisia and made it up into a cylindrical shape which they placed on any part on which they wished to act, and then set fire to it, allowing it to smoulder slowly down to the skin. It was adopted by many European surgeons, especially by Van Swieten in gout, rheumatism, and paralysis, but carded cotton, lint, hemp, or other substances were employed in the same way. Sydenham mentions this as a cure for gout, and Larrey designed a little instrument to facilitate the application. Sometimes chemicals were combined, and the stem of the sunflower cut into inch lengths, the pith being burnt, was also used. The operation of course gave great pain, and after a time it was doubted if it did any good.
Nasalia. See Errhines.
Noctiluca. The name given by Boyle to the phosphorus which he made before the latter word became general.
Nutrition. A term used in old pharmacy to signify the act of combining substances in a mortar or by agitation until they acquired the proper consistence. Unguentum nutritum, for example, was an ointment made by stirring together in a mortar some lead plaster with oil and vinegar and generally some belladonna juice.
Nychthemeron meant maceration for a day and night, that is for 24 hours. It appears sometimes in directions for treating herbs and flowers previous to distillation.
Obolos, a Greek weight equal to half a scruple.
Œnclaion, a mixture of wine and oil.
Œnogala, a mixture of wine and milk.
Œnomeli, a mixture of wine and honey.
Œsypus, the name given by Dioscorides to wool fat.
Ointments among the Greeks and Romans were generally liquids. Anything used to anoint with, not being oil simply, was an ointment (miron in Greek, unguentum in Latin). From the Greek word was derived Myrepsus, which meant an ointment maker.
Opiates were originally electuaries containing opium or some other narcotic. Gradually, however, the word lost its significance and was used to indicate any medicinal substance of the same character. It is sometimes used for tooth pastes.
Oxycroceum was the name of a plaster among the ingredients of which were vinegar and saffron.
Panchrest. A remedy for all complaints.
Panchymagogon. A medicine to purify all the humours. Pulp of colocynth, black hellebore, diagrydium, of each 2½ ounces; senna, rhubarb, of each 4 ounces; species of diarrhodon abattis, hermodactils, turbith, agaric, aloes, of each 1 ounce. Make an extract with cinnamon water, adding the salt from the fæces. Dose, 20 to 30 grains. Calomel was called “mineral panchymagogon.”
Pedilavium. A decoction of herbs intended to bathe the feet with to induce sleep.
Pelican. A glass vessel with a tubular neck and provided with two beaks, one opposite the other, which conducted the vapour back to the lower part of the vessel, so that cohobation or redistillation was continually being carried on.
Periapt. An amulet hung round the neck, or applied to some other part of the body, to preserve the wearer from contagion, or to drive away evil spirits.
Pessary, from Greek “pessos,” a little round stone used in a game. Pessaries were in very common use by the Greek women for every kind of vaginal complaint. They were little balls of wool or lint which were medicated in various ways.
Pill. The word “pilula” is first found in Pliny, who says “Pharmaca illa in globulos conformata vulgo pilulæ nominamus.” See “Katapotia.”
Poison is the same word as “potion.” Both originally meant a draught.
Polychrest. A medicine of many virtues,
Pomatum. Originally an ointment made from the pulp of apples, lard and rose water, and used as an application for beautifying the face.
Populeum. An ointment made from the buds of the black poplar. It was prescribed by Nicolas of Salermo as a narcotic and resolvent application.
Poultice, from the Latin “puls (pult-)” through the Italian “polta,” meaning pap, pottage, pulse. “Poltos” was the Greek term for pottage. The intrinsic purport of the word was something beaten. The Latin “pulsare,” to beat, represents the idea, and it is found in our word “pulse,” which indicates the heart-beats, and also in such words as impulse, compulsory, and the like. In old medical books, “poultice” is generally spelt “pultesse” or “pultass,” and this form was retained until the eighteenth century. In the first quarto of “Romeo and Juliet” (Act II., Sc. 5) the Nurse asks Juliet, “Is this the poultesse for my aking boanes?”
Propomata were drinks made of wine and honey in the proportion of four to one according to Galen.
Psilothrum. A depilatory.
Salamanders’ Blood. The red vapours of nitrous acid.
Salia. Salt was a term very vaguely applied in old chemistry. Anything soluble and possessing a marked taste was called a salt. Thus grew the practice of describing substances as salia acida, salia alkalina, and salia salsa. Sal fixum was a salt not affected by heat.
Scutum. See Ecusson.
Sinapisms were a form of poultices or cataplasms used by the Romans as counter irritants. They were generally made with crushed mustard, sometimes with cantharides and crumb of bread, and often with dried figs wetted and reduced to a pulp.
Smegma was an application to the skin composed of some active remedy such as verdigris, alum, sulphur, pepper, hellebore, or stavesacre.
Sparadrap. An adhesive plaster on linen or paper.
Suffumenta or Suffumigia. Gums, aromatics, or other substances burned and inhaled to fortify the brain.
Supplantalia. Remedies applied to the soles of the feet, believed to attract the vicious humours. Live pigeons cut in two, and other animals were sometimes thus applied.
Suppositories are at least as old as Hippocrates, who called them Prosdita or Balanoi. Suppository is from the Latin sub-ponere, and is stated by modern etymologists to mean to place under; but older writers say the meaning was to substitute. That is, the suppository was employed instead of an enema.
Syrup. An Arabic introduction. The Arabic word is Sharab or Shurab, and our words sherbet and shrub as well as syrup are derived from it.
Tisanes, formerly Ptisans, are mentioned as favourite forms of administering the simpler kinds of remedies by Celsus. The word was derived from “ptissein,” to crush, and was applied first to barley water, made from crushed barley. In French pharmacy Tisanes, mostly infusions of herbs, are still very familiar. Celsus uses the term “sorbitio” for gruel. Apozems were stronger than Tisanes.
Troches, from the Greek trochiscos, a cone. Medicines in a hard form. Subsequently called in Latin, pastilli, and in English, lozenges. They were first made in the shape of cones. Trochisci plumbi were compounds of white lead, camphor, gum, etc., like oat grains, invented by Rhazes for application to the eyes. Named also trochisci Rhasis, and Arab soap.