Commentary. The squama æris was a black per-oxyd of copper. The squama ferri, a black oxyd of iron. The stomoma was the chalybs or steel. See Dioscorides (v, 89), with the Commentaries of Matthiolus and Sprengel, and also the Appendix to Dunbar’s Lexicon. Geoffroy says of the squama æris, that it is little different from the æs astum being only the particles of burnt copper that fly off when hammered. Dioscorides calls it astringent and epulotic: when drunk with honeyed water, he says, it is phlegmagogue; some give it in flour as a pill; it is mixed, he adds, with ophthalmic remedies, drying defluxions, and removing asperities of the eyelids. The stomoma, he says, is inferior to the squama æris as a purgative. (v, 89, 90.) Our author’s account of these substances is borrowed from Galen. Aëtius also copies from Galen. Oribasius gives a fuller description of them, differing very little from that of Dioscorides. The Arabians treat of all these substances, as usual, borrowing freely from Dioscorides, and not adding much of their own. See in particular Avicenna (ii, 2, 231); Serapion (c. 404); Rhases (Cont. l. ult. vi, 48); Averrhoes (Collig. v, 43.) They prescribe the squama æris internally as a purge, and say of it that when the palate is smeared with it vomiting is excited. These substances occur in the Hippocratic treatises and in the works of Celsus. They have not been used medicinally in this country for some time past. The Hindoos use the preparations of copper both internally and externally, according to Dr. Royle. (Hindoo Med. 90.)
Λευκάκανθον,
Leucacanthon, White Acanthus (called also Polygonaton and Ischias); its root is of a cutting nature and desiccative in the third degree, and it is heating in the first.
Commentary. We can only determine for certain that it belonged to the Carduineæ, but can scarcely venture to fix the genus, so loose is the description which the ancient authors have given of it, and so various the conjectures of modern commentators and herbalists respecting it. Upon the whole, the preponderance of the authorities is in favour of the Cirsium tuberosum. Dioscorides says of it, that its root is intensely bitter, and that the decoction of it with wine relieves chronic pleurisy and sciatica, ruptures and sprains, and further, that it relieves toothache. (iii, 19.) Galen recommends it in cæliac and stomach affections and hemoptysis; as a cataplasm to swellings, and a cure to toothache when used as a gargle. Aëtius gives the same character of it. The Arabians ascribe the same virtues to it, and also hold it to he alexipharmic. See in particular Avicenna (ii, 2, 80, 671) and Rhases (Cont. l. ult. i, 118.) The use of it in medicine is as old as the Hippocratic age. See Dierbach’s Materia Medica Hippocr.
Λευκὰς,
Leucas, is heating and desiccative in the third degree, but its prevailing property is acrimony.
Commentary. It appears certainly to be a species of Lamium, either the album or the maculatum. See Parkinson (Theatre of Plants, 672) and Sprengel (Ad Dioscor.) Dioscorides commends it as an application to venomous animals, especially those of the sea. (iii, 103.) The other authorities treat of it in general terms, like our author, who copies almost word for word from Galen.
Λευκοΐον,
Viola alba, Stock Gillyflower; the whole plant is detergent and attenuating, especially its flowers, and those in particular which are drier, so that it promotes menstruation, kills and ejects the fœtus; and if their powers are blunted by a mixture with water, they will answer with inflammations, particularly those of the uterus. The roots being possessed of similar powers, are composed of more gross matter, and are more terrene. But with vinegar they relieve indurated phlegmons.
Commentary. That the plant here described was stock, i. e. Cheiranthus Cheiri, is unquestionable. Dioscorides evidently included also another plant of the same order under this head, which, as stated by Sprengel, may probably be a variety of the Matthiola incana. He gives nearly the same account of its medicinal virtues as our author. Dioscorides says it kills the fœtus in utero when applied on a pessary; and Galen and Aëtius ascribe the same powers to it when taken in a draught. By the Arabians it is obscurely treated of, their authorities in general seeming to confound it with the violet. See Rhases (Ad Mansor. iii, 21); Haly Abbas (Pract. ii, 37, 226); Ebn Baithar (i, 403.) The last of these does little more than copy from Galen and Dioscorides. It is not contained in the modern Greek Pharmacopœia. It is the Viola lutea of our herbalist Gerard, and held a place in our Dispensatory as late as Quincy.