Commentary. According to Dioscorides, Baum (Melissa officinalis), when its leaves are taken in a draught with wine, or when applied as a cataplasm, is alexipharmic in the case of persons stung by scorpions or venomous spiders, and of those who have been bitten by mad dogs; the decoction in the form of a fomentation (or effusion) does the same; it makes a good hip-bath for promoting menstruation; is a gargle for toothache and a clyster for dysentery; its leaves, in a draught, cure those who have taken poisonous mushrooms, and those suffering from tormina; it forms a linctus in orthopnœa, and along with salts a discutient application to scrofula and ulcers; and as a cataplasm it soothes pains of the joints. (iii, 108.) Our author borrows from Galen, who, like him, gives its characters in general terms. Aëtius, under this head, copies from Galen, and Oribasius from Dioscorides. We believe it is not to be found either in the works of Hippocrates, or those of Celsus. Serapion gives a full account of it, first quoting from Dioscorides and Galen, and then from Abenmesuai and Isaak ebn Amran; the former of whom says it is exhilarating, and the other that it is useful in a cold and humid intemperament of the stomach, promotes digestion, proves cordial, &c. (c. 23.)
Μεμάικυλος,
Memæcylus, being the Fruit of the Arbute, has been treated of under the letter Κ.
Commentary. It is, as here stated, the fruit of the wild Strawberry-tree, that is to say of the Arbutus Unedo, L.
Μέσπιλα,
Mespila, Medlars (called also Tricocca); their fruit being decidedly sour and scarcely edible, proves astringent of the bowels: and its shoots and leaves are also decidedly sour.
Commentary. Dioscorides describes the two species of Medlar in such distinct terms as leaves no doubt that they are the Mespilus Azarolus and Germanica. He represents their fruit as being esculent and slightly astringent. (i, 169, 170.) Galen says of the medlar, that it is acid and austere, and barely esculent, and that it restrains fluxes. (De Simpl. vii.) The other Greek and Arabian authorities give the same account of it. See in particular, Avicenna (ii, 2, 742) and Ebn Baithar (i, 532.) The Arabians prepared an ointment from it for making the hair black and curled. Casiri (Bibl. Arab. Hisp. 330.) The term azarolus is borrowed from the Arabic. See Avicenna (l. c.)
Μήδιον,
Medium; the powers of the root are contrary to those of the fruit, for the former is austere and astringent of fluxes, so as to restrain the female fluor. But the seed even promotes menstruation, being possessed of attenuating and incisive powers.
Commentary. The description of this article given by Dioscorides is sufficiently precise to decide its belonging to the genus Campanula. It was at one time generally referred to the species called Medium, but, as Sprengel remarks, the appearance of the leaves does not agree with those of the medium. Sibthorp, therefore, in his ‘Flora Græca,’ has decided that it is the C. laciniata. (i, 141.) Dioscorides and Galen agree in giving it the same medicinal powers as our author. We are at a loss to determine whether or not it occurs in the Materia Medica of the Arabians, with the exception of Ebn Baithar, who merely gives the descriptions of it by Dioscorides and Galen. (ii, 541.)