Commentary. The first author, we believe, who makes mention of Soap is Pliny. He calls it an invention of the Gauls. It is made, he says, of suet and ashes. (H. N. xxviii, 51.) Aretæus likewise calls it a Gallic composition, prepared from soda, and used for cleansing clothes. He recommends it as an application to the skin in elephantiasis. (De Curat. Morb. Chron. ii, 13.) Serapion praises it as an application to abscesses. The only Greek authority which he quotes under this head is Paulus. (De Simpl. 368.) See also Avicenna (ii, 2, 650); Rhases (Cont. l. ult. i, 609, ii, 628); and Ebn Baithar (ii, 119.) One of Baithar’s Arabian authorities commends soap in leprosy and scabies; also in favus and the cutaneous diseases of the scalp. Ebn Baithar further gives a very curious account of the process of dyeing the beard by means of a mixture of soap and sandyx. This was a very ancient use of soap, and is frequently alluded to by the classical authors. (Ovid. Ars. Amand. iii, 163.) This subject is treated of very ingeniously by Beckmann in his ‘History of Inventions.’ The author, however, is mistaken in supposing that there is no mention of soap in the works of Galen, with the exception of that work ‘De Simplicibus,’ universally admitted to be spurious, whereas Galen frequently makes mention of it in works about the authenticity of which there has never been any question. As for example, (Meth. Med. viii); (De Comp. med. sec. loc. T. ii, 225.) In the latter passage he makes distinct mention of Gallic soap.
Σαρκοκόλλα,
Sarcocolla, is the tear of a Persian tree, being emplastic and desiccative without pungency, and therefore it agglutinates wounds.
Commentary. There is not, we presume, the slightest reason to doubt that the ancient Sarcocol was the same as the modern, namely, the gum of the Penæa Sarcocolla. Dioscorides mentions only its external use in agglutinating wounds and restraining defluxions on the eyes. (iii, 89.) The Greeks confined the use of it to external applications; but the Arabians sometimes administered it internally as a purge. Thus Serapion, Rhases, and Avicenna say that it purges crude humours and gross phlegm, especially from the joints. They recommend it with honey as an application in diseases of the ear. They say it corrodes putrid flesh, and heals recent wounds, and restores parts that are distorted. See Avicenna (ii, 2, 592); Rhases (Cont. l. ult. i, 617); Serapion (c. 15.) Even as late as the time of Dr. Lewis the sarcocol was still retained in our English Dispensatory with the characters assigned to it by the Greeks and Arabians. Of late years it has been entirely omitted.
Σαρξιφαγὲς,
Saxifraga, Saxifrage, is diuretic and lithontriptic.
Commentary. There has been great diversity of opinion respecting it, as Sprengel has shown in a very learned dissertation. (Ad Dioscor. iv, 15.) It is, therefore, by no means certain that it is the Pimpinella Saxifraga, but we incline to this opinion. Apuleius says that it is lithontriptic, and indeed it appears to have derived its name from this real or supposed property. The chapter of Dioscorides on it is of doubtful authenticity. It is not contained in Galen’s work on Simples. We doubt also if it is to be found in the works of the Arabians. Not many years ago the Burnet saxifrage held a place in the Dispensatory with the character of possessing the virtues ascribed to this article by the ancients. See Quincy (147.)
Σατύριον,
Satyrion, or Trifolium, is of a humid and hot temperament, and flatulent; hence it is a provocative to venery. Some say that it cures opisthotonos when drunk with austere wine; but Galen, in his treatise ‘De Theriaca,’ says, that the trifolium, which is like the hyacinth, when it becomes pregnant with the spring, has a seed like the wild cnicus, and that when the decoction of it is poured upon the bite of the phalangium or viper it cures the same; but when applied to a sound part, he says, that it induces an affection similar to that of those who have been bitten by one of those creatures.