Commentary. It is the Sepia Loligo, L. We need scarcely mention that the shells of fishes consist principally of lime. As represented by the ancients, therefore, they form a detergent application to the skin. All the authorities recommend it in nearly the same cases, namely, as an ingredient in stimulant collyria, and in obstinate cutaneous diseases, and as a dentifrice. See Dioscorides (ii, 23); Galen (De Simpl.); Celsus (v, 29); Aëtius (ii, 190.) Aëtius gives the fullest account of this article. (l. c.)
Σησαμοειδὲς,
Sesamoides; the seed of the white species heats, is detergent, and procures the rupture of abscesses.
Commentary. This article, which occurs in the Hippocratic treatises, and of which two species, the great and the small, are described by Dioscorides, has been the subject of much controversy. See Parkinson, Sprengel, and Dierbach. We are willing to acquiesce in Sprengel’s decision regarding them, namely, that they are the Reseda Mediterranea and canescens. It appears that they were used principally in combination with hellebore, and that the one evacuated upwards, and the other downwards. (Dioscor. iv, 150, 151.) Ruffus treats only of the small, which he represents to be cholagogue and phlegmagogue, when its seed is taken to the amount of an acetabulum. (De Med. Purg.) It does not occur in the works of Celsus, and does not seem to have been much in repute. Galen gives nearly the same account of it as Dioscorides. We have not found it in the works of the Arabians, with the exception of Ebn Baithar, one of whose Arabian authorities speaks of its being used in paralysis. (i, 252.)
Σήσαμον,
Sesamum, Oily-grain, is glutinous and fatty in no small degree; hence it is emplastic, emollient, and moderately calefacient.
Commentary. All the authorities acknowledge it as the Sesamum orientale. Pliny ranks it among the summer corn of India. He says, that an oil is procured from it, and that it forms a good application to burns. (H. N. xviii, 22; xxii, 64.) This account of it in fact is condensed from Dioscorides, who recommends both the plant and the oil in various external complaints, including burns, inflammations of the eyes, the bites of venomous animals, &c. (i, 41, ii, 121); Celsus ranks it among his emollients, and recommends it as an hepatic. (iv, 8.) Galen and Aëtius give nearly the same account of it as our author. The Arabians treat of it at great length, both as an article of food and of medicine. See Serapion (De Simpl. 86); Avicenna (ii, 2, 642); Rhases (Cont. l. ult. i, 650); Averrhoes (Collig. v, 42); Ebn Baithar (i, 254.) They all recommend it for the same purposes as the Greeks, and as a good application to fissures and suggillations.
Σῆψ,
Seps (which some have called the Chalcidic Lizard), when drunk in wine cures those who have been bitten by it.