Commentary. Artedi calls it, Silurus cirris quatuor in mento,—γλανὶς (Aristot.); glanus et glanis (Plin.); Angl. “the Sheat-fish” (Descr. spec. pisc.) In the Linnæan arrangement it is called Silurus glanis. We have treated of it as an article of food in [Book I]. Dioscorides recommends it as a medicine in the same cases as our author, and also says of it that its brine is useful in dysenteric affections as a hip-bath, by determining the defluxion to the surface, and that in clysters it cures sciatica. (ii, 29.) We have not been able to find any account of it in the works of the Arabians, with the exception of Ebn Baithar, who gives a pretty full account of it from both Greek and Arabian authorities. (i, 245.)
Σιλφὴ,
Blatta Pistrina, or the moth found in bakers’ shops, the entrails of which, when boiled and pounded, cure earache.
Commentary. It is evidently the Blatta orientalis. Pliny and Dioscorides also recommend it in cases of earache. (ii, 38.) None of the other authorities make much account of it.
Σίλφιον,
Silphium or Laserpitium, Laserwort, is an excellent calefacient medicine; but it is also flatulent and indigestible. When applied externally to the body it is more active, and especially its juice, being possessed of attractive powers. It has also some purgative property.
Commentary. It has long appeared to us that one passage in the works of Dioscorides is of itself quite decisive of the question as to the identity of the ancient silphium and our assafœtida. Treating of the gum-resin, sagapenum, he says, “in smell it is intermediate between galbanum and the juice of silphium.” (iii, 85.) Now, in Duncan’s Edinburgh Materia Medica, it is said of sagapenum, that “it holds a kind of middle place between assafœtida and galbanum.” (Sixth edition, 387.) Its juice, that is to say, its concrete juice, or gum-resin, was assafœtida, of which the Cyrenaic and Median juices, already treated of by us, were varieties. The stalk, the leaves, and the juice are all treated of by Dioscorides, in his chapter on Silphium, wherein he has given so full an account of them that we dare scarcely venture upon an abstract of it. He says of the varieties of the juice, that the Cyrenean is the most fragrant, so that when tasted it scarcely affects the breath, whereas, the Median and Syrian are weaker, and have a more offensive smell. He says of it, that of the different parts of it, the most efficacious is the juice, then the leaves, and then the stalk. He recommends it, both externally and internally, for a great variety of medicinal purposes, in diseases of the eyes, in toothache, as an application to the bites of venomous animals, as an application to gangrene, corns, and callus; in affections of the bronchi, and of the tonsils, in cynanche, catarrhs, pleurisy, jaundice, and dropsy; in rigors, along with pepper, frankincense, and wine, in cæliac affections, and in short, in a great many other complaints. (iii, 84.) But long before his time the silphium had been introduced into the practice of medicine, and used in procidentia and other complaints. See Hippocrates (De Fistulis; de ratione vict. in acut., &c.) It is indisputably the laser and laserpitium of the Latin authors. See in particular Celsus (iv, 2); Pliny (H. N. xxii, 49.) The latter passes an elaborate encomium upon it, founded, however, for the most part on the contents of Dioscorides’s chapter on the Silphium. From it the identity of the Greek silphion and the Roman laser is clearly made out. Passing by Galen, Aëtius, and Oribasius, who supply nothing very interesting on this head, we now turn to the Arabians. See Avicenna (ii, 2, 9, 52, 474); Rhases (Cont.. ult. i, 50); Serapion (De Simpl. 251); Averrhoes (Collig. v, 42); Ebn Baithar (i, 84.) Avicenna describes two varieties of the Assa seu Laser, namely, the fœtida and the odorifera, the virtues of which he gives in nearly the same terms as Dioscorides. He says distinctly that the fetid or black kind is not used in the cooking of food. He praises them as procuring eructations and acting as carminatives, and as proving stomachic. There appears to be a disagreement among the Arabian authorities of Serapion regarding the virtues of the assa, some of them representing it as good for the stomach and liver, and others as bad. One of them, Habix, mentions that it was used as an application to the wounds of poisoned arrows, and to preserve meat from putrefaction. Ebn Baithar’s Arabian authorities describe very accurately the two varieties of the assa, namely, the fragrant and the fetid, and commend both very highly as medicines, more especially as carminatives, and as acting very beneficially on the stomach, liver, and uterus. Some of them say that assa promotes menstruation, and even procures the expulsion of the fœtus. The assafœtida still retains the name of silphion in the Greek Pharmacopœia. (Athens, 1837.) M. Pacho says that the Arabs call it derias, and he proposes to class it as a species of laserwort, under the name of Laserpitium derias.
Σίσων,
Sison, Bastard Stone-parsley, is heating, diuretic, and digestive. It likewise promotes menstruation and removes obstructions of the viscera.
Commentary. It appears to be the Sison Amomum, called by Miller the Stone-parsley or German Amomum. Our author copies from Dioscorides, who further mentions of it that the natives of Syria, where it grows, use it as a condiment. Galen commends it as being bitterish, and hence proving diuretic, digestive, emmenagogue, and deobstruent. We do not find it in the works of the Arabians.