Commentary. It is the Scilla maritima. It is mentioned by Hippocrates, and was a favorite medicine of the ancient physicians. Dioscorides’s chapter on the Squill contains much valuable matter. His description of the process of baking squills is so like that given in Pemberton’s edition of the ‘London Dispensatory,’ that one may take the latter as a translation of it: “Scillæ coctio, the baking of squills. Inclose the squill in paste of wheat flour, having first separated the outer skin and the hard part, from which the fibrous roots grow; then bake the squill in an oven till the paste is dry, and the squill is rendered soft and tender throughout.” He recommends it in cases requiring a copious evacuation of urine, such as dropsies, diseases of the stomach, those cases in which the food floats on the stomach, in jaundice, chronic coughs, asthma, &c. He also says of it that it is alexipharmic. (ii, 202.) Celsus frequently prescribes “scilla cocta,” as in tympanites and in anasarca. (iii.) It is frequently recommended and described, in a word, by all the authorities, Greek, Roman, and Arabian, in the same class of cases. See Galen (De Simpl. viii); Aëtius (i); Oribasius (Med. Coll. 12); Apuleius (De Herbis); Columella (De R. Rust. xii, 33); Serapion (De Simpl. 304); Avicenna (ii, 2, 590); Rhases (Cont. l. ult. i, 680); Mesue (De Simpl. vi); Ebn Baithar (ii, 216, 309); Averrhoes (Collig. v, 42); Haly Abbas (Pract. ii, 43). Serapion’s account of its medicinal properties is particularly full. It is given, he says, as a laxative in fevers, and in dropsy as a diuretic; as a remedy for indigestion, for jaundice and tormina of the bowels; for an old cough, asthma, and spitting of blood; and for cleansing the breast of gross humours. It is to be avoided, he says, when there is an ulcer in any internal part. Apuleius recommends it along with vinegar and honey in dropsy. He adds, that it evacuates by urine. Columella gives a receipt for making a vinum scilliticum, which is useful, he says, “ad concoquendum, ad corpus reficiendum, itemque ad veterem tussim et ad stomachum.” (l. c.) Mesue particularly commends it as an expectorant, and recommends the vinegar, the oxymel, and the syrup for this and other medicinal purposes. Avicenna treats of it with his wonted accuracy, recommending it in complaints of the gums, teeth, and mouth; for asthma, and all inveterate coughs; in epilepsy, and in melancholy. He moreover particularly commends it in diseases of the spleen, and in dropsy and jaundice. He forbids it to be used in ulceration of the viscera. Ebn Baithar gives very copious extracts from preceding authorities, both Greek and Arabian. He treats separately of the scilla and pancratium. See under [the latter].
Σκολοπένδρα,
Scolopendra; the sea scolopendra, when boiled in oil and rubbed upon a part, acts as a depilatory. When burnt it occasions pruritus.
Commentary. See [Book V]. The sea scolopendra is the Aphrodite aculeata. All the authorities who notice it recommend it for the same purposes as our author. See Dioscorides (ii, 16.)
Σκολοπένδριον,
Scolopendrium, the same as asplenium.
Commentary. It is the Asplenium Ceterach. See under [Asplenium].
Σκόλυμος,
Scolymus, Golden Thistle, is a calefacient and desiccative medicine of the second order. The root of it, when boiled with wine, brings off a quantity of fetid urine, and cures the fetid smell of the armpits and of the whole body.
Commentary. From the descriptions of it given by Theophrastus (H. P. vi, 4), and Dioscorides (iii, 14), one can scarcely entertain a doubt that it was the Scolymus Hispanicus, or Spanish Cardoons, an esculent root, well known in the southern parts of Europe. Compare Sprengel (Ad Dioscor. iii, 14) with Lindley (Veg. King. 709), and see Beckmann (Hist. of Invent. under Artichoke). Dioscorides gives exactly the same account of its medicinal virtues as our author. (l. c.) Galen writes elaborately of it, but his conclusions, as to its properties, are the same as those of Dioscorides. We have not been able to trace it out in the works of the Arabians, unless it be their harsef. See Avicenna (ii, 2, 332); Rhases (Cont. l. ult. i, 168). The truth is, that the term scolymus was a puzzle to the ancient authorities and to their modern commentators, being sometimes, as is supposed, applied also to the Cynara Scolymus, or artichoke. See Parkinson (pluries). We have treated of the scolymus as a potherb in the [First Volume, p. 114]. We have hinted our belief that the harsef or harxaf of the Arabians was identical with the Σ. of the Greeks. We are confirmed in this opinion by a comparison of Dioscorides with Avicenna (l. c.), although we find that Salmasius referred it to the artichoke.