Commentary. Without doubt it is the Spartium junceum. It is the genista of the Latins, as Silvius states in his commentary on Mesue. He says that it is a powerful diuretic, and its seeds are still sometimes used with this intention. Mesue further commends it as an emetic in gout and other arthritic diseases. Dioscorides and Pliny give nearly the same account of its medicinal properties as our author. Dioscorides further commends it in sciatica and cynanche, and when given as a clyster in the former complaint. (iv, 155.) It is not easy to trace it in the works of the other authorities, except Ebn Baithar, who copies principally from Galen or Dioscorides. (i. 489.)
Σπεκλάριον ἢ σφεκλάριον,
Lapis specularis, which some use instead of specula in their windows, and hence it has been called diaphanous. Being of the nature of gypsum, it has powers like burnt shells or oysters.
Commentary. It is the Gypsum speculare or Selenite, as is evident from our author’s description of it. Seneca says that in his time it had come to be used in windows from its transparency. (Ep. 60.) See further, Pliny (H. N. xxxvi, 45.) See [Book V, 58]. The Arabians praise its virtues in the cure of all fluxes; and Agricola mentions that in his time it was frequently given for the cure of dysenteries.
Σπόγγος,
Spongia, Sponge; the recent, which still preserves the smell of the sea, when applied with water, wine, or oxycrate, agglutinates wounds; but if burnt, it has acrid and discutient powers. When burnt with asphaltos or liquid pitch, and applied hot, it stops hemorrhages.
Commentary. Aristotle, Pliny, Philoponus, Phile, and Avicenna acknowledge the animal nature of sponges, and yet we find it stated in most of our modern treatises on natural history that the ancients supposed them to be vegetables. Ebn Baithar, we believe, stands alone among the ancient authorities in maintaining that there is no truth in the opinion that the sponge is an animal, but that, on the contrary, it is decidedly a vegetable which grows from the rocks. (i, 45.) Avicenna recommends the use of sponge in the same cases as our author does. Serapion gives nearly the same account of it. He says that the stones found in sponges are lithontriptic. Of the two species described by Dioscorides, the hard is the S. fasciculata, Pall., and the soft the S. officinalis. He recommends sponge tent for dilating fistulous ulcers. He says they may be applied like tents to sores; that with vinegar they restrain hemorrhages; and that burnt sponges are useful in dry ophthalmy, and whenever you want to deterge or astringe; but that when washed, they apply better in ophthalmic remedies; and that, when burnt with pitch, they are suitable in hemorrhages. (v, 137.) In the Hippocratic treatises this term is generally applied to the tonsils or glands of the neck, as at ‘Epidem.’ (iv.) But in one passage of a work, certainly not genuine, it appears to be used for the sponge. (De Morbis, ii.) Celsus prescribes a sponge squeezed out of oil, vinegar, or cold water as an application to relieve the swelling and heat of the gout (iv), and for other medicinal purposes. Galen gives an interesting article under this head, and describes an ingenious process by which, he says, that he had known a hemorrhage stopped. A sponge dipped in asphaltus, or, in the absence of it, in tar, having been laid on the bleeding place, it was set fire to until it formed an eschar on the surface, while the remainder of it was left as a farther cover to the vessels. (De Simpl. xi.) The Arabians treat fully of the “Spongia maris,” and quote what Dioscorides and Galen had written respecting it. Avicenna decidedly says that sponge was supposed to be an animal possessed of motion. He and Rhases recommend it principally for cleansing sores and stopping bleeding. (ii, 2, 595, and Cont. l. ult. 676.)
Σπόδιον,
Spodium has similar powers to the pompholyx.
Commentary. It is nearly the same as the Pompholyx. Pliny thus states the difference between them: “Etiamnum in ærariis reperiuntur, quæ vocant pompholygem et spodon. Differentia quod pompholyx loturâ paratur, spodos illota est.” (H. N. xxxiv, 33.) The name, in modern times, has been applied to burnt ivory. See Gray (Suppl. to Pharm. 260), and Platearius (De Simp. Med. 250.) The ancient spodium was an impure oxyd of zinc. The term, however, was sometimes applied to other recrements, as we are informed by Pliny (l. c.), and Dioscorides (v, 85.) He gives a more minute description of the preparation of it and of pompholyx. The Arabians treat of both under the general name of Tucia or Tutty, which was long retained in modern times. They used it very freely in diseases of the eyes, and also in those about the genital organs. See Serapion (c. 422); Avicenna (ii, 2, 695); Rhases (Cont. l. ult. i, 730); Haly Abbas (Pract. ii, 45, 474.) The spodium occurs frequently as an ingredient in the collyria and ointments described by Celsus (v, 6), &c. We need scarcely remind the reader that tutty ointment has continued to be used as an ophthalmic even to our own times. The spodos of the Hippocratic writers would appear to have been applied in a more general sense to various recrements of the metals. (De Ulceribus.) The spodium of the Arabians would seem to have been the ashes of the privet. See Avicenna (ii, 2, 609); Rhases (Cont. l. ult. 675.)