Στρατιώτης,
Achillea, Yarrow; that which grows in water is possessed of cold powers, but the land has astringency; hence it agglutinates ulcers. Some use it for hemorrhages and fistulæ.
Commentary. The land is decidedly the Achillea Millefolium, the river the Pistia Stratiotes. The millefoil got the name of Achillea from being supposed the herb used by Achilles in dressing wounds. V. Eustathius (ad Iliad, xi, ad finem.) Our author copies almost word for word from Galen, who, however, is equally indebted to Dioscorides for the characters of the yarrow. Regarding the water plant, Dioscorides says that it preserves wounds free from inflammation, and cures erysipelas and œdema in a cataplasm with vinegar. (iv, 100, 101.) These plants are not to be found in the works of Hippocrates, Celsus, nor of the Arabian authorities, as far as we can discover, with the exception of Ebn Baithar, who merely gives extracts under this head from Dioscorides and Galen (ii, 30), and of Rhases, who merely quotes Galen. (Cont. l. ult. 637.) The Pistia Stratiotes is still used by the Hindoo physicians as a demulcent in dysuria, and as a cataplasm for hemorrhoids. See Lindley (Veg. King. 125.) The yarrow held a place in our Dispensatory with its ancient character down to a late date. See Quincy (92) and Lewis (M. M. 108.) It still holds a place in the modern Greek Pharmacopœia (109.)
Στρύχνος,
Strychnos, Solanum (?), Nightshade (?), or Alkekengi, i. e. Winter Cherry; the garden and esculent sort is astringent and cooling in the second degree. The halicacabum is like the garden, having a diuretic fruit like the grape of a vine. The bark of the root of the Strychnos somnifera when drunk with wine to the amount of a dram is soporific. And it has a diuretic seed, being of the third order of refrigerants; hence when drunk in greater quantity than twelve clusters it occasions madness. The fourth species is not used internally, but when applied externally it cures spreading ulcers, belonging to the second order of refrigerants and desiccants.
Commentary. We must not venture upon the discussion of disputed points respecting the Strychni of the ancients, for which we beg to refer our readers to the Appendix to Dunbar’s Greek Lexicon, and we shall merely state our conclusions so far as they are interesting to the professional reader. Of the four species described by Dioscorides, the 1st, or Strychnus hortensis, is the Solanum nigrum, or its variety S. miniatum; the 2d, or Halicacabum, is the Physalis alkekengi; the 3d, or S. somniferum, is the Physalis somnifera; and the 4th, or Furialis, is the Solanum Sodomæum. Several learned authorities, however, have taken the last for the Atropa Belladonna. Our author in the main follows Dioscorides, who treats of the virtues of the Strychni at so great length that we dare not attempt to follow him in the present instance. The first he does not administer internally, but recommends it very largely as an external application for erysipelas, herpes, headache, heat of the stomach, affections of the eye, the siriasis of children, earache, the fluor albus, &c. The second, he says, resembles the first in virtue. The third, he says, has the same powers as the juice of the poppy. The fourth brings on phantasies and delirium, and in large doses proves fatal. The best counter-agent to it is undiluted wine drunk and afterwards vomited. (iv, 72-5.) Celsus frequently prescribes “solanum quam στρύχνον Græci vocant,” and ranks it among those things which repress and soothe. (ii, 33.) He recommends it as an application in phrenitis and various other diseases. (iii, 18.) Galen and Aëtius give nearly the same account of it as our author. Oribasius confessedly borrows his description from Dioscorides. The Arabians treat fully of the solanum, of which Avicenna mentions that there are five species. (ii, 2, 646.) See Serapion (De Simpl. 138); Rhases (Cont. l. ult. i, 662); Averrhoes (Collig. v, 42); Ebn Baithar (ii, 212.) The characters which they give of these plants agree in the main so well with those given to them by the Greeks, that we need not stop to note slight differences. The Latin writers of the middle ages call solanum by the name of maurella. See Macer Floridus. He says of the strychnos that it is possessed of powerfully narcotic properties. The Solanum nigrum held a place in our Dispensatories, and retained the characters transmitted down with it from antiquity as late as the end of the last century. See Lewis (M. M.) All our old herbalists, Gerard, Parkinson, and Culpeper, speak of its virtues in the same terms as Dioscorides. Our toxicologists have decided that it is a powerful narcotic. See Orfila. The Physalis somnifera is still used in India as an application to inflammatory tumours. See Lindley (Veg. King. 621.) The alkekengi is still admitted to be possessed of a diuretic power, as stated by Dioscorides. (Ibid.) We are not aware of the Solanum Sodomæum having ever been used medicinally in modern times, but we need scarcely say that of late years the Atropa Belladonna has occupied no undistinguished place in our Dispensatories. On the Strychnos furiosa as a poison, see [Vol. II, p. 224].
Στυπτηρία,
Alumen, Alum; all kinds of it are very sour, and consist of gross particles. But the alumen scissile, or Stone Alum, consists of more subtile parts than the others. After it is the Alumen rotundum, or Round Alum, and the astragolotum. The Alumen liquidum, or Liquid Alum, consists of gross parts; and so also the varieties called placitis and plinthitis.
Commentary. After having read much that has been written by the best authorities both ancient and modern upon this subject, we still approach the discussion of it with very great diffidence. Having deliberately considered what Beckmann has written regarding the ancient alum, we cannot agree with him in setting it down as being copperas or the green sulphate of iron. The ancients, indeed, may not always distinguish accurately the latter from “the sulphate of alum and potash,” but considering how common this mineral is in the countries bordering upon the Mediterranean, we cannot conceive how the ancients could possibly have remained ignorant of it, and we need scarcely add that it has never been pretended that it has been described by them under any other name. But its varieties differed much from one another. The Alumen plumosum, called τριχῖτις by the Greeks, was no doubt the Hair salt of Werner, which, according to the analysis of Klaproth, contains a large mixture of the sulphates of magnesia and iron. Geoffroy remarks that “of liquid alum two kinds are taken notice of by the ancients; the one pure and the other impure. The solid or concreted kind was by the ancients distinguished, according to the figure of its parts, into fissile and round. The fissile natural alum was either in form of a compact, uniform globe, or appeared divided into small hairs or filaments. The round kind was of a more rare texture.” The Alumen Jameni of the Arabians was the plumose alum. Pliny and Octavius Horatianus recommend alum as an application to burns when pounded with oil. Alum was used in the practice of medicine from the earliest times. Hippocrates prescribes it in ulcers of the womb, diseases of the gums, and for various other purposes. (Epid. vii, De Mulieb., De Ulcer., &c.) Our author borrows from Galen. Dioscorides gives a most elaborate description of the different kinds and of their uses in medicine. They are all possessed, he says, of a heating power, and also of an astringent, and hence they clear the obscurities of the cornea, melt down fungous flesh on the eyelids and elsewhere, the schistose being more powerful than the round; they stop mortifications and hemorrhages, repress flaccid gums, strengthen loose teeth with vinegar or honey; are beneficial in aphthæ; and, in short, he states most minutely the various purposes to which alum may be applied. On the alumen see also Pliny (H. N. xxxv, 52) and Celsus (iv, 18), with the note of Milligan. For the Arabians consult Avicenna (ii, 2, 68); Averrhoes (Collig. v, 43); Serapion (De Simpl. 420); Haly Abbas (Pract. ii, 44); Rhases (Cont. l. ult. 38); Ebn Baithar (ii, 83.) All of these authors, even including the last, do little more than copy from Dioscorides and Galen under this head. Geber, however, treats of the subject with some appearance of originality, and describes the kinds of alum with considerable accuracy. (Invention of Verity, c. 4.) The process of burning alum for medicinal purposes, which is barely alluded to by Dioscorides, is described by Geber and by Servitor. (i.)