Sycomorus, the Sycomore; the fruit is innutritive, and bad for the stomach. The juice of the tree has powers which are emollient, agglutinative of wounds, and discutient of tumours. It is taken in a draught and rubbed in for the bites of reptiles, for scirrhous spleens, pains of the stomach, and rigors.
Commentary. Of course there can be no doubt of its being the Ficus Sycomorus. Galen, Dioscorides, and Serapion detail its medicinal properties in nearly the same terms as our author. Nothing else of any interest can be gathered from the others under this head.
Σύμφυτον,
Symphytum, Comfrey; the rock comfrey is composed of opposite powers. For it has some incisive powers by which it cleanses the pus in the chest and the kidneys; and it has also some constringency which renders it a suitable remedy for hæmoptysis, sprained and ruptured parts, the red flux in women, and intestinal hernia. It contains also some hot humidity, by which it quenches thirst and cures asperities in the trachea. The other species, called the Great Comfrey, is glutinous and prurient like squills. It is used for the same purposes as the rock.
Commentary. The second species is indisputably the Symphytum officinale, a plant which the Romans, no doubt, naturalized in this country. The other has been the subject of more controversy. See Parkinson (526) and Matthiolus and Sprengel (Ad Dioscor. iv, 9.) We are satisfied that it was the Coris monspeliensis. Our author manifestly abridges Galen, who borrows from Dioscorides, but improves what he takes. They all agree in commending both as being possessed of great virtues as expectorant and vulnerary medicines. Dioscorides particularly commends the latter as an application to inflammations about the anus in a cataplasm, with the leaves of senecio. Neither of these plants is mentioned by Celsus, nor, we believe, by Hippocrates. Avicenna writes hesitatingly about them, but in the main agrees with Dioscorides with regard to their medicinal virtues, more especially in hæmoptysis, ulcers of the intestines, menorrhagia, and as an application to external injuries. (ii, 2, 634.) The Arabians in general seem not to have attached much importance to the symphytum, for, after a cursory examination while writing this article, we have not been able to find it in any of the others except Ebn Baithar, who merely gives extracts from Dioscorides and Galen, under the present head. Apuleius mentions that the Latin name of the symphytum is consolida. Dr. Hill calls it a famous vulnerary both internally and externally, and as such it is highly commended by all our older herbalists. See Parkinson, Culpeper, and Gerard. It would appear also that the other species, the Coris monspeliensis, was employed in the medicine of the Spanish monastic orders as an efficacious vulnerary. See Lindley (Veg. Kingd. 645.)
Σφονδύλιον,
Spondylium, Cow-parsnip; the fruit and root are possessed of acrid and cutting powers, so as to cure asthma, epilepsy, and jaundice. The root, when stripped of its bark and put into a fistula, removes its callus. The juice of the flowers of it are injected into the ears as agreeing with chronic ulcers.
Commentary. There seems no reason to doubt of its being the Heracleum Sphondylium. Dioscorides and Pliny recommend it as an application to fistulous ulcers, and in the other cases mentioned by our author. Galen and Oribasius give it the same characters as our author. We have not met with it in the works of Hippocrates, Celsus, and Aëtius. Avicenna draws the characters which he gives it entirely from Dioscorides. (ii, 2, 643.) Ebn Baithar, in describing it, merely gives extracts from Dioscorides and Galen. (ii, 24.) Rhases does the same. (Cont. l. ult. i, 636.) The sphondylium is described as a medicinal herb, possessed of the virtues ascribed to it by the ancients, in the works of our old English herbalists, but it has long ceased to occupy a place in our Dispensatory. Neither is it to be found in the modern Greek Pharmacopœia.