Commentary. Pliny says of it, “Glutinum præstantissimum fit ex auribus taurorum et genitalibus. Nec quidquam efficacius prodest ambustis.” (H. N. xxviii, 72.) Dioscorides and Avicenna recommend it in the cases mentioned by our author. It will readily be perceived that it was a species of gelatin. See [Κόλλα].
Τελλῖναι,
Tellinæ, Limpets; when pickled and burnt, their ashes are caustic; when mixed with cedar rosin and applied to the parts from which the hairs of the eyebrows have been torn out by the roots, it prevents them from growing again.
Commentary. According to Matthiolus, they are a species of mussels. They are different, however, from the Mytili edules, L. Our author’s account of them is taken from Dioscorides, and is repeated by Avicenna.
Τέρμινθος,
Terebinthus, Turpentine, is heating in the second degree, and desiccative, when green, in the first, but when dried, in the second. The fruit, when dried, belongs to the third order of desiccants. It is, therefore, diuretic and useful for the spleen.
Commentary. It is the Pistacia Terebinthus L. Dioscorides states that its fruit is hot, diuretic, and aphrodisiacal. He recommends it internally for the bites of the phalangia. Of the turpentine resin we have treated under the head of the [Resinæ]. The ancients, as we have stated, were very familiar with the brown or black rosin, called colophony. (i, 91.) According to Dr. Hill, the Chian turpentine rosin was the turpentine of the ancients. Pliny likewise recommends it in retention of urine, and as a gentle laxative. He adds, “venerem excitat.” (H. N. xxiv, 18.) Our author’s account of it is condensed from Galen. The turpentines, and more especially the resin, are frequently prescribed by Celsus. They occur also in the Hippocratic treatises. Turpentine was much used in applications to cutaneous diseases and ulcers. See Avicenna (ii, 2, 303) and Rhases (Cont. l. ult. i, 342.) Serapion treats of this article under the same head with the lentiscus. He copies from Dioscorides. (De Simpl. 153.) See Ebn Baithar (ii, 144.)
Τέττιγες,
Cicadæ; some, having dried them raw, give them to drink in colic affections to the number of three, five, or seven, with an equal number of grains of pepper. Others roast them and give them to drink to those who have affections of the bladder.
Commentary. The τέττιξ of the Greeks and the cicada of the Romans was not the grasshopper, as has been often represented, but the insect which has been more properly called the tree-hopper in English, namely the cicale of the Italians. The species here noticed was most probably the Cicada orni. Dioscorides merely recommends them in diseases of the bladder. (ii, 56.) Pliny gives a very interesting description of them, but it contains nothing which, in a medical point of view, would suit our present purpose. (H. N. xi, 32.) Our author follows Galen. (De Simpl. xi.) They do not occur in the works of Celsus, nor have we been able to discover traces of them in any of the Arabians, with the exception of Ebn Baithar, who, in treating of them, merely gives extracts from Dioscorides and Galen. (i, 555.)