Τεῦτλον,
Beta, Beet, is of a nitrous nature. Hence it is detergent and discutient, and purges by the nose; but especially the white species. When boiled it becomes anti-inflammatory and slightly discutient.
Commentary. It evidently is the Beta vulgaris L. The white and black kinds were, we presume, merely varieties; but this does not seem sufficiently clear. See Parkinson (Theatre of Plants, 752) and Lewis (Mat. Med.) Dioscorides recommends the beet for various medicinal purposes, for clearing the head by occasioning a discharge from the nose, as a remedy for earache; a decoction of its leaves for eruptive diseases and chilblains; and also as an application to exanthemata, burns, and erysipelas. (ii, 49.) Galen gives the same account of it as our author. Aëtius is fuller; he further recommends it particularly as a deobstruent in diseases of the liver and spleen. The beet is mentioned as an edible plant by Hippocrates. (De Vict. Acut.) See also Celsus (ii, 18.) Serapion (c. 148) and Avicenna recommend the leaves of beet as an application to burns and impetigo, (ii, 2, 636.) See also Rhases (Cont. l. ult. i, 127.) All the authorities say that the beet is possessed of nitrous properties, by which they probably mean saline, the ancient nitrum being a species of native soda, resembling salt. It is now well known that beetroot by boiling yields a saccharine salt in considerable abundance. The beet held a place in our Dispensatory as late as the time of Lewis. We have treated of it as an article of food in [Book I].
Τεύκριος,
Teucrium, Tree Germander, is a calefacient of the second order, and a desiccant of the third. Its powers are also incisive and subtile, and hence it cures the spleen.
Commentary. It is not well decided whether it be the Teucrium Marum or the Teucrium flavum. Pliny’s account of it is very confused, and Harduin thinks that his T. is the hemionitis of Dioscorides. (Ad H. N. xxv, 20.) Apuleius, in like manner, identifies the hemionon and the teucrium. (De Herbis, 56.) Dioscorides, like our author, recommends it for reducing the spleen, both when given internally and when applied externally in a cataplasm, and also as an application to the bites of venomous animals. (iii, 110.) Our author borrows from Galen. We have not been able to discover it in the works either of Hippocrates or of Celsus. Neither have we found it in the works of the Arabians. Dr. Sontheimer, the German translator of Ebn Baithar, identifies the Teucrium Marum with the Chamædrys of Dioscorides, and the T. flavum with his Teucrium. (ii, 466.) It is long since the Teucrium Marum disappeared from our Dispensatory, but it is still not wholly unknown in the shops of the apothecaries, where it is reputed to be emmenagogue. The T. flavum is also to be found in the shops, and has still the reputation of being useful in diseases of the liver and spleen. See Gray (Suppl. to Pharmacop. 49.)
Τέφρα,
Cinis, Ashes; all kinds have not exactly the same temperament, but they vary according to the difference of the wood that has been burnt. The ashes, then, of sour things, such as the oak and the ilex, have no small degree of astringency, so that they will restrain hemorrhage when no other remedy is at hand. That from acrid substances, such as the ashes of the fig and the spurge, become more acrid and detergent.
Commentary. These Cineres were pearlashes, consisting of the carbonate of potass mixed with various impurities. Galen remarks, that they are the residue of vegetable substances which have been burnt, being composed of contrary qualities, for that they have something terrene in them, and also something of a fuliginous nature. When, then, they have been dissolved in water and strained, what remains is terrene and devoid of pungency. Our author borrows from him his particular characters of the different cineres. They were much used by the ancient physicians as caustic and stimulant applications. Rhases says that they possess an igneous nature, and are useful in dissolving soft tumours. (Ad Mansor. iii, 47.) See also (Cont. l. ult. i, 214.) In the latter work he borrows principally from Galen and our author. Avicenna recommends the ashes of mezereon in quinsy, and as a stimulant to the sight. The aqua cineris, he says, is one of the septic medicines. (ii, 2, 188.) The burnt lees of wine belong to this class. See [Κονία] and [Τρῦξ ὄινου].