Commentary. The two species described by Dioscorides probably are the Thymus Tragoriganum L., and the Stachys glutinosa. According to him, they are heating, diuretic, and wholesome when the decoction is drunk; they occasion bilious dejections; are useful in diseases of the spleen when taken with vinegar, and also to persons who have swallowed ixia. They are emmenagogue, and are given in coughs and pneumonia in a linctus with honey. It makes an agreeable potion, and hence is given to persons affected with nausea, indigestion, and acid eructations, and who are subject to anxiety, nausea, and heat of the hypochondria. In a cataplasm with polenta they also discuss tumours. (iii, 32.) Galen and the other Greek authorities treat of it very briefly. Celsus calls it diuretic and discutient. (iii, 21, &c.) We have not been able to find these plants in the works of the Arabians.
Τρίβολος,
Tribolus, the Caltrop, is moderately refrigerant; the land species is strongly desiccative, but the water slightly so, and it is moistening. Both are befitting remedies in incipient inflammations and other influxes. The fruit of the land caltrop, consisting of subtile parts, breaks renal calculi.
Commentary. It seems to be clearly made out that the one is the Tribulus terrestris, and the other the Trapa natans. According to Pliny, their juices are anti-inflammatory, and form a proper application to phlegmons and ulcers; an ingredient in collyria; discuss strumæ, and prove lithontriptic. (H. N. xxii, 12.) He borrows this account of them, however, mostly from Dioscorides. (iv, 15.) Our author manifestly copies from Galen, and both Aëtius and Oribasius do the same. We have not found them in the works of Hippocrates and Celsus. The Arabians treat of them at more length than the Greeks. See Avicenna (ii, 2, 382); Rhases (Cont. l. ult. i, 721); Serapion (c. 112); Ebn Baithar (i, 307.) They recommend both species as being aphrodisiac, lithontriptic, and diuretic. Both the species here described, that is to say, the Trapa natans and Tribulus terrestris, although they have been long excluded from our Dispensatories, are still not wholly unknown in the shops. See Gray (Suppl. to Pharm. 81, 117.)
Τράγος,
Tragus, a species of Frumentacea, is like far (spelt), but more indigestible and laxative.
Commentary. The method of preparing it is thus described in the Geoponica. Spelt is to be steeped and stripped of its hull, and dried in the warm sun; then the same thing is to be done until the skin and fibrous part of the grain drop off. (Geop. iii, 8.) Pliny, however, seems to make it a peculiar species of grain. “Far sine arista est: item siligo. Adjiciuntur his genera, bromos, siligo excepta, et tragos, externa omnia ab Oriente invecta, oryzæ similia.” (H. N. xviii, 20.) Galen and Oribasius call it spelt deprived of the hull. Dioscorides also describes a shrub of this name, which there can be no doubt is the Ephedra distachya. He describes it as being very styptic to the taste, and recommends it in cæliac affections and in fluor albus. (iv, 51.) It appears singular that none of the other authorities, as far as we can discover, has noticed it, with the exception of Ebn Baithar, who merely gives a translation of the chapter of Dioscorides on it. (ii, 156.) The Asiatic Ephedras were formerly kept in the shops as styptics. See Lindley (Veg. Kingd. 234.)
Τρίγλα,
Trigla, the fish Surmullet, when frequently eaten, occasions dimness of vision. When cut in pieces and applied raw, it cures the bite of the sea-dragon, of the scorpion, and of the spider.
Commentary. It is the Mullus barbatus L. According to Coray (Ad Xenocrat.), it is the Surmullet. R. Stephens likewise calls it by this name. It is the “Barbatulus mullus” of Cicero. (Paradox, v, 2.) We have treated of it as an article of food in the [First Book]. Dioscorides, Galen, and all the authorities that notice it, give it the same characters in a medicine as our author. It does not appear that the Arabians describe it.