Commentary. Without doubt, as Sprengel and Matthiolus state, it is the Hyacinthus orientalis L. Pliny, Dioscorides, and Avicenna enumerate its medicinal properties nearly in the same terms as our author. They further recommend it as a theriac and alexipharmic. It has long been unknown to British Pharmacy.
Ὕαλος,
Vitrum, Glass, when pounded and drunk with a thin white wine is said to break down stones in the bladder.
Commentary. Aristophanes, we believe, is the first writer who makes mention of glass, since the Orphic remains, in which it is noticed, are now generally supposed of a later date. In his comedy of “Acharnenses,” an ambassador from the court of Persia is made to say that he had drunk undiluted wine out of vessels of glass and gold. (Acharn. l. 74.) In his “Nubes” he mentions burning mirrors of glass. It is also mentioned in the Timæus of Plato. Pliny gives an interesting account of the invention of glass. (H. N. xxxvi, 65.) Glass appears to have been in common use about his time and afterwards, for we find Dioscorides directing to keep certain medicines in vessels of glass; and Actuarius recommends to have pots-de-chambre made of glass in order to facilitate the observations upon the urine. From a passage in Pliny it would appear that imitations of the precious stones were commonly made in glass in his time with foil or the like placed under it. (H. N. xxvii.) On the glass cups of the ancients, see Strabo (xvi); Athen. (xviii, 28, ed. Schw.); and Salmasius. (Ad Solin. 769.) From the following passage in the works of Lactantius it appears that glass was used by the ancients in windows: “Manifestius est, mentem esse, quæ per oculos ea quæ sunt opposita transpiciat quasi per fenestras perlucente vitro aut speculari lapide obductas.” (De Opificio Dei, 8.) We need scarcely say that glass has been found in the ruins of Pompeii of late much more plenteous than was expected from the ideas which were formerly entertained of its scarcity in ancient times. The hyalus or vitrum, however, was a term applied to crystal as well as to glass. By the medical authors, we suppose, it is generally applied to the former; for Avicenna says quaintly of vitrum, that it is among stones what a fool is among men, that is to say, it is easily made to assume any colour, and is easily broken into pieces. This article does not occur in the Mat. Med. of Dioscorides. Galen prescribes it medicinally on various occasions: thus like our author, he says of burnt crystal or glass, that it is lithontriptic (De Renum Affect.), and recommends the same for drying ulcers (De Comp. Med. sec. gen. iv), and also calls it a good diuretic (De Simpl. v.) Our author borrows his paragraph on this subject from Aëtius. (ii, 31.) It is never prescribed medicinally by any more of the Greek or Roman authorities. It is regularly treated of, however, by the Arabians in their systems of the Mat. Med. See Avicenna (ii, 2, 720); Serapion (De Simpl. 382); Rhases (Cont. l. ult. i, 748); Ebn Baithar (i, 723); Haly Abbas (Pract. ii, 47.) (?) Of these Serapion is the authority that treats most fully of this article. He quotes Galen as saying of it, that it is hot in the fourth degree. He says there are two kinds, the sandy and the stony; that when vitrum is set fire to, and a magnet is mixed up with it, it becomes coagulated owing to its ductility. He says of it that it has various colours, as white, like crystal, which is the colour of the best kind, red, yellow, green, and azure. He then says, like Avicenna, that glass is among stones what a fool is among men, and so forth. He adds that crystal is a species of glass (vitrum) which is found in a mineral state. As to its medicinal properties, he says it is hot in the first degree, and dry in the second; that it removes furfures of the head, and is applied to the head and beard as a depilatory. When pounded and drunk with wine, it is lithontriptic. One of his Arabian authorities, Aben Mesuai, says glass is good for the lungs and for baldness. Avicenna further recommends it as a dentifrice, and as an application to remove albugo of the eye, in which case, he adds, the burnt is most efficacious. There is nothing of any interest further on what is written of it by Rhases, Haly Abbas, and Ebn Baithar (l. c.) We may mention in conclusion that although glass has long been excluded from the practice of the regular physician, we have often heard of powdered glass having been used by empirics, and certainly in some cases with good effect, to remove opacities of the cornea. See also Gray (Suppl. to Pharmacop. 260.)
Ὕδνα,
Tuber Terræ, Truffle, is composed of a very terrene substance, with a slight degree of attenuating power.
Commentary. We have treated of Truffles in [the 77th section of Book I]. It is the Tuber Cibarium L.
Ὑδράργυρος,
Hydrargyrum, Mercury, is scarcely used for medical purposes, being deleterious. But some having burnt it, so as to reduce it to ashes, and mixed it with other articles, have given it to drink in cases of colic and ileus.
Commentary. We have given some account of the ancient opinions on this subject in [Book V]. From the statement of our author it will be perceived that the Greek physicians made little use of this important article in the practice of medicine. Rhases, Avicenna, Haly Abbas, and Serapion recommend it as an application for scabies, lice, and malignant ulcers. Avicenna says the vapour of it induces paralysis, tremblings, spasms, and contractions of the limbs. He adds that the vapour of it is destructive of sight, and brings on fetor of the breath (ii, 2, 46.) Serapion gives exactly the same account of it. (De Simpl. 385.) See also Rhases (Cont. l. ult. i, 75); Haly Abbas (Pract. ii, 48, 501); Ebn Baithar (i, 553.) Galen admits that he had no experience of it as proving destructive, either internally or externally. (De Simpl. ix.) It is remarked by Dutens that Dioscorides’s description of the method of preparing mercury from cinnabar is the first account of the process of distillation which we possess. (v, 70.) Pliny copies the same. (H. N. xxxiii, 8.)