Ὑδροπέπερι,
Hydropiper, Water-pepper, is a hot herb, but not so much so as pepper. When applied green along with its fruit it discusses hypopia and scirrhous tumours.
Commentary. It is the Polygonum Hydropiper, known by the vulgar name of Arse-smart. The other authorities recommend it as a stimulant application to discuss tumours and suggillations. See in particular Dioscorides (ii, 190), and Galen (De Simpl. viii.) The Arabians treat of it succinctly in much the same terms. See Rhases (Cont. l. ult. i, 551); Avicenna (ii, 2, 551.)
Ὕδωρ,
Aqua, Water; the best, and that which is unmixed with other matters, is cooling and diluent by its own proper substance. Having got acquired heat, as long as it preserves this it heats, but when it becomes cold, it cools. That which has a certain admixture, such as of natron or bitumen, acquires the property of the substance which is mixed with it. Rain water has some astringency, for which it is mixed with ophthalmic remedies. The qualities of the best water have been enumerated in [Book I].
Commentary. It is fully treated of by us in [Book I]. See in particular Pliny (H. N. xxxi, 21); Avicenna (ii, 2, 58); and Rhases (Contin. l. ult. i, 706.)
Ὑοσκύαμος,
Hyoscyamus, Henbane; that species which has black seed, and that which has yellow, are deleterious. The fittest for medicine is that species, the seed and flower of which are white, being of the third order of refrigerants.
Commentary. Dioscorides describes with considerable precision three species of hyoscyamus, deriving their specific differences from the colour of the seed, the first being black, the second yellow, and the third white. The first two he rejects as being highly dangerous, by inducing delirium and sleep. The first of these we are inclined to think must be Hyoscyamus niger, a well-known plant, which was most probably naturalized in this country by the Romans for medicinal purposes. The second was probably a variety of it, or H. aureus; and the third the H. albus. He gives minute directions for preparing the juice of it, which he recommends as an ingredient in anodyne collyria, for hot and acrid rheums, earache, and complaints about the uterus; and with flour for inflammations of the eyes, feet, &c. Its seed, he says, is applicable for coughs, catarrhs, defluxions, and pains of the eyes; for menorrhagia, and other hemorrhages, when taken in a draught with poppy-seed and hydromel. He recommends it as forming an anodyne cataplasm, for gout, swelling of the testicles, or swelled mammæ after parturition. He speaks highly of the leaves in all these cases, and for every kind of pain. Three or four leaves, he says, cure the remittent fever called hepialus. He states that the leaves, if taken internally, and as had been said, when applied as a clyster, induce mental alienation. He concludes with stating that the root with vinegar forms a gargle in toothache. (iv, 69.) The hyoscyamus of Hippocrates was no doubt the albus. See Sprengel and Dierbach. The leaves, the root, the seed, and the juice of the henbane are all used by Celsus in the practice of medicine. He gives a formula for a pill consisting of mandragora, parsley-seed, and seed of henbane, which he says is soporific (v, 25.) Pliny describes confusedly four or five species or varieties of henbane. He says not much in favour of any of them as medicines. (H. N. xxxv, 17.) See also Scribonius Largus (c. 181), and Apuleius (c. 4.) Galen and Aëtius treat of it in nearly the same terms as our author. For the Arabians, see Avicenna (ii, 2, 348); Serapion (c. 340); Rhases (Cont. l. ult. i, 377, ii, 380); Averrhoes (Collig. v, 42); Haly Abbas (Pract. ii.) Of these Avicenna is the fullest on this head, and yet he borrows almost everything from Dioscorides. Of the three species which they all describe, he represents the white as being the only one fit to be used as a medicine. Serapion copies closely from Dioscorides and Galen. The ancient characters of the several species of henbane are given to them by Platearius, and by our old herbalists Parkinson and Gerard. It is singular that the black henbane has supplanted the white, which was in common use 200 years ago. See Franciscus de le Boe (xx, 34.) It it also worthy of remark, that about 100 years ago the henbane had wholly disappeared from the Dispensatory. Thus Quincy does not treat of it at all, and Lewis represents it as a medicine which had been deservedly expelled from practice. In Greece at the present day the white species is much more common than the black. Both have a place in the Greek Pharmacopœia, published at Athens in 1837 (p. 81.)