Having thus given a brief account of all the Simple Substances described by the Greek and Roman writers on the Materia Medica, we are now called upon to supply what information we can procure regarding the additions made to their list by the Arabians. This, we need scarcely say, is a field of research, which, having been hitherto but little cultivated, is attended with difficulties of a particularly formidable nature; for, although we have been enabled to avail ourselves of the learned labours of Professor Sprengel, Dr. Royle, Dr. Ainslie, and of certain other oriental scholars who have touched cursorily upon these matters, we have been more thrown upon our own resources on the present occasion than at any other stage of our progress in executing this work. We trust, then, that our readers will receive with peculiar indulgence our present essay, which, however imperfect, will be found, if we mistake not, to have opened up a mine of valuable knowledge from which some more skilful labourer in the same line will yet draw additional stores of information to the profession. Of course it will be readily seen, that we do not pretend to give an account of all the articles introduced into the practice of medicine by the Arabians; that, even if we were possessed of the requisite knowledge of the oriental languages, would evidently be out of the question within our narrow limits. For Ebn Baithar alone, if his laborious work were properly explored, would furnish a large volume of new matters added by his own individual exertions to the accumulated treasures of his predecessors; but, of the articles first treated of by him there are unfortunately many which are but very doubtfully determined, and not a few which are left wholly undetermined by his translator Dr. Sontheimer. And here it is but right that we should acknowledge that the translation itself would have been to us “a sealed book” if our learned friend, Professor Blackie, of Aberdeen, had not come to our assistance, and in so far made up for our own very imperfect acquaintance with the German language. But, besides the stores of Ebn Baithar, there is much in those of Avicenna, Serapion, Rhases, and Haly Abbas, which still remain to be unfolded by some fortunate savant who is acquainted both with the languages of the East and the sciences of the West.
It may be proper to mention, that the articles which are here described are set down in the same order as the notices of them were composed, because we could not satisfy ourselves with regard to any methodical arrangement which would conveniently apply to them and be in unison with the general plan of this work.
Ambra grisea.
A recent writer on the Materia Medica gives the following description of Ambergris: “The substance called Ambergris (ambra grisea) is procured from the Cachalot or spermwhale. In this country it is used as a perfume only; on the continent it is employed in medicine. It appears to be the indurated fæces (perhaps somewhat altered by disease) of the animal. Mr. Beale collected some of the semi-fluid fæces, and found that the dried mass had all the properties of ambergris. It is a solid, opaque, grayish, striated substance, having a pleasant musk-like odour, and which is derived from the squid (sæpia moschata) on which the animal feeds.” Pereira (Mat. Med. 1392.) No one who compares this account of ambergris with what is said of it in the extracts we have given from Serapion and Avicenna under [Electrum], can entertain a doubt that these authors were well informed as to the nature of this substance. Ebn Baithar gives a similar account of the origin of ambergris. He says, it is furnished by sea monsters which swallow it and vomit it up again. It swims on the surface of water, and the blackish kind is of little value. He calls it the most excellent of all aromatics, and praises it for strengthening the heart and brain, and for curing cramp and similar complaints. Among other powers which it possesses, it is said to be intoxicating. (i, 210, 405.) See also Haly Abbas (Theor. v, 33.) The Greeks and Romans would appear to have been unacquainted with this species of Amber until after the Arabian period. It is accurately described by Symeon Seth, as we have already stated above in the commentary on Electrum. He holds it to be a good cordial and stomachic medicine.
Bezoar.
As this article is now but little known in this country, it may be proper to prefix some account of it from recent authorities. Lewis writes of it thus: “Lapis Bezoar orientalis, oriental Bezoar stone, supposed to be produced in the pylorus or in a cavity at the bottom of the fourth stomach of an animal of the goat kind, which inhabits the mountains in different parts of Persia.” (Mat. Med. 217.) But Bontius is, perhaps we may say, the most accurate of the modern authorities who have described the oriental bezoars. He describes them as being alvine concretions which form in goats or gazelles, and have generally a little piece of chaff as a nucleus. He had also seen them taken from the bodies of monkeys. (Med. Ind. c. 45.) See further Gray (Suppl. to Pharmacop. 179, 136.) Now, it is certain that these Bezoars were much used in medicine by the Arabians as they are in the East at the present day; and yet, as far as we have been able to discover, they are not described in any of the Arabian works on the Mat. Med., with the exception of Ebn Baithar, and his account of them is very indistinct and unsatisfactory. We may gather from his description, however, that the term was applied to more substances than these alvine concretions. One of his authorities speaks of the best kind being found in the heart of the stag. Like all his countrymen, he recommends the bezoar as an amulet and an antidote to poisons. (119.) Indeed the term Bezoar would appear to have been used as signifying alexipharmical. See Avicenna (ii, 2), and Serapion (c. 441.) Frequent mention of it occurs in the works of the Arabians. See Haly Abbas (pluries); Rhases (Cont. l. ult., and xxxv, 6, 8, 1); Avicenna (iv, 6, 1, 4.)
Camphora.
This article is so important, that we shall be excused if we dwell upon it at some length. It is well known to be a secretion procured from several trees of the genus Laurus in the East; but more particularly from the tree which has been named Camphora officinarum. Serapion is the ancient authority who gives the fullest account of Camphor. In the first place, owing no doubt to his using some interpolated translation of Dioscorides into Syriac, he quotes him as stating that it is procured from India and China and is produced in most abundance during seasons when there is much thunder. One of his Arabian authorities, Isaac Ebn Amram, gives a distinct account of the origin of camphor and a description of the qualities of the different kinds of it, with a brief notice of the mode of clarifying it by sublimation, which is the process by which it is still produced. As to its medicinal virtues, he holds it to be cold and dry in the second degree, and says it is applicable in cases of inflammations, vertigo, and cholera; in fumigations with myrrh, rose-oil, and sandal-wood; that it is anaphrodisiac, induces premature hoariness of the hair; that in a masticatory with lettuce, it cures the hot intemperament of the brain and induces sleep; removes vertigo; stops hemorrhages from the nose and all fluxes in general; and, in short, that it is a common ingredient in all fumigations and ointments. Rhases, as quoted by him, pronounces camphor to be cold and attenuate (volatile?); says it is calculated to remove hot intemperaments in the head and the whole body; when too much used that it induces insomnolency; that it brings on coldness of the kidneys and bladder; coagulates the semen, and engenders coldness, and principally in the colder members of the body. Another Arabian authority, Meseab, calls it cold and dry in the third degree, and recommends it in epistaxis as a masticatory with raisins. Mesarugie, another authority, says, in large doses it induces indigestion and stops the formation of semen. Another of his Arabian authorities, Aben Mesuai (Mesue the elder?) says, it is astringent of the bowels, induces premature hoariness of the hair, and is useful in hot apostemes. Aben Amram, as quoted by him, says, Camphor is cold in the third degree, and is useful when applied to inflamed parts with rose-water, and comforts the members of the body and the senses; and is useful in cholera along with other astringents. He gives a quotation from the ‘Medicina Antiqua’ to this effect, that camphor is an astringent of the bowels, and that its use induces hoariness of the hairs. (De Simplicibus, 344.) Avicenna’s account of it is much more succinct; he describes several species of it; says it is procured from a very large tree capable of giving shelter to a multitude of animals; that he had often seen the wood of it, and that it was white, brittle, light, and contained in its pores some vestiges of camphor. He holds that its nature is cold and dry in the second degree. He recommends it in exactly the same cases as Serapion does, namely, in inflammatory complaints, epistaxis, hot vertigo, and acute ophthalmy. He also, like Serapion’s authorities, holds that it is anaphrodisiac and represses fluxes. (ii, 2, 130.) Rhases gives a brief account of camphor upon the authority of Misib, Mesarguil, and Bimasui; the first of whom merely recommends it in fluxes; the next relates of it that an acquaintance of his took six drachms of camphor at one dose, which impaired his digestion and brought on impotence without inducing any other complaint; the third, like some of Serapion’s authorities, represents it to be cold and dry in the third degree, and recommends it for fluxes, and further says that it induces premature hoariness of the hair. (Contin. l. ult. i, 147.) In another work he calls it cold, humid, and subtile (volatile?), and gives it the same characters as the other authorities. (Ad Mansor. iii, 22.) Mesue gives a formula for troches of camphor, which he recommends in ardent fevers, heat of the bile and of the blood, hot intemperaments of the stomach and of the liver, for intense thirst, jaundice, phthisis, and hectic. (De Trochiscis. i.) Haly Abbas frequently recommends camphor in the course of his works, but we have not been able to discover any distinct account of it in the very barbarous translation of his Materia Medica. Ebn Baithar gives a very circumstantial account of the formation of camphor on the tree which produces it, and describes its characters very accurately. He says it is cold and dry in the second degree, and is useful in hot intemperaments and bilious headaches. Like some of the others quoted above, he says it is produced most abundantly in times of thunder. In an over-dose, he says, it is anaphrodisiac, and induces sleeplessness, and relates a case in which it destroyed the tone of the stomach, and occasioned impotence. He says it is used in collyria, and as a sternutatory, and to stop the hole in a carious tooth. Symeon Seth is the only one of the Greek authorities that treats fully of camphor (caphura.) He says it is cold and dry in the third degree; that it is the gum or tear of a tree growing in India; that the tree which produces it is said to be very large, so that a hundred men could be sheltered by its shade; that it is produced on the mountains near the sea; and that the wood of the tree is light and fistulous. He recommends camphor as being most useful in acute diseases, in headaches from heat, and in inflammations, especially those of the liver; says that it induces coldness of the kidneys and spermatic vessels, and coagulates the blood. He mentions a test of its purity. (De Alimentis.) Myrepsus in one place mentions the herb camphor, but it is doubtful whether he means the substance we are treating of;—most probably not. (De Unguent, iii, 46.)
Cassia Fistula.
Serapion, in the first place, gives a pretty accurate description of it, and states the localities from which it is procured, namely, India, Babylonia, and Arabia. Upon the authority of Aben Mesuai he states it to be of a sweet taste, and laxative of the bowels, and says it has virtues to extinguish the sharpness of the blood, that it relieves apostemes and boils in the mouth, and is useful in jaundice and pains of the liver. In a dose of three to ten drachms he says it is cholagogue and laxative. Abengnefit, as quoted by him, says it purifies the nerves. Rhases, as quoted by him, says it is laxative and efficacious in apostemes, especially those of the throat. (De Simpl. xii.) Avicenna’s account of it is but little different from that of Serapion. Having described it, he says it is of an equal temperament as to heat and cold, but is of a moistening nature, and that in action it is resolvent and laxative. It is useful, he says, in hot apostemes of the bowels, and especially of the throat when a gargle of it is prepared with a decoction of nightshade. He praises it in a liniment for gout and arthritic pains. He speaks well of it in dyspnœa. He says it cleanses the liver, and is of use in jaundice and pain of the liver. He says it is a gentle laxative, bringing away heated bile and phlegm, and opens the bowels safely without griping. (ii, 2, 192.) Badagorius, as quoted by Rhases, says of cassia fistula, that it is alterative, an evacuant of bile, and a cleanser of the blood. The son of Mesue, as quoted by the same, recommends it, like Serapion, in jaundice, pain of the liver, of the throat, &c. Priscianus, as quoted by Rhases, says it is a safe purgative to pregnant women, brings away bile, clears away jaundice, and is efficacious in pain of the liver and throat. Marsenuce (?) recommends it in the same affections of the throat as the others. (Contin. l. ult. i, 187.) Of all the ancient authorities, Mesue the younger gives the fullest account of it, but it is in nearly the same terms as Serapion’s. His description of it is full and accurate. Any injurious action which it has, he says, may be removed by the mixture of myrobalans, rhubarb, the water of mastich, and spikenard; and in dryness of the bowels by mixing almond oil with it. Diuretics also are said to determine it to the urinary passages. He says it is useful to add some laxative to it. As to its virtues, he says it cleanses the blood, allays all sharpness in it, assuages thirst, with the juice of endive, &c., clears the stomach, brings away yellow bile and phlegm, and that safely, also purges the breast and throat, and is useful in heat of the kidneys, when taken with diuretics and the infusion of liquorice, that it prevents the formation of stones, and is useful in ardent fevers. (De Simpl. vi.) Ebn Baithar also gives a very elaborate and correct account of this article, but as it is nearly the same as that of Mesue, we need not say much about it. He calls it a well-known tree growing in Egypt; says in moderate doses it is a safe purgative, even to pregnant women, but in large doses occasions hypercatharsis. If the root is not sound, it is apt to produce disturbance of the bowels. He says it purges hot bile, softens the breast, and cleanses the nerves, &c. (i, 401.) Actuarius describes it by the name of the Black Cassia, and recommends it as a gentle purgative both alone and with other medicines. (Meth. Med. v, 2.) It occurs among the ingredients in the antidotes of Myrepsus. See Antidot. (i, xi.) Of course the article we have been treating of will be recognised as being the Cassia fistula L., the pudding-pipe tree, or purging cassia. The pulp of the pods is still sometimes used in medicine as a gentle purgative. See Paris (Pharmacol. i, 271); Pereira (M. M. 1172); Gray (Suppl. to Pharmacop. 150); Royle (M. M. 355.)