Βρυωνία,
Bryonia, Bryony; the White Vine is so named.
Commentary. See under [ἄμπελος]. Mesue recommends it as a phlegmagogue, deobstruent, and diuretic medicine; for epilepsy, vertigo, coldness of the nerves, coughs, asthmas, especially in a linctus, in pleurisy, and as an external application to hard aspostemes, inflammations of the spleen, in the form of a plaster, with figs and wine; for the removal of whitlow, spiculæ of bones, thorns, and the like. In a draught, he says, it proves emmenagogue and procures abortion. He also commends it as a cosmetic in diseases of the face. Both internally and externally he praises it in scrofula. He adds further, that it is useful in the cure of persons who have been bitten by venomous animals. In a word, no ancient author has bestowed so flattering an eulogium upon bryony as Mesue (De Simplicibus.) We need scarcely say that bryony (Bryonia dioica or alba) is now regarded in the light of a poison rather than a medicine. See Orfila (Toxicol. Gen. i, 679), and Christison on Poisons (p. 445, First edition.)
Γἀλα,
Lac, Milk; every sort of milk consists of three substances, a cheesy, a serous, and a fatty part, which last is contained in greatest abundance in the cow’s milk, and from it butter is formed. Whey is possessed of detergent properties, and hence it loosens the belly if separated by boiling. The cheesy and thick part is more compact, and on that account blunts acrid humours. When milk is boiled either by hot pebbles or any other way, it is an excellent remedy for dysenteries and other acrid defluxions on the bowels. The whole contents of milk are suitable applications for acrid humours of the eye, and all other acrimonies. The milk of a woman is of the best regulated temperament; after which the goat’s, and then that of the ass and sheep; and last of all the milk of cows.
Commentary. We have treated of the properties of milk so fully in the [First Book] that we need not enlarge on the subject in this place. Our author’s account of it is abridged from Galen. Dioscorides, Galen, Celsus, Serapion, and most of the authorities, recommend milk as a remedy when acrid substances, such as cantharides or arsenic, have been swallowed. Dioscorides says whey is beneficial in cases of melancholy, epilepsy, lepra, elephantiasis, and exanthemata in all parts of the body. He recommends new milk as a gargle in all ulcerations of the mouth, and in defluxions on the bowels with ulceration and tenesmus. He says, the milk of sheep, cows, or goats stops them, when boiled with pebbles, and injected either by itself or with ptisan, or the decoction of chondrus; it is also injected, he adds, in ulcerations of the womb. A woman’s milk, he says, when sucked from the breast, relieves erosion of the stomach and phthisis; it suits the cure of those who have drunk of the sea-hare, and is otherwise useful as an application to the eyes, and to the gout. All kinds of milk, he adds, are inapplicable in diseased spleen, diseased liver, vertigo, epilepsy, all nervous affections, fevers, and headaches, unless when the schiston is given to move the bowels. What the schiston was we have explained in the [First Book (§ 88.)] All the other authorities, whether Greek or Arabian, in treating of milk, follow Dioscorides and Galen. See in particular Serapion (De Simpl. 457.) Celsus entertained nearly the same views, with regard to milk, as the Greek authorities. Thus he recommends it in phthisis, and as an antidote to various poisons, but condemns it in headaches and acute fevers. Hippocrates prescribes milk in various instances, and seems to have been very partial to the use of it. He recommends the schiston, prepared with pebbles, in affections of the bowels. (Epidem. vii.)
Γαλὴ,
Mustella, the Weasel; when burnt, its ashes are discutient. Wherefore when rubbed in along with vinegar it relieves gout and rheumatism; when prepared and dried it answers with epilepsies.
Commentary. According to Sprengel, the Γαλη is a species of mustella, but neither the M. communis, called weasel in English, nor the M. Furo, or Ferret. Our author’s description of its medicinal virtues is taken from Dioscorides.