Commentary. The Latin poet Virgil, who applies the term India both to the region of the East, which has always held that name, and to Abyssinia (Georg. iv, 293), says, that India is the only country that produces ebeny. (Georg. ii, 116.) This account of it will still be admitted to be pretty correct. Dr. Royle mentions that “Diospyros Ebenus yields the best kinds in the Mauritius, perhaps also in Madagascar; but D. ebenaster and D. melanoxylon, the ebeny trees of the Coromandel coast, yield it in the peninsula, of very good quality, as other species do in other parts of India.” (Hindoo Med. 89.) See Ainslie (Mat. Ind. ii, 48.) In medicine it was principally used in collyria for psorophthalmia and xerophthalmia as recommended by Dioscorides (i, 129), and in old ulcers and watery pustules as recommended by Aëtius (i) and Galen. (De Simpl. vi.) See also Celsus (v, 12.) The Arabians, who must have been still more familiar with it than the Greeks, say of it, in addition, that it is lithontriptic. Rhases (Contin. l. ult. 258), Avicenna (ii, 2, 226), and Serapion (c. 152.) It is still imported to this country, but has long ceased to occupy a place in our Dispensatory.
Ἐγκέφαλον,
Cerebrum, Brain; the boiled brains of a hare when rubbed in and eaten, are useful (it is said) for forwarding dentition in infants. Some write that brain when eaten proves useful for tremblings. Dioscorides says that the brain of a cock when drunk with wine relieves those who have been bitten by venomous animals, and that it stops hemorrhages from the meninges. Galen says that the brain of a camel when dried and drunk with vinegar cures epilepsy, and that of the weasel in like manner; that the brain of a swallow with honey is of use in suffusions; while that of sheep when prepared in like manner is an excellent remedy in the dentition of children.
Commentary. Galen and Serapion treat of the medicinal properties of brains in much the same terms as our author. Indeed our author copies from Galen. Avicenna says brains prove emetic after food, and are useful in the case of a person who has swallowed any poison. (ii, 2, 125.)
Ἐλάια,
Olea, the Olive; the green shoots of it are possessed of the same degree of coldness as of astringency; the fruit when perfectly ripe is moderately hot, but the unripe is more astringent and cold. The tear of Ethiopian olive resembling the slender ammoniac, is possessed of detergent powers. It is used, therefore, for cicatrices, albugo, and dimness of vision, and for the pains of the teeth when put into the carious hole. But some say that it is the wild olive that does this. Oil from fully ripe olives is sweet and moderately hot, and rather of a moistening nature. But the unripe has just as much astringency as coldness. The washed is freer from pungency. As to the old, the older it is so much the hotter and more discutient is it, more especially if it consist of subtile particles at first. This is ascertained from its being pure and transparent, and from a small quantity of it being sufficient to anoint a large part of the body, and from its being readily drunk in by the skin. Such in particular is the Sabine. That from the wild olive is at the same time detergent, astringent, and drying, as an oil. Castor oil has the same powers as old oil. The other kinds, such as that of sesame, or of radish and the like, derive peculiar properties from the substance they are formed from.
Commentary. We have treated of the olive as an article of food in another place. ([Vol. I, 135.]) The Ethiopian or wild olive comprehended several species of the Elæagnus. The tears of it, mentioned by Dioscorides and our author, and likened to gum ammoniac, are now unknown. Some, as Parkinson remarks, have supposed it our gum elemi, but that is probably a mistake. All the authorities, Greek, Latin, and Arabian, mention it as a sour, astringent medicine. Samonicus calls it “succis oleaster acerbis.” Abu l’Fadli calls it a powerful astringent. (Apud Celsii Hierobot.) The leaves of the cultivated olive Dioscorides says have the same kind of powers as the wild, but in an inferior degree, and hence, from their greater mildness, they are more suitable for ophthalmic remedies; he also recommends the juice of the green olive in pityriasis, psora, and other cutaneous diseases. (i, 136.) We need not follow out what has been written by the others on this subject.
Ἔλαιον. For an account of the oils used by the ancients in the practice of medicine, see in particular Dioscorides (i, 29 et seq.), Galen (De Simpl. vi), and Mesue (De Oleis.) The Oleum Cicinum, i. e. oil of the palma christi, now called castor oil, is often mentioned by the ancient authors. Dioscorides states that it is purgative and anthelminthic. Aëtius states that linseed oil may often be used instead of it. Almond oil he particularly commends in complaints of the ears. The oil of Sesame, he says, resembles common oil, being a gentle purgative; it is the gingilie oil of the modern Hindoos. Serapion recommends the oil of olives as an astringent application to stop profuse perspiration, to remove scabies and other cutaneous complaints on the head, to cure aphthæ and ulcers of the mouth, and for various other complaints. He, however, merely copies from Dioscorides, (i, 136.) But of all the ancient authorities, Mesue is the one who gives the fullest account of the composition and medicinal powers of the oils. Some of them are not described by the Greeks before his time, as far as we know. We shall give a specimen of a few of his prescriptions. His oil of mandragora, which he recommends for extinguishing inflammation and procuring sleep, is prepared from equal parts of the juice of its berries and oil of sesame boiled in a double vessel until the juice be evaporated. Add, he says, a little juice and boil again, do so a third time, and lay it aside. For the oil of mandrake a much more complicated receipt is given by Myrepsus (xvi, 50), which held its place in our Pharmacopœia down to the days of Quincy. (Complete Dispensatory, 527.) The oil of eggs, which Mesue commends strongly from experience for cleansing the skin, curing cutaneous eruptions, making hair grow, and curing malignant ulcers, he directs to be prepared thus: about thirty yelks of eggs hardened by boiling, and broken down into pieces, are to be fried in an earthen fryingpan that has been leadened, stirring with a wooden or iron ladle until they grow red, and their oil is poured out, which they yield the more largely if compressed with the ladle. This oil of eggs is described in similar terms by Moses Charras, in the Royal Pharmacopœia (p. 200), and is a popular remedy in Scotland to this day. Mesue describes the composition of an oil of frogs, which he recommends much for soothing the pains of arthritis, and the burning heat of ardent fevers, also the oil of vipers, of wolves, and many others, which will be more properly treated of by us in section xx of this Book. The oils are also well described by Aëtius (i) and Myrepsus (De Oleis.)