Ἔλυμος ἤ Μελίνη,
Panicum, Panic, is, like millet, desiccative and refrigerant in its powers when applied externally. It also dries up alvine fluxes.
Commentary. Panic, as Miller remarks, is a plant of the millet kind. It is the Panicum Italicum. It is more an article of food than of medicine. We have treated of it accordingly in the part of this work devoted to Dietetics. See [Vol. I, 124].
Ἔμπετρον ἤ Πρασσοδὲς,
Empetron, Black-berried Heath, is a medicine which purges phlegm and bile. It is also saltish and therefore, detergent.
Commentary. It is not well determined whether it be a species of Crithmum, Herniaria, or Salsola. Dioscorides makes it to be a purger of phlegm, bile, and water; and all the other authorities, both Greek and Arabian, give it the same characters in the main. It does not appear that the Arabians have noticed it; neither do we find it in the works of Hippocrates or Celsus. In the modern Greek Pharmacopœia it is set down as being the Pimpinella Saxifraga.
Ἐπίθυμον,
Epithymum (vel Cuscuta minor?) Dodder of Thyme, is desiccant and calefacient in the third degree, being more drastic than thyme.
Commentary. Dioscorides says of the Cuscuta Epithymus, or lesser dodder of thyme, that it purges phlegm and black bile, and agrees particularly with melancholic and flatulent cases. (iv, 176.) Aëtius, likewise, calls it a melanogogue medicine. Galen and Oribasius give exactly the same character of it as our author. Serapion gives a most graphic description of this singular parasitic plant, in the present instance quoting solely from Arabian authorities. They agree in general that it is deobstruent, cathartic, and emmenagogue, and join in recommending it particularly in jaundice, obstructions of the liver and spleen, and in the fevers of children. (De Simpl. 39.) Mesue, also, gives nearly the same characters of it; he mentions of it that it is a weak and slow purge, unless taken in a large dose, and, therefore, he recommends it to be given with Indian myrobalans, black hellebore, mulse, salts, or the like. (16.) See also Avicenna (ii, 2, 226) and Rhases (Cont. 270.) It held a place in our Dispensatory, with the character of being a cleanser, down to a late period. See Rutty (Materia Medica, p. 80.); Quincy (Complete Engl. Dispens. p. 117.)