Commentary. There seems scarcely any reason to hesitate in admitting it to be the Rubia Tinctorum, madder and dyer’s madder. Dioscorides holds it to be powerfully diuretic, insomuch as sometimes to occasion a discharge of blood in the urine. He recommends it in sciatica and paralysis; as an alexipharmic medicine, and as producing abortion, menstruation, and the lochial discharge when applied as a pessary. He adds, that it cures alphos (mild leprosy) in a cataplasm with vinegar. (iii, 150.) Our author borrows from Galen, who sets it down as being deobstruent, diuretic, and emmenagogue. Aëtius uses nearly the same words as our author in treating of it. All the Arabians follow the Greeks in giving madder the character of being diuretic and deobstruent when given internally, and emmenagogue and alexipharmic when applied externally. See Avicenna (ii, 2, 573), Rhases (Cont. l. ult. i, 590.) The Arabian writers mention that a bread was sometimes prepared from madder in times of famine. (Casiri, Bibl. Arab. Hisp., 336.) It is still sometimes given as an emmenagogue, notwithstanding that Dodonæus questioned the truth of Dioscorides’s opinion as to its possessing the powers of occasioning bloody urine and a discharge of the menses. (De Purgant. 97.) Our old herbalists, Parkinson and Gerard, dispute whether Dioscorides or Dodonæus is to be followed in this instance. The Rubia Tinctorum holds a place in the modern Greek Pharmacopœia.
Ἐρύσιμον,
Erysimum, Hedge-mustard; its seed is fiery and heating, equally as cresses. Wherefore, when boiled in leaven and added to linctuses, it purges the chest. It also softens indurations, and in the form of a cataplasm is of use for latent cancers.
Commentary. We may pretty confidently set it down as the Erysimum officinale, Hedge-mustard. Our author abridges Galen, who, in the present case, borrows almost everything from Dioscorides. Aëtius copies from Galen even more closely than our author. The Arabians, in like manner, borrow everything from Dioscorides and Galen under this head. See in particular Serapion (De Simpl. 357.) It is worthy of remark that Dr. Hill gives the same medicinal character to the hedge-mustard which Dioscorides gives to the Erysimon, which it will be admitted forms a strong presumption of their identity; at all events, they were evidently congeners, a fact which is not disputed by those who question their identity. See Rutty (Mat. Med.) and Sprengel (ad Dioscor.)
Εὔζωμον,
Eruca, Rocket, being also like it in temperament, is flatulent. It therefore produces venereal incitement, and the seed of it is diuretic. The wild is stronger than the cultivated.
Commentary. There can be no doubt that it is the Brassica Eruca, L. Dioscorides agrees with our author in setting it down as being aphrodisiacal and diuretic, and Aëtius does the same. The latter proposes to correct its tendency to induce headache by giving it with lettuce. (ii, 169.) Celsus ranks the “eruca” among the things “quæ contrahere semen videntur.” (iv, 21.) The Arabians agreed with the Greeks as to its aphrodisiacal properties. (Casiri, Bibl. Arab. Hisp. i, 336.) See also Serapion (224), Avicenna (ii, 2, 227.) Even down to a late date rocket retained this character. See Rutty (183), and Quincy (109.) It is still cultivated in gardens. See Loudon (Encycl. &c. 744.)
Ἐυπατώριον,
Eupatorium, Hemp-agrimony, consists of subtile particles, and is possessed of incisive powers without manifest heat. Hence it clears away obstructions of the liver, and has also some astringency.