Ἰὸς,
Ærugo, Verdigris, has a bitter quality to the taste, being discutient, cathartic, and corrosive, not only of soft but also of hard flesh; but by mixing a little of it with much cerate, one may render the medicine detergent without pungency.
Commentary. That it was the Ærugo Æris, or Verdigris, seems indisputable. The scraped verdigris (ἰὸς ζυστὸς) was the common kind, and the name is still retained in the modern Greek Pharmacopœia (61.) Hippocrates, Dioscorides, Pliny, and Galen recommend verdigris in complaints of the eyes. Dioscorides describes very minutely the process for preparing verdigris, which is not very unlike that which is now practised in France. He also makes mention of another species, namely, the Ærugo Scolecia, with which we are now unacquainted. He gives an interesting account of the cases in which it is applicable. (v, 92.) Galen also writes of it with great precision. He says, when lightly applied it relieves fungated sores; and when diluted with cerates, it cleanses them. (De Simpl. ix.) The other Greek authorities give much the same account of it. The Arabians treat fully of the two kinds, which they call Ærugo rasilis and subtilis, but borrow almost all their information from Dioscorides and Galen. Like the Greek authorities, they apply it principally in intractable ulcers and in diseases of the eyelids. See Avicenna (ii, 2, 739), and Serapion (De Simpl. 383); Haly Abbas (Pract. ii, 44); Ebn Baithar (i, 540.)
Ἱππόκαμπος,
Hippocampus, is a sea animal, the ashes of which when burnt thicken the hair in alopecia, along with liquid pitch.
Commentary. It is, indisputably, our Syngnathus Hippocampus. Ælian relates that it has proved useful in cases of hydrophobia. (Hist. Anim. xiv, 20.) Our author borrows from Dioscorides (ii, 3.) The Arabians do not treat of it.
Ἱππολάπαθον,
Hippolapathum, Horse Burdock, grows in marshes, being like the Burdock.
Commentary. This article, which would seem to be the Rumex Hydrolapathum, is treated of in the same brief terms by the other authorities. See Dioscorides (i, 141.)