Calamus Aromaticus, Sweet-cane, is heating and desiccant in the second order. It also consists of subtile particles, and has some astringency. It is, therefore, diuretic, and is mixed up with stomachic remedies, and those prepared for the liver and womb. The species called phragmitis is detergent, but the leaves of it are green and moderately cooling, and the bark of it, when burnt, is heating and desiccant in the third degree. The root of it, when applied with bulbi, is said to extract darts and thorns.
Commentary. Having shown above that the acorus of the ancients is the Acorus Pseudacorus, we need have little hesitation in stating that we agree with the older authorities, who refer the present article to the Acorus Calamus. Dr. Royle, however, holds that it was the Andropogon Calamus aromaticus. See Hindoo Med. (34) and Lindley (Veg. Kingd. 133.) The φραγμίτης of Dioscorides and our author is decidedly the Arundo Phragmites, or Common Reed. Our author follows the description of them given by Dioscorides and Galen, and more especially the latter. Galen says of the aromaticus that it is more desiccative than calefacient, and that it has some volatility, like all the aromatics. Aëtius, in like manner, copies mostly from Galen. The Arabians, in treating of these reeds, borrow closely from Dioscorides. Thus Avicenna, among other virtues which he holds that they possess, commends them as being diuretic, emmenagogue, and alexipharmic. (ii, 2, 64.) The calami do not occur as articles of medicine in the Hippocratic collection. The Calamus Alexandrinus of Celsus (v, 24), was no doubt the C. aromaticus. Although a native of India, as Dioscorides states, it is likely that the Romans would get it through Alexandria. It occurs in the modern Greek Pharmacopœia, and is now found growing in Laconia.
Κάμπαι,
Erucæ, Caterpillar; those upon potherbs, when rubbed in with oil, are said to preserve from the bites of venomous animals.
Commentary. The metamorphosis of Caterpillar is accurately described by Theophrastus (C. Pl. v.) See also Aristotle (H. A. v, 20), and Pliny (H. N. xi, 32.) Our author’s account of these erucæ is taken word for word from Dioscorides (ii, 64.) Few of the other authorities treat of them.
Κανθαρίδες,
Cantharides; those found among wheat, have pale, transverse zones, and being suffocated by the steam of hot vinegar, are used for many purposes. For, with cerate, they cast off scabious nails, and relieve clavi and scabious affections. They are also corrosive and caustic. Some mix a small quantity of them with diuretic remedies, and give them in this form.
Commentary. Dioscorides and Galen direct the species which is found among corn to be used medicinally. As the Meloe vesicatorius is commonly found upon trees, such as the fraxinus, sambuchus, and ligustrum, it is evidently different from the ancient cantharis, and yet their effects upon the human frame would appear to have been very much alike. It appears to be now agreed upon by all competent judges that the medicinal cantharis of the ancients is the Mylabris Cichorii or M. Füsselini, which is still used for forming blistering plasters by the profession in Constantinople and by the native practitioners in Hindostan. See Ainslie (Mat. Ind., i, 622), Royle (Antiq. of Hindoo Med.), and Pereira (1834.) The Buprestis, however, which also is included by Dioscorides in his Materia Medica, can have been no other than the Meloe vesicatorius. See [Book V] of this work. It is the tellini fly of the Hindoos. See Ainslie (Mat. Ind. ii, 417.) The ancients prepared the cantharides for medicinal use in the same manner as the Spanish fly is now prepared, namely, by killing them with the fumes of vinegar. Dioscorides says cantharides are septic, ulcerative, and calefacient, and hence are mixed up with the medicines that cure cancerous diseases, leprosy, and lichen agrius; they are also emmenagogue when applied in a pessary; and some, he adds, relate that cantharides are beneficial in dropsies, by acting as diuretics. Their wings and feet are further said to be antidotal, that is to say, we suppose, to counteract the operation of the body of the insect. (ii, 65, 66.) Galen treats of the cantharis and buprestis in very nearly the same terms as Dioscorides. Instead of using only the wings and feet, as mentioned by Dioscorides, he says that he used the whole insect. (De Simpl. xi.) In moderate doses he held it to be a safe diuretic. (ii, 463, ed. Basil.) Aëtius and Oribasius give nearly the same account of the cantharis as Galen. Cantharides are frequently mentioned in the Hippocratic treatises (De Nat. Mulier. 565, ed. Föes; De Intern. Affect. 552), and in the works of Celsus. (199, ed. Milligan.) Aretæus is the first author, as far as we know, who notices the external use of cantharides as a rubefacient. (De Curat. Morb. Chron. i, 4.) The Arabians, in treating of cantharides, borrow nearly all the information they give from Dioscorides and Galen. See Serapion (c. 441), Avicenna (ii, 2, 201), Rhases (Cont. l. ult. i, 162.) Rhases on his own authority, affirms, that administered in small doses cantharides cleanse the kidneys. We are rather surprised to find that the Mylabris does not occur in the modern Greek Pharmacopœia.
Κάνναβις,
Cannabis, Hemp; the fruit is carminative and desiccative, so as to dry up even the semen. The juice of it when green is useful for pains of the ears and obstructions of them.