Commentary. Dierbach inclines to the Holcus Sorghum, a species of millet called Sorgo or Guinea corn. Most of the other authorities refer it to the Panicum Italicum. (See Sprengel, Schneider, and Parkinson.) We have treated of it among the articles of food in [Book I]. As a medicine, it is principally in the form of a fomentation that it is prescribed by Dioscorides and the other authorities. Galen does not speak very favorably of the cataplasm prepared from it. The Arabians treat of it in much the same terms as the Greeks. See Rhases (Cont. l. ult. i, 532), Avicenna (ii, 2, 288), and Serapion (c. 102.) They all speak of it as being a very inferior article of food; and as a medicine, recommend it only in a fomentation. It was retained in our English Dispensatory down to a late date. See Quincy. To this day it is much prized by the native practitioners of Hindostan. See Ainslie (Mat. Ind. 124.)
Κέδρος,
Cedrus, Cedar (?), or Juniper; the shrub, which resembles juniper, and the tree are calefacient and desiccative in the third degree; but the oil prepared from them, which they call cedræa, touches upon the fourth, being composed of sufficiently subtile particles. It therefore corrodes soft flesh readily, and without pain; and the hard flesh, more particularly of dead bodies, it dries and preserves from putrefaction. It kills lice, nits, ascarides, worms in the ears, and has many other powers.
Commentary. Dioscorides describes two species, the larger being probably the Juniperus Phœnicea, and the smaller the Juniperus communis. The ἄρκευθος was a species of the same genus. Pliny calls the pitch of the tree by the name of Cedria, and the oil by that of Pisselæon. Is the cedria the gum vernix, called sandarax by the Arabians? We will discuss this question in the [Appendix] to this Book, when we come to treat of the substances introduced into the Materia Medica by the Arabians. Dioscorides says of the fruit of the cedar or juniper, that it is calefacient and bad for the stomach, that it is useful in coughs, as an emmenagogue, and alexipharmic. (i, 105.) Galen says the fruit is edible, but apt to occasion headache and pain of the stomach. (De Simpl. vii.) The Arabians treat fully of it. See Avicenna (ii, 2, 160, 668.) He and the other Arabians borrow nearly all their information from the Greeks. Even Ebn Baithar contains little that is original under this head. (ii, 94.) We observe, by the way, that his translator, Dr. Sontheimer, marks it as the Pinus Cedrus, but this it clearly cannot be.
Κεντάυριον,
Centaurium, Centaury; the root of the great centaury is acrid and heating, with a terrene astringency. It therefore promotes menstruation, kills and expels the fœtus, agglutinates wounds, relieves hæmoptysis, and other affections of the chest. The root of the small centaury is possessed of no powers, but the branches are strongly desiccative, and without pungency. Hence they are applicable in those cases in which the great centaury was mentioned as being useful; and in ischiatic complaints the decoction of it given in an injection evacuates bile and sometimes blood, which affords great relief.
Commentary. The Centaurea Centaurium, L., and the Erythræa Centaurium, Pers., would appear to be the greater and less centaury of the ancients. See Parkinson, Sprengel, and the other commentators on Dioscorides. Pliny describes three sorts, but would seem to have fallen into a mistake as to the meaning of a passage in Theophrastus. See Harduin ad Plinii H. N. xxv, 32, and Parkinson (Theatre of Plants, 273.) Dioscorides recommends the greater centaury in the same cases as our author, who abridges him and Galen under this head. He says very particularly of it, that it produces menstruation, and expels the fœtus when applied in the form of a collyrium (tent) to the vagina. (iii, 6.) The Arabians give it the same characters as their Grecian masters. See Avicenna (ii, 2, 158), Rhases (Cont. l. ult. i, 176), and Serapion (c. 202.) Serapion and Mesue likewise recommend the lesser centaury in sciatica, either in a potion to the amount of two drachms, or in a clyster to the amount of three ounces, with oil of sesame. Galen has a whole book on the virtues of the lesser centaury, in which there is a prescription for an extract of it. The ancients had great faith in it for the cure of hydrophobia. According to Galen, (who it may well be supposed had devoted great attention to the study of its virtues), it is possessed of bitterness with some astringency, and is most especially excellent as a deobstruent in obstructions of the liver and scirrhus of the spleen. He mentions that some gave it in a potion for nervous affections, and that in a clyster it relieves sciatica by occasioning evacuations of bile. He also recommends it strongly in the form of a fomentation to ill-conditioned and obstinate ulcers. The lesser centaury (Erythræa Centaurium, Persoon) still continues to hold a place in our Dispensatory, but, as Dr. Pereira remarks, “is rarely used by medical practitioners; yet it might be used as an indigenous substitute for gentian.” (Materia Medica, 809.) In the days of Quincy it retained all its ancient characters. (Engl. Dispens. 103.) Galen’s tract on it must have been in great repute anciently, since Serapion has given a translation of the whole of it. It is retained in the modern Greek Pharmacopœia.
Κέρας ἀιγὸς,
Cornu Capri, Goatshorn, and Κ. ἐλάφου, Cornu Cervi, Hartshorn, cleanse the teeth when burnt, and restrain the progress of foul ulcers. The hart’s horn, when pulverised and then applied, fastens loose teeth; when washed after burning, it relieves dysentery, cæliac affection, spitting of blood, and jaundice, when given to the amount of two spoonfuls. It is also mixed up with ophthalmic remedies. The horn of a bull, when taken in water, restrains hemorrhages.
Commentary. Dioscorides, Galen, and Serapion speak of the medicinal properties of horn in nearly the same terms as our author. We need scarcely say that the stag’s or hart’s horn has been much used in modern times for the preparation of ammonia, which is hence called the spirit of hartshorn. Dioscorides recommends hartshorn when burnt until it become white, and cleaned like calamine, in affections of the eyes. It will now be readily understood, that when so treated it is reduced to a phosphate of lime. Avicenna further prescribes it for removing the swelling of dropsy; and, like Dioscorides, he recommends it in jaundice. (ii, 2, 178.) We would remark, in conclusion, that it was the red deer which furnished the medicinal hartshorn of the ancients, but that the moderns have commonly used the horns of the fallow-deer instead. See Hill’s Materia Medica (835.)