Conchylia; their powers resemble those of the buccinæ.
Commentary. This name was applied to various Testacea, or Shell-fish. See Harduin (Ad Plinii H. N. ix, 60); Athenæi Deipnos, iii; Aristotle, H. A. v, 14; and Gesner, De Aquat. Oysters are frequently called by this name, as in the following lines of Petronius Arbiter:
Lucrinis
Eruta littoribus vendunt Conchylia, cænis
Ut renovent per damna famem.—Satyricon.
Dioscorides does not treat of this article, at least, under this name. The Arabians would appear to have identified them with the Cochleæ. See in particular Serapion (c. 434.)
Κοιλία,
Venter, the Belly of the cormorant, either when boiled, fresh, or dried, is said to be stomachic if eaten; and in like manner, the inner coat of the stomach of hens when dried and taken in a draught. But Galen says, that he found upon trial both these statements false. Dioscorides relates that the stomach of a wood-pigeon, if drunk, gradually makes stones be expelled by urine. The stomach of a weasel, when drunk, is a preservative against all poisonous animals.
Commentary. Properly speaking the Stomach. Our author, as he acknowledges, borrows from Galen and Dioscorides. Serapion repeats the same characters of this article upon the authority of Dioscorides. (c. 469.) We may be allowed to mention that the inner membrane of the crop of a fowl is still a popular remedy for indigestion in the north of Scotland.