[52.] Cauneæ.) Mentioned by Cicero, De Divinatione, lib. 2.
[53.] Susine ointment.) For making this, oil was first boiled with wine, calamus, and myrrh, and after being strained, cardamom was infused in it, til it gave a proper flavour, After this, to three and an half pound of this oil were added the leaves of a thousand lilies, and the whole was stirred with hands anointed with honey. After standing a day and a night, the lilies were squeezed out. Dioscorid. lib. i. c. 63.
[54.] If a woman does not conceive.) Si non comprehendit. This sentence has, in some copies, been joined with the former, si concidere vitio locorum, &c. as if comprehendit related to the consistence of the pessus obtained by the honey. There are several other explanations offered, but none of them with any appearance of truth. I thought it capable of no other sense than what I have given in the translation; and was pleased to find this supported by the opinion of Morgagni, Ep. i. p. 18.
[55.] Sprinkled on dry.) The words as they stand in the text, seem capable of no proper sense. Misy quoque et galla, si paribus portionibus misceantur, corpus consumunt: eaque vel arida inspergere licet, vel excepta cadmia, illinere. I have therefore taken the liberty to transpose cadmia, and place it after galla for the cadmia is as dry as the other two, and therefore could not serve to bring them to any consistence; but still there seems to be a word wanting after excepta, to denote the substance for uniting them.
[56.] Marmor coctum.) I suppose this to be burnt marble; for Dioscorides mentions a lapis alabastrites, which was burnt, and mixed with resin or pitch, and thus used to discuss hardnesses. Lib. v. c. 927.
[57.] Ignis sacer.) Some, among whom is Heister[ JF ], believes, that Celsus calls an erysipelas ignis sacer, whereas he has erysipelas under its own name, cap. 26. of this book.—Fabricius[ JG ] ab Aquapendente, and Wiseman[ JH ], by his ignis sacer understand the miliary herpes. See our author’s description of it, cap. 28.
[58.] Malabathrum.) It is a question, whether the modern malabathrum, or Indian leaf, is the same with the ancient. Dioscorides says, some will have it to be the leaf of Indian nard being deceived by the similarity of its smell. But that is not true; for it is a vegetable of a peculiar nature, growing in the fens of India, without any root, the leaves swimming on the surface of the water. Lib. i. cap. 11.
[59.] Black cassia is the second species mentioned by Dioscorides, who says it is preferable to the first, and fittest for medicinal use; the natives of Arabia call it zigir; it is thick, and smells like roses. Lib. i. cap. 12.
[60.] Myrrh called stacte was the oily part expressed from particular kinds of myrrh, and was very fragrant. Dioscorid. lib. i. c. 78.
[61.] Pontic root.) Dale, with Alpinus, believes the rhapontic of the ancients to be the same with the true rhapontic of the moderns.