[355]. The Dublin college, on the authority of Willdenow, admits the A. Neomontanum, as the species of Aconite which has always been used in medicine; although the other colleges, in consequence of a botanical error of Stöerck, who introduced it into practice, direct the A. Napellus.
[356]. See note under the article opium.
[357]. Axunge, from its being used as the grease of wheels, ab Axe rotarum quæ unguuntur.
[358]. Dr. Smellone’s Ointment for the Eyes. It consists of half a drachm of Verdigris finely powdered and rubbed with oil, and then mixed with an ounce of yellow Basilicon, (Ceratum Resinæ, P. L.)
[359]. Alcohol is a term of Alchemical origin, and signified the pure substance of bodies, separated by sublimation from the impure particles, as Alcohol Antimonii, &c.
[360]. Garlic, leeks, and onions constitute a tribe of culinary vegetables that has undergone great vicissitudes in reputation: amongst the Egyptians the onion and leek were esteemed as divinities, thus Juvenal,
“O sanctas gentes quibus hæc nascuntur in hortis
Numina!”
while by the Greeks, garlic was detested, although their husbandmen had been from the most remote antiquity in the habit of eating it, which Æmilius Macer explains by supposing that its strong odour was useful in driving away the venomous serpents and insects by which they were infested.
Horace alludes to this custom in his 3d Epode, which he composed in consequence of having been made violently sick by garlic at a supper with Macænas.