COMMENTARY. Salmasius contends that the ancient Cassia was the same as our cinnamon. See Needham (ad Geopon. vii, 13), and Celsus (Hierobot. in voce Kiddah.) Stackhouse affirms, however, that the ancients were unacquainted with the _Laurus Cinnamomum_. He refers it to the _Laurus gracilis_. (Comment. in Theophrast.) Sprengel, in his R. H. H., makes it to be the _Laurus Cassia_, which has now got the scientific name _Cinnamomum Cassia_. The close connexion between the cinnamon and cassia has occasioned difficulty in distinguishing them from one another, down even to the present times. They are often sold for one another in the Indian bazaars. The _Cassia lignea_ of the ancients would appear to have been the same thing as the _Cassia bark_ of the moderns. According to Ainslie, the odour of it is very like cinnamon, but fainter. (Mat. Ind. 35.) The _Cassia Fistula_ was merely the bark rolled up into _fistulæ_, or pipes. The Greeks, as we shall show in another place, were unacquainted with the true _Cassia Fistula_. Dioscorides describes several varieties of it which cannot now be readily recognized. He calls it heating, diuretic, desiccant, and mildly astringent, and recommends it as an emmenagogue, and for various other medicinal purposes. He concludes by saying it may be used in place of cinnamon, and that it is useful for many purposes. (i, 12.) Galen and the other Greek authorities treat of it briefly, in nearly the same terms as Paulus. All the Arabians treat of it fully. See in particular Rhases (Cont. l. ult. 183), Serapion (c. 301), and Avicenna (ii, 2, 151.) Avicenna describes circumstantially several kinds of cassia, which he says is closely allied to cinnamon in nature and in virtues. He recommends it in diseases of the eyes and uterus, and joins Serapion in holding it to be alexipharmic. The only Arabian authority quoted by Rhases under this head (namely, Misib) calls it stomachic, hepatic, and attenuant. The same authority is quoted by Serapion. Another of Serapion’s authorities says it has strong powers for procuring abortion. The cassia occurs in the works of Hippocrates, and in those of Celsus. The latter ranks it in his list of discutients. (v, 11.) Galen states that, in the absence of cinnamon, a double dose of cassia or of carpesium may be used in place of it. (ii, 434, ed. Basil.) It is described by Theophrastus (H. P. ix, 5), and Pliny (xi, 43). Καστόριον,