Castorium, _Castor_, is heating and desiccative, with excessive tenuity of parts, by which, in addition to its other actions, it is rendered a suitable remedy for affections of the nerves proceeding from a collection of humours. It also readily warms parts which are immoderately cooled, both when applied externally and when drunk, without at all injuring any other part, even if they should be in a state of moderate fever, as in cataphora and lethargy. It is likewise emmenagogue, and expels the secundines. In affections of the brain and lungs it is a very efficacious remedy, even when inhaled in respiration. * * * * * COMMENTARY. All the ancient authorities describe the Castor as being the testicles of the beaver (_Castor Fiber_, L.) Matthiolus, we believe, was the first to rectify this error. It is a substance contained in follicles situated between the anus and genital organs. The use of castor in hysteria is mentioned by Herodotus. (iv.) Dioscorides, Galen, Rhases, and Serapion, like our author, recommend it as an emmenagogue; Celsus prescribes castor with pepper in cases of tetanus. (iv. 3.) He also recommends it in lethargy and deafness. (vi.) Pliny also mentions its being used in tetanus and other cases where soporifics are indicated. (H. N. xxxii, 3, 8.) Of all the ancient authorities Avicenna treats of it most fully, recommending it particularly in nervous affections, stupor, and paralysis, also in hiccough when drunk with vinegar, and as a carminative in flatulence of the bowels. The best counter-agents to it are acid citrons, vinegar with wine and asses’ milk. He says of it, that it is alexipharmic, and proves beneficial in the suffocation induced by hellebore. (ii, 2, 122.) Serapion copies literally from Dioscorides and Galen (c. 445.) Rhases recommends it as a calefacient medicine for warming the nerves, promoting menstruation, and dissolving swellings. (Ad Mansor. iii, 30.) The account which he gives of it in his ‘Continens’ is made up of extracts from Dioscorides, Galen, and our author. (l. ult. 188.) Ebn Baithar gives a very lengthy and not uninteresting account of this substance. (i, 263.) Καυκαλὶς, Caucalis, _Wild Carrot_; it is heating, like the carrot, desiccant, diuretic, and is pickled as a preserve. * * * * * COMMENTARY. Sibthorp supposed it to be the _Tordylium officinale_; but perhaps we may venture to refer it rather to the _Caucalis maritima_, Lam. R. Stephens calls it _Persil batard_, i. e. _Bastard parsley_. It is more properly an article of food than a medicine. Our author borrows his account of it from Dioscorides and Galen, and none of the other authorities supply any additional information of interest respecting it. In modern times its application in medicine has been extended. See Matthiolus (in Dioscorid.) and Parkinson (922.) Κέγχρος,