COMMENTARY. This article is so well known that it requires no illustration. Dioscorides describes very circumstantially the process for bleaching wax and making it white. It was done with salt water and natron in a manner quite different from the process now pursued for this purpose. (ii, 105.) The Arabians treat fully of it, but without making any addition of much importance. See in particular Serapion (c. 10) and Avicenna (ii, 2, 462.) Avicenna says that wax, when applied to the wound inflicted by a poisoned arrow, prevents it from being followed by any bad effects. He recommends it as an expectorant in diseases of the chest, both in a liniment and in a potion. One of Serapion’s authorities, Abugerig, in like manner, recommends it in diseases of the chest. Κήρυκες, Buccinæ (a species of shell-fish); their shell when burnt is possessed of sufficiently desiccative powers without pungency, they therefore agree with malignant ulcers, and are to be used for putrid ulcers with vinegar, wine, or oxymel. That part of them which is as it were their flesh when alive, if boiled in oil, renders the oil an useful injection for relieving earache. * * * * * COMMENTARY. Sprengel makes them to be the _Buccina Harpa_ and _Lapillus_. They are noticed among the articles of food in the ninety-first section of the First Book. Dioscorides correctly remarks that a species of quicklime is got from their shells. He recommends it as a dentifrice, and as an application to burns. (ii, 5.) Galen very properly inculcates the necessity of getting them finely levigated before applying them to sores. Avicenna treats of the buccina along with other crustacea under one head. His information is almost entirely borrowed from Dioscorides and Galen. (ii, 2, 529.) See also Rhases (Cont. l. ult. i, 224.) Κίκι, Ricinus, _Palma Christi_; its fruit, which is also purgative, has detergent and discutient properties, and so also has its leaf, but weaker. We have already spoken of its oil. * * * * *