Clinopodium, _Field Basil_, is possessed of heating and desiccative powers, not caustic however, but of the third degree. * * * * * COMMENTARY. It may with considerable confidence be set down as being the _Clinopodium vulgare_, although doubts have been started on this head. See Parkinson (Theatre of Plants, 23), and Sprengel (Ad Dioscorid.) Our author follows Galen very closely. Dioscorides represents it to be diuretic and emmenagogue (iii, 99.) We have not been able to discover any traces of it in the Mat. Med. of the Arabians, nor in Hippocrates. Κνίκος, Cnicus, _Bastard Saffron_; its seed is used only for purgings, but if applied externally it belongs to the third order of calefacients. * * * * * COMMENTARY. The preponderance of authority is decidedly in favour of its being the _Carthamus tinctorius_, a plant which held a place in our Dispensatory with its ancient characters down to recent date. (See Quincy, 167.) Dioscorides mentions of it that it is used as a potherb, and as a medicine for opening the bowels. Galen gives it exactly the same character as our author. The Arabians give rather a confused account of it by treating of it along with _Atractylis_, which they held to be the wild cnicus. See in particular Avicenna (ii, 2, 159.) All the Arabians hold that it is not only laxative, but also powerfully alexipharmic. They call it _Kartam_ or _Cartamus_. See further Serapion (c. 202), and Rhases (Cont. l. ult. iii, 46.) Κογχύλια, Conchylia; their powers resemble those of the buccinæ. * * * * * COMMENTARY. This name was applied to various Testacea, or _Shell-fish_. See Harduin (Ad Plinii H. N. ix, 60); Athenæi Deipnos, iii; Aristotle, H. A. v, 14; and Gesner, De Aquat. Oysters are frequently called by this name, as in the following lines of Petronius Arbiter: Lucrinis Eruta littoribus vendunt Conchylia, cænis Ut renovent per damna famem.—_Satyricon._ Dioscorides does not treat of this article, at least, under this name. The Arabians would appear to have identified them with the _Cochleæ_. See in particular Serapion (c. 434.) Κοιλία, Venter, _the Belly_ of the cormorant, either when boiled, fresh, or dried, is said to be stomachic if eaten; and in like manner, the inner coat of the stomach of hens when dried and taken in a draught. But Galen says, that he found upon trial both these statements false. Dioscorides relates that the stomach of a wood-pigeon, if drunk, gradually makes stones be expelled by urine. The stomach of a weasel, when drunk, is a preservative against all poisonous animals. * * * * *