COMMENTARY. Properly speaking _the Stomach_. Our author, as he acknowledges, borrows from Galen and Dioscorides. Serapion repeats the same characters of this article upon the authority of Dioscorides. (c. 469.) We may be allowed to mention that the inner membrane of the crop of a fowl is still a popular remedy for indigestion in the north of Scotland. Κόκκος κνίδιος, Granum Gnidium, is the fruit of the Thymelæa and not of the Chamelæa as some have supposed. Being possessed of acrid and caustic powers, when drunk, it purges water downwards. * * * * * COMMENTARY. See under Θυμέλαια. All the authorities, from Hipprocrates downwards, describe it as an acrid purgative. Dr. Pereira says, “_Daphne Gnidium_ is the _Thymelæa_ of Dioscorides, whose fruit is the κόκκος κνίδιος, or _Gnidian-berry_, used by Hippocrates. Its properties are similar to those of D. Mezereum.” (Mat. Med. 807.) Dioscorides gives a full description of the thymelæa, and states, with excellent precision, its operation on the animal economy. He says it purges, bringing away a watery discharge, and kills the fœtus in utero when applied on a pessary. (iv, 170.) Galen and Aëtius and Oribasius state its characters in brief terms, like our author. It would appear, in fact, to have been little used in medicine. The Arabians confound the thymelæa, chamelæa, and chamæleon together, so that there is great difficulty in making out what were their exact views on the _Thymelaceæ_. Indeed, the genera of this tribe of plants are still with difficulty distinguished from one another. See Lindley’s Vegetable Kingdom, 530. Κόκκος βαφικὸς, Granum tinctorium, is desiccative without pungency. It agrees, therefore, with large wounds and wounds of the nerves when triturated with vinegar or oxymel. * * * * * COMMENTARY. It is _Vermilion_ or _Scarlet grain_, being the product of a little hemopterous insect called _kermes_ or _Coccus ilicis_. See Theophrastus (H. P. iii, 16), and Pliny (H. N. xvi, 12.) It was anciently used in dyeing, but is now superseded by the cochineal. An interesting account of kermes and cochineal is given by Beckmann. (History of Inventions.) Dioscorides and the other authorities, like Paulus, commend it as a vulnerary medicine, especially in wounds of the nerves. The Arabians, in treating of the kermes, merely repeat what Dioscorides and Galen had written on this head. See in particular Serapion (De Simpl. 321); Avicenna (ii, 2, 718); Rhases (Cont. l. ult. i, 740.) Κοκκομηλέα,