COMMENTARY. _Gluten_ or _Paste_. Dioscorides mentions that the best kind is prepared from the hides of bulls in Rhodes. Galen makes mention of another kind prepared from flour, and used in binding books. (De Simpl. vii.) See further, Pliny (H. N. xiii, 26.) The Arabians, in treating of it, derive most of their information from the Greeks. See Serapion (c. 138); Avicenna (ii, 2, 202); and Rhases (Cont. l. ult. i, 336.) They treat of the ichthyocolla under this head. Κολοκύνθη, Cucurbita, _the Gourd_, is of a humid and cold temperament in the second degree. Hence, when applied entire in a cataplasm, it cools hot inflammations. * * * * * COMMENTARY. We have stated the difficulty of determining this article in the chapter of the First Book on the summer fruits. It would appear to be sometimes put for the _Cucumis sativus_ or _Cucumber_, and sometimes for the _Cucurbita_ or _Gourd_. About the species, however, there is some doubt. On its medicinal properties, besides the medical authorities, see Geopon. (xii, 19.) Dioscorides recommends it raw, as a cooling application for various swellings and apostemes; also for the siriasis of infancy (See Book I, 13), for inflammations of the eyes, and those of gout in like manner. He also speaks of it as being useful in earache and heat of the stomach. He states that it is laxative of the bowels; and for this purpose directs a raw gourd to be hollowed out, and wine having been poured into it, it is to be exposed for a time to the heat of the sun, when it will become gently laxative. (ii, 161.) Galen, Aëtius, and others give it much the same characters as our author. The Arabians, as usual, borrow freely from the Greeks without making any addition of much consequence. See Avicenna (ii, 2, 175); Serapion (c. 248); and Rhases (Cont. l. ult. 1, 344.) One of Serapion’s authorities, called Masarugie, says of the gourd, that when it is surrounded with paste and roasted, the water thus squeezed out of it is beneficial in acute diseases and cough, that it quenches thirst, and when taken with sugar gently opens the bowels. Another of them, Habix, gives nearly the same account of it. Another of them says of its seed, that it is diuretic, and softens the belly. In modern times the seeds of gourd were formerly held as one of the four greater cold seeds. See Charras (Roy. Pharm. 66) and Quincy (p. 197.) Κολοκινθίς, Cucurbita sylvestris, _Colocynth_, is possessed of a strong purgative power. If the juice of it, while in a green state, be rubbed into the part, it relieves ischiatic disease. * * * * *