* * * * * COMMENTARY. Apuleius says “Comaron Græci, Romani fragum vocant.” It is the _Arbutus Unedo_ or _Wild Strawberry Tree_, which must not be confounded with the _Fragaria vesca_, L., Angl., Wood Strawberry. It seems difficult to account for its holding a place in the ancient Materia Medica, since all the authorities, like Paulus, speak unfavorably of its medicinal powers. See Dioscorides and Galen. Κόμμι, Gummi, _Gum_, is of a desiccative and emplastic nature, and manifestly cures asperities (hoarseness?). * * * * * COMMENTARY. For an account of the ancient gums see Pliny (H. N. xiii, 20.) He says the best kind is got from the Egyptian thorn or Acacia; this must have been either the _Acacia vera_, L., or _Acacia Senegal_. Galen delivers the medicinal character of gum in the same terms as our author, and the other Greek authorities do the same. Dioscorides recommends the gum of the acacia (gum-arabic?) as possessing emplastic powers, and for blunting acrid medicines when mixed with them. He adds that, when mixed with the white of an egg, it prevents blisters from rising on burnt parts. (i, 133.) The Arabians concur in recommending gum-arabic as being beneficial in hot coughs, in ulcers of the lungs, and for clearing the voice; they also held it to be stomachic and theriacal. See Avicenna (ii, 2, 310); Rhases (Cont. l. ult. i, 345); and Serapion (c. 229.) Κονία, Lixivium, _Lye_; the washings, as it were, of ashes are so named. The most detergent and desiccative of all are those made from the ashes of figs and of the spurges, so that they are possessed of almost septic powers. If a little quicklime be added to the ashes it renders the lye caustic, which is then called protostactos, being mixed up principally with medicines administered by injection. But the strongest of all is that prepared from quicklime alone. * * * * * COMMENTARY. We have given some account of the _Lixivial Ashes_ or _Lyes_ of the ancients in the 9th section of Book VI. They were all of them preparations of potass mixed up with various impurities. The term was applied not only to the solution, but also to the dried _cineres_ of the same. Even quicklime is sometimes called by this name: κονία ἢ ἄσβεστος. (Scholiastes in Theocrit. Idyll. i.) The Cinis lixivius of the fig-tree is the one most frequently mentioned of them. See Pliny (H. N. xv, 18); Geopon. (v, 33); Dioscorides (i, 186); Serapion (183); and Avicenna (ii, 2, 188.) Avicenna recommends the lye of the mezerion in quinsy and affections of the eye. See also Rhases (Cont. l. ult. i, 214.) The protostactos was a composition of potass and lime. (See Book VI, s. 9.) On the alkalies or Cineres lixivii of the ancients, see further, Dutens (Découvertes attrib. aux Modern. 187.) Κόνυζα,