Costos, is possessed of a small degree of a bitter, but a greater degree of an acrid and hot quality. Wherefore, when a part requires to be heated, or a deep-seated humour attracted to the surface, one has recourse to the costus. It is therefore diuretic, emmenagogue, and anthelminthic. It has also some flatulent powers, so that it excites to venery when drunk with wine and honey. It suits with ischiatic and paralytic affections, and with periodical rigors when rubbed in with oil. * * * * * COMMENTARY. We should occupy more space than we can afford to devote to it if we were to enter into a disquisition on the general literature of this article. Those who feel curious to know our opinions on this subject, are referred to the Appendix to Dunbar’s Lexicon, already frequently quoted by us. Much interesting information respecting the costus has been supplied by very recent writers. See Royle (Ant. of Hindoo Medicine, 88), Ainslie (Mat. Ind. 152), and Pereira (Mat. Med. 699.) Dr. Lindley says of it, “Dr. Falconer has ascertained that the costus of the ancients is the root of his Auklandia Costus, a plant inhabiting the moist open slopes surrounding the vale of Cashmere. In Cashmere the plant is not held in repute as a medicine, but is chiefly employed for protecting bales of shawls from the attacks of moths.” (Vegetable Kingdom, 708.) We may add, that although the zeduary be not the same as the costus, as has been supposed, there can be no doubt that it was often used in place of the costus. (See M. Charras’ Pharm.) More recently, we have reason to think, our costmary, _Balsamita vulgaris_, was used as a succedaneum for the ancient costus. Compare Parkinson (80) with Hill (M. M. 624.) The three kinds of costus described by Dioscorides, namely, the Arabian, the Indian, and the Syrian, would appear to have been only varieties of the same substance. He says it is possessed of calefacient, diuretic, and emmenagogue powers, and is useful in uterine affections, in pessaries, fomentations, and fumigations. He recommends it as being alexipharmic, expectorant, aphrodisiacal, vermifuge, a good application externally in paralytic cases; and, in short, he gives it nearly the same characters as our author, who evidently copies from him and Galen. Aëtius and Oribasius do the same. The Arabian authorities on the Mat. Med. in like manner, do little more than quote what Dioscorides, Galen, and our author have written on the subject. See Rhases (Cont. l. ult. i, 236); Avicenna (ii, 2, 161); Serapion (c. 318.) Avicenna and Rhases agree that it dries up humid ulcers when sprinkled over them. One of Rhases’s authorities states that the oil of costus is useful in relaxation and coldness of the nerves, and in sciatica; and that a fumigation made with it by means of an instrument for the purpose (per embotum), kills the fœtus, and promotes menstruation. All join in giving it the character of being alexipharmic.