* * * * * COMMENTARY. Dioscorides and most of the subsequent authorities, with the exception of Paulus, describe two species, the mas. and the femina. The one without doubt is the _Artemisia Abrotanum_; the other probably the _Santolina Chamæcyparissus_. The use of southernwood is as ancient as Hippocrates, but Galen is the ancient author who has treated of its faculties most elaborately. He recommends it strongly both externally in fomentations, and internally as an anthelminthic. For the latter purpose it is praised by the natural historian Ælian (H. A. ix, 33), and by most of the medical authorities on the Materia Medica, both ancient and modern. As an application in ophthalmy, along with the pulp of a roasted quince, it is highly spoken of by Galen and the others. Galen says, that friction with the oil of southernwood is useful in intermittents, and this character of it is confirmed by all the authorities down to recent times. Avicenna joins Dioscorides in praising it as an emmenagogue, and says, that it produces abortion. (ii, 266.) Aëtius is fuller than the others on the virtues of the lixivial ashes of southernwood, recommending them particularly in diseases of the anus and in alopecia. Celsus ranks it among the cleansing medicines (v, 5.) Pliny makes mention of a vinous tincture (xiv, 19.) See also Dioscorides (v, 49.) Macer Floridus, a comparatively modern authority, joins the more ancient authorities in commending it as an antidote to narcotic poisons. He also says, that a vinous tincture of it is useful in sea-sickness. Serapion, after quoting freely from Dioscorides and Galen, under this head adds, upon “an unknown authority,” that, when boiled with oil and rubbed over the stomach, it cures coldness of the same. (De Simpl. 317.) In the modern Greek Pharmacopœia (Athens, 1837), the two species of wormwood are described by the names of _Artemisia Abrotonum_ and _Artemisia contra_. See further Pereira (M. M. 1356.) Ἀγάλλοχον, Agallochum, is an Indian wood resembling the thyia, of an aromatic nature. When chewed it contributes to the fragrance of the mouth. It is also a perfume. Its root, when drunk to the amount of a drachm weight, cures waterbrash and loss of tone in the stomach, and agrees with hepatic, dysenteric, and pleuritic complaints. * * * * *