COMMENTARY. We have already treated of this article as a poison. (Book V, 62.) The ancients distinguished lead into two kinds, the black and the white. Of these the latter is the same as the cassiteros, that is to say, tin. The other comprehended several of our native ores of lead. Both kinds are described in the works of Hippocrates and of Celsus. (v, 26, v, 18, &c.) See also particularly, Pliny (xxxiv, 47) and Isidorus (Orig. xvi, 21), who have given accurate descriptions of the ancient varieties of lead. Dioscorides, Galen, and Serapion agree in describing it as a powerfully cooling or refrigerant medicine. Galen’s account of it is lengthy but interesting. (De Simpl. ix.) Oribasius says that it forms an excellent application to irritable and malignant sores. Dioscorides recommends washed lead very much in rheums of the eye. He gives a very circumstantial description of the process of preparing washed lead. He further says of it, that it is a good styptic, and an excellent application to fungated sores, hemorrhoids, condylomata, and ulcers about the anus. Averrhoes treats of it in nearly the same terms as our author. (Collig. v, 43.) The Arabians, in general, prescribe it, in imitation of Galen, as an application to cancer. See Averrhoes (l. c.) and Avicenna (ii, 2, 12.) The latter joins Dioscorides in praising lead as an application to the eyes. Serapion gives a very full account of this article in extracts from Dioscorides and Galen. (De Simpl. 419.) See also Rhases (Contin. l. ult. i, 556); Ebn Baithar (ii, 128, et pluries.) Μοράια, Morus nigra, _the Mulberry-tree_; the fruit, when ripe, loosens the belly, and is useful in all complaints of the mouth which require a moderate degree of astringency. The unripe, when dried, becomes a very styptic medicine. The bark of the root of the tree is also purgative, with a certain degree of bitterness; hence it kills the broad intestinal worm. The leaves and tender shoots hold an intermediate place between purgatives and astringents. * * * * *