* * * * * COMMENTARY. They are the unripe fruit of the fig tree. Dioscorides and most of the ancient authorities recommend them as a stimulant application to various tumours. Our author’s account of them is abridged from Dioscorides, who further recommends them in a cataplasm with salts and vinegar for achores, furfures, and epinyctis, and as an application to the bites of mad dogs. (i, 185.) They are the _Grossi Ficulnei_ of the Arabians, who treat of them under the general head of figs. See Avicenna (ii, 2, 276.) Ὁλόστιον, Holostium, is possessed of desiccative powers with astringency. Hence they use it for fractures. * * * * * COMMENTARY. There are few articles in the Materia Medica of the ancients about which there is so much doubt. See Parkinson (Theatre of Plants), and Sprengel in Dioscor. (iv, 11.) It has been set down as the _Holosteum umbellatum_, but all upon mere conjecture. Our author here copies from Galen, who in his turn borrows from Dioscorides. We are not aware of its being described by any of the Arabian authorities, nor have we found it in any modern Dispensatory. Ὀμφάκιον, Omphacium is _the Juice of the Unripe Grape_, being considerably astringent and desiccative in the third degree. Hence it applies to defluxions, and especially those of the stomach. * * * * * COMMENTARY. The juice of unripe grapes is called _Agresto_ in Italy, where it is still used in affections of the throat. Dioscorides recommends it in such cases. Pliny says of it, “Prodest dysentericis, sanguinem excreantibus, anginis.” (H. N. xxiii, 4.) This is a literal translation from Dioscorides, who recommends it in these cases, and also for various others in which astringents are indicated, such as aphthæ, loose gums, fistulæ, old ulcers, spreading sores, and as an application to asperity and ulceration of the eyelids. (v, 6.) Celsus prescribes the omphacium in a variety of cases, as a cleansing medicine, (v, 5), as one that corrodes (v, 6), and as one that determines outwardly. (v, 12.) None of the other Greek authorities nor the Arabians supply any additional information of interest after Dioscorides. Ὀνάγρα, Onagra, _Tree Primrose_ (called also Œnothera and Œnothyris), is a sort of plant resembling a tree, the root of which, when applied as a cataplasm, proves soothing to the bites of venomous animals. * * * * *