COMMENTARY. It is the _Ervum Ervilia_, Bitter Vetch. Dioscorides enumerates its medicinal virtues at considerable length, recommending it as being good for the bowels, and diuretic, but in large doses inducing bloody discharges from the belly and bladder; as being a cleansing application in obstinate diseases of the skin, and in carcinoma and gangrene; as being alexipharmic and forming a good fomentation for chilblains and pruritus. (ii, 131.) Our author copies word for word from Galen. The Arabians treat of it at much greater length, but add little to what Dioscorides had delivered under this head. When drunk with vinegar, they say it relieves difficulty of urine, tenesmus, and acute pain of the bowels; promotes expectoration, and softens indurated mammæ. See in particular Avicenna. (ii, 342.) Though this plant has long been omitted from our Dispensatory, it is still not wholly unknown in the shops. See Gray (Pharmacop. 96.) Ὃρμινον, Horminum, _Clary_, is like horehound in appearance, and hot, moderately desiccative, and detergent. It therefore is a provocative to venery; and along with honey clears any thickness of the coats of the eyes, dispels œdema, and extracts sharp instruments. The wild is stronger than the cultivated. * * * * * COMMENTARY. Our author borrows his account of this article (_Salvia Horminum_) from Dioscorides. (ii, 135.) It is not treated of by Galen, Aëtius, nor Celsus. It is fully treated of by the Arabians, who recommend it as an application to cancerous and other sores, as a collyrium in ulceration of the eyes, and as a plaster in cases of gout. They further hold it to be aphrodisiac. See Avicenna (ii, 2, 692); Rhases (Cont. l. ult. i, 727.) Even of late years, it has been reported as possessing the virtues ascribed to it by the ancients. See Rutty (Mat. Med. 238.) Ὄρυζα, Oryza, _Rice_, is somewhat astringent, and therefore it binds the belly in a moderate degree. * * * * * COMMENTARY. It is the _Oryza sativa_. Dioscorides, Galen, and the other authorities state its virtues in the same brief terms. For the views of the Arabians, see Serapion (c. 13); Rhases (Cont. l. ult. i, 583); Avicenna (ii, 2, 567.) The Arabians recommend it boiled in milk, which, they say, takes away its astringency, and it becomes more nutritious and forms semen. Ὄρχις, Orchis; the herb is also called _Dog’s Orchis_, or _Testicle_, having a double bulbous-shaped root. The powers of the greater orchis are humid and heating, and therefore it is a provocative to venery. But those of the lesser are heating and desiccative, and therefore, on the contrary, it restrains venery. That species which is called _Sarapias_, and otherwise _Triorchis_, is more desiccative than the former. It therefore discusses œdematous swellings, cleanses foul and putrid ulcers, and cures herpes. When dried it is more desiccative. Owing to its sub-astringency, it binds the belly when drunk with wine.