COMMENTARY. The asphaltus, or _Bitumen judaicum_, held a place in the Materia Medica from the days of Hippocrates down to a very recent period. It got the name of Jew’s pitch, from its having been principally procured from Judæa, where it is found floating on the surface of the Dead Sea, or Lacus Asphaltites. Some commentators have been puzzled by Dioscorides representing the colour of the finest asphaltus as purplish, but it is to be borne in mind that the ancients applied this term not to a scarlet red but to any rich dark-blue colour, such as that of the sea. All the authorities, ancient and modern, represent it as being emollient, discutient, and emmenagogue. Serapion gives a very interesting account of it. (§ 177.) See also Avicenna (ii, 2, 114); Rhases (Cont. l. ult. i, 88); also Celsus (v, 6.) Ἀσφόδελος, Asphodelus, _Kingspear_; its root is possessed of detergent and discutient powers. When burnt its ashes become more calefacient, desiccative, and attenuate. It therefore cures alopecia. * * * * * COMMENTARY. All the ancient authorities, including Hippocrates and Celsus, treat of the _Aspodelus ramosus_, or Kingspear, and in general are agreed in recommending it internally as being emmenagogue and diuretic, and externally as an application to alopecia or _porrigo decalvans_. The author who treats of it most elaborately is Dioscorides, who recommends it for the purposes we have mentioned, and as an alexipharmic, as a cure for toothache, and many other cases. (ii, 199.) Our author follows Galen. For the Arabians, see Avicenna (ii, 273); Serapion (c. 221); Rhases (Cont. l. ult. i, 26.) They all copy from Dioscorides and Galen. It was sometimes used as a culinary herb. See Vol. I, p. 118. Our old herbalists repeat its ancient characters as a medicine. See Gerard (i, 70.) It has been discarded from the Pharmacopœia for some time past. Ἀτρακτυλὶς, Atractylis, _Wild Cnicus_, or _Distaff-thistle_; it is of the thorny tribe, being possessed of desiccative and moderately heating powers. * * * * * COMMENTARY. In another place (Vol. I, p. 113) we have treated of the atractylis as a culinary herb, agreeing with Sprengel in referring it to the _Carlina lanata_. The commentators on Dioscorides, however, are greatly at variance with regard to it; most of the old herbalists agree with Belon and Fuchsius in holding it to be the _Carduus benedictus_, or blessed thistle. See Gerard’s Herbal (ii, 489.) We cannot help remarking, however, that the virtues of the _Carduus benedictus_ as given by Quincy (English Dispensatory, i, 2) by no means agree with those assigned to the atractylis by Dioscorides; he holds it to be alexipharmical. (iii, 97.) Our author copies from Galen. The Arabians supply no additional information. See in particular Avicenna (ii, 2, 159.) Ἀτράφαξις,