COMMENTARY. We have treated of the Dragon-herb (_Arum Dracunculus_) as an article of food in another place. (Vol. I, p. 114.) Dioscorides gives so circumstantial a description of its medicinal properties that we cannot find space for it. Suffice to say, he uses it internally in diseases of the chest, and as an aphrodisiac, externally, in various cutaneous diseases, in collyria, in injections into the ears, and as an alexipharmic. (ii, 195.) Galen embodies the substance of Dioscorides’s empirical description of its virtues agreeably to his own system, recommending it principally as a deobstruent internally, and an application to sores and cancerous tumours externally. Aëtius also gives an elaborate description of its powers. Oribasius merely states in general terms that it is calefacient and attenuant. Apuleius recommends it for the bite of the asp. Mesue ascribes to it powerfully cathartic and carminative powers. His account of it is very elaborate, and deserving of more attention than we can afford room to bestow upon it. He recommends it in the form of a suppository to relieve hemorrhoids and flatulence. (De Simpl. 24.) Avicenna borrows largely from Dioscorides. (ii, 2, 432.) Rhases copies from Dioscorides, Galen, and Oribasius. (Cont. l. ult. i, 257.) Serapion does the same. (De Simpl. 43.) It remains to be mentioned that Dioscorides, Oribasius, Mesue, and Avicenna, besides the species of dracunculus which we have been treating of, also describe another by the name of the Lesser. It is supposed to be the _Arum Italicum_. The dragon-herb held a place in the Dispensatory down to a very late date. Boerhaave calls it a powerful diuretic and promoter of the menses. Quincy says it is reckoned alexipharmic. Δρυοπτερὶς, Dryopteris, _Oak-fern_, is sweet, acrid, and bitterish, and its root has some sourness. It is septic, and hence it is depilatory. * * * * * COMMENTARY. According to Dierbach, it comprehends both the _Polypodium Dryopteris_ and the _Asplenium Adiantum nigrum_, and this opinion is supported by that of the older authorities. See Parkinson (1042) and Alston (§ 52.) Sprengel refers it to the former. Our author borrows from Dioscorides, and Avicenna does the same. (ii, 2, 219.) Our older herbalists, Parkinson and Gerard, treat of the oak-fern, but it has long ceased to hold a place in our Dispensatory. Δρῦς, Quercus, _the Oak_; its leaves and fruit are possessed of desiccant and tepid powers, so as to agglutinate recent wounds and cure incipient inflammations. The membrane under the bark of the acorn which surrounds the fleshy part of the fruit being much more astringent, is given for the female fluor and other diseases attended with discharges. * * * * *