COMMENTARY. All the other authorities give the elecampane (_Inula Helenium_) much the same characters as our author. Dioscorides says the root is calefacient, and proves diuretic and emmenagogue; that in a linctus, with honey, it is useful in coughs, orthopnœa, and the like; and, further, that it is carminative and alexipharmic. The leaves he recommends in a cataplasm with wine for ischiatic disease, and in powder for hæmoptysis. (i, 27, 28.) Galen’s character of it mainly agrees with that of Dioscorides, that is to say, he recommends elecampane, internally, in chest complaints, and externally as a rubefacient in sciatica, hemicrania, and a disposition of the joints to dislocation. The Arabians give it all the characters ascribed to it by the Greeks, namely, of being diuretic, emmenagogue, expectorant, carminative, alexipharmic, and rubefacient externally; and, further, hold of themselves that it is cordial. See Avicenna (ii, 2, 235), and Rhases (Cont. l. ult. i, 237.) Serapion gives us the following extract from Hunain’s ‘Translation of Hippocrates’ (Hunain ex verbo Hippocratis): “Elecampane drives away anger and sorrow, strengthens the mouth of the stomach, clears the chest, expels the superfluities in the veins by the menses and urine, and more especially a wine made from it.” (De Simpl. 138.) In fact, as we ought perhaps to have mentioned, the helenium is a Hippocratic herb. (Nat. Mul. 572, ed. Foës.) It was also well known to Celsus (v, 11 et alibi.) The elecampane still retains its place in our Dispensatory and also in the modern Greek Pharmacopœia (p. 76.) The other species described by Dioscorides as the Egyptian elecampane, and which he recommends solely as being alexipharmic, is held by Sprengel to be the _Teucrium Marum_. Parkinson, however, supported by high authority, seems to make out a strong case for the _Cistus Helianthemum_, or rock rose (p. 655.) Old Gerard, on the other hand, adopts the opinion of those commentators who referred it to the _Marum_. (p. 67.) The _Teucrium Marum_ also holds a place in the modern Greek Pharmacopœia. Ἐλεοσέλινον, Apium palustre, _Marsh Parsley_; being formed in wet places, it has the same properties as the cultivated parsley, and is larger than it. * * * * * COMMENTARY. The smallage (_Apium graveolens_) is briefly treated of by the other authorities. We need scarcely say that it is still retained in our Dispensatory. See Quincy. Ἐλέφας, Elephas, _the Elephant_; the parings from its hoof, when applied in a cataplasm, cure whitlow; and those of the bones and teeth of it, being of a drying and detergent nature, are mixed with similar medicines. * * * * *