COMMENTARY. Those who wish to see the general literature of this interesting article may find our opinions briefly stated under the proper head in the Appendix to Dunbar’s ‘Lexicon.’ In this place it will be sufficient to mention that we have come to the conclusion that the Helleborus albus of the ancients was identical with our _Veratrum album_. Hippocrates makes mention of both species; when he simply uses the term helleborus, he means the white, as in Aphor. v, 1, and iv, 15, 16. He also recommends the _niger_ as well as the _albus_ in melancholy and quartans (Epist. 1288, ed. Foës.) Aretæus, at the conclusion of his work, as it has come down to us, pronounces a strong eulogy on hellebore, which he calls the great remedy in cases of elephantiasis. Dioscorides recommends it as an emetic, emmenagogue, and sternutatory. (iv, 148-9.) Mesue and Serapion mention it as an emetic, but concur with Hippocrates in stating that it sometimes induces convulsions if administered unguardedly. Haly Abbas gives exactly the same account of it. Averrhoes mentions that in his time the _Lapis lazuli_ was used as a purgative in place of hellebore. (v, 42.) Rhases concurs with the Greek authorities in praising its effects for the cure of epilepsy, melancholy, arthritis, and mania. Macer Floridus praises it in the cure of epilepsy, mania, quartans, &c. We would now beg to be allowed to depart from our general rule, and to quote some modern opinions in illustration of the ancient on this important subject,—the more important from hellebore forming, as is supposed, one of the ingredients in the celebrated patent medicine _eau médicinale_. Conrad Gesner, an upright and learned physician, as Bergius calls him, had great confidence in the white hellebore, which he took himself, and administered freely to his patients with great success. He says of it, “recreat et roborat, et hilariorem facit, et acuit ingenium, quod in me et aliis sæpissime expertus scribo. Ego, si vixero, in ellebori historiâ multa proferam quæ medici admirentur.” The following is his formula for preparing it: ℞ Hell. alb. dr. ij, vini cretici oz. vj, stent in maceratione, per mensem, additis, si placet, aromatibus. Of this preparation, from 6 to 9 scr. were given according to circumstances. Baglivi calls hellebore the “Hercules remediorum, pluriumque domitor incurabilium morborum.” Platearius, treating of hellebore, says that the ancients used it as a purge, in like manner as scammony is now used, for that men’s bodies, in former times, were stronger than now; such a medicine would require to be given with great caution. He says of it, that it purges phlegm and black bile. The white, he adds, is a more violent medicine than the black. (De Simplici Medicina.) For a great many years past, with the exception of the partial administration of the _eau médicinale_ in cases of gout, the internal use of the veratrum may be said to have been quite lost in the practice