Helxine, or Parietaria, _Pellitory of the Wall_ (called also Perdicium, Parthenium, Sideritis, and Heraclea); its powers are detergent and slightly astringent, with a coldish humidity. The Helxine, called also Cissampelos, is possessed of discutient powers. * * * * * COMMENTARY. This is evidently the second species of Dioscorides (iv, 86), who represents the leaves as being cooling and astringent, and consequently proving a suitable cataplasm in cases of erysipelas, burning, and other inflammations, and as proving useful in chronic coughs, inflammations of the tonsils, and so forth. That this plant is the pellitory of the wall (_Parietaria officinalis_) has been long pretty generally acknowledged. See Parkinson, Gerard, and Sprengel. Galen ascribes the same medicinal virtues to it as Dioscorides; and Aëtius and Oribasius treat of it in nearly the same terms. It is the muralis of Celsus, who recommends the juice of it, added to ceruse, as an application to the gout. (iv, 24.) It may be proper to mention that Dioscorides (l. c.), Pliny (H. N. xxii, 19), and Apuleius (81), also recommend it as an application in cases of gout. The Arabians give the pellitory exactly the same characters as the Greeks do. See Avicenna (ii, 2, 335) and Rhases (Cont. l. ult. 536.) The Arabians call it herba vitri, because glass vessels were cleaned with it. It is now excluded from the Dispensatory, but held a place in it down to a late date. See Quincy, Hill, and Rutty. That the former species of helxine described by Dioscorides was a species of _Convolvulus_ has long been known. See Matthiolus and Parkinson. Dodonæus makes it the _niger_, and Sprengel the _arvensis_. Dioscorides briefly states of its medicinal virtues, that it is laxative. (iv, 39.) It is not treated of, as far as we have discovered, by Galen, Aëtius, or Oribasius. The Arabians treat of it as a species of _Volubilis_, by the name of _acfin_. See Serapion (De Simpl. 41); Mesue (De Simpl. 24.) Both agree with Dioscorides in making it to be laxative. See further APP. Ἔλυμος ἤ Μελίνη, Panicum, _Panic_, is, like millet, desiccative and refrigerant in its powers when applied externally. It also dries up alvine fluxes. * * * * * COMMENTARY. Panic, as Miller remarks, is a plant of the millet kind. It is the _Panicum Italicum_. It is more an article of food than of medicine. We have treated of it accordingly in the part of this work devoted to Dietetics. See Vol. I, 124. Ἔμπετρον ἤ Πρασσοδὲς, Empetron, _Black-berried Heath_, is a medicine which purges phlegm and bile. It is also saltish and therefore, detergent. * * * * *