NOTES 331

vitrio!l and used to be an ingredient in theriac", but was rarely
used in the 18th cent.

ïo4 Dubonium, bubo—wort, is described by Pliny XXVII. 36 as
an aster. Hce says, following Disocurides, that when used for swell—
ings of the groin it must be gathered with the left hand. See
Dioscurides IV. 119.

105 Azungia, lit. 'axle—grease', was made of animal fats, especially
lard, and used as a base.

ïo6 Virgil, Georgics 4. 271 foll. describes aster amellus as golden—
yellow, with purple edges; easy to find in the meadows.

ïo7 Lacus Benacus is the Roman name for Lake Garda and
Fracastorius always thus refers to his beloved lake, near which was
his villa.

ï08 The peucedanum of modern botany is Peucedanum Ostruthia,
(Umbellifera) from the mts. of Central Europe, Russia and the
Crimea; also called I/hizoma Imperatoriae; the root stock was
much used as sudorific etc., but now nearly obsolete. For the
peucedanum of the ancients, see Dioscurides III. 78 ('^*Romans
eall pinasielum"); Pliny XXV. 117.

ïo9 Wor Jascordium see p. 197, note 6. 'This famous confection,
confeclüio Fracastoru, was an electuary (from Greek &&Xeixe», to
lick away). In time, the ingredients were altered, but James,
Medicinal Dictfionary, 1745, gives the original formula; aromatiec
wine he interprets as "generous Canary'^. Mencke, the 18th cent.
biographer of Fracastorius, says that he could fill volumes with the
praises of this remedy that have been published. If the transla—
tion of this formula by Meunier, p. 298, were correct, Fracastorius
would hardly have called his confection 'diascordium' from the
name of the predominant herb, scordium, of which he presecribes
1 oz. to 12 oz. (Meunier, wrongly, 5 onces') each of the other herbs
named. For other instances in Meunier of this error, here followed
by Fossel, p. 113, see note 80.

1:0 Pliny XXXIV. 177, says that the mineral sandarae is purgative,
purifying etc. For orpiment which is either red or yellow, see p.
49, and Pliny XXXV. 30. Ordinary sandarae (realgar), used for
varnish, is a gum—resin from a conifer, & thuja, from Algeria.

iï:Arum dracontium (dragon), and Arum dracunculum (little
dragon), anti—scorbutic. Dioscurides II. 166 foll. describes these
two kinds. — Pliny XXIV. 142 says there is great dispute about their
identity.

::2 Hclegma, or ecligma, 'tineture', is sometimes used as a synonym
of electuary and has the same derivation, but is specially used of
mucilaginous medicaments with the consistency of syrup.  Pliny
gives several varieties of ecligma and does not use the word eJectua—
7rium (more correectly e[ectarium).

ïï Xiris, more correetly zwrmis, is perhaps Iris foelidissima.
Dioscurides IV. 22 says: *The Romans call it gladiolus . . . its
leaf is like the iris." — Pliny XXI. 143 calls it wood iris.