CORTEX BERBERIDIS INDICUS 



3; 



o 



3. B. asiatica Roxb. — This species has a wider distribution than the 

 last, being found in the dry valleys of Bhotan and Nepal whence it 

 stretches westward along the Himalaya to Gaiwhal, and occurs again in 



Affghanistan. 



History— The medical practitioners of ancient Greece and Italy 

 made use of a substtince called Lycium {Xvklov) of which the best kind 

 was brought from India. It was regarded as a remedy of great value 

 in restraining inflammatory and other discharges ; but of all the uses 

 to which it was applied the most important was the treatment of 

 various forms of ophthalmic inflammation, 



Lycium is mentioned by Dioscorides, Pliny, Celsus, Galen, and 

 Scribonius Largus; 



iEtius. and Oribasii 



^gineta 



The author of the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea who probably 

 hved in the 1st century, enumerates Xvkiov as one of the exports of 



'barike 



Indus, and also names it alonir with 



Bdellium and Costus among the commodities brought to Barygaza : — 

 and further, lycium is mentioned among the Indian drugs oif which 

 duty was levied at the Roman custom house of Alexandria about a.d. 



176—180/ 



An interesting proof of the esteem in which it was held is afforded 

 by some singular little vases or jars of which a few specimens are pre- 

 served in collections of Greek antiquities.® These vases were made to 

 contain lycium, and in them it was probably sold ; for an inscription on 

 the vessel not only gives the name of the drug but also that of a person 

 who, we may presume, was either the seller or the inventor of the 

 composition. ^ Thus we have the Lycium of Juson, of Musccits, and of 

 Heradeiis, 



turn, and there is reason to believe that that marked Heradeiis was 

 from the same locality. Whether it was so or not, we know that a 

 certam Heraclides of Tarentum is mentioned by Celsus^ on account of 



The vases bearing the name of Jason were found at Taren- 



jii^^ ineuioa 01 treating certain diseases 01 the eye; and that (ialei 

 iormu]o3 for ophthalmic medicines^ on the authority of the 



same 



person. 



Innumerable conjectures were put forth during at least three centuries 

 ^s to the origin and nature of lycium, and especially of that highly 

 esteemed kind that was brought from India. 



In the year 1833, Royle' communicated to the Linnean Society of 

 bondon a paper proving that the Indian Lycium of the ancients was 

 Identical with an extract prepared from the wood or root of several 

 species of Berheris growing in Northern India, and that this extract, 

 ^^U known in the bazaars as Riisot or Rasot, was in common use among 

 tlie natives in various forms of eye disease.^ This substance attracted 



Vincent, Commerce aiuL Xavujation of 

 3l5) 4/*^'"^ ^>i the Indian Ocean, ii. (1S07) 



bv ^"^^v ^ • ^^^^^^ vessels were published 

 fnf >f" 1 ' v^' S™PSon in au interesting ]mner 

 ^ncuied ^Qtc^ on some ancient Greek medical 



hJ'''^^^ ^^J^'^^^'^Q Lycium, of wliich we 

 T e made free use.— See [Edlnh. ) Monthhi 



ZT^i'^^' ^V.>.r., xli. (1853) 24, also 

 ^karm. Jnum. xiii. (18M) 413. 



^ Lib. vii. c. 7. — See also Cselius Anre- 

 lianus, De morhia chronicis (Haller's ed.) lib. 

 i, c. 4, lib. iii. c. 8. 



** Cataplasmata lippientiumquibusususcst 

 Heraclides Tarentinus — Galen, De Comp, 

 Med. sec. loros, lib. iv, (p. 153 in Venice 



edit, of 1G25). 



•On the iy^/ttwi of Dioscorides, — Linn. 



Tram. xvii. (1837) 83. 

 ^ It is interesting to find that two of the 



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