MATERIA MEDICA OF THE ANCIENT CHINESE. 147 
to the Emperor Huang tr. In the History of the Sui 
dynasty, in the section on Literature, there is the title of a 
work FY 77 Gi BH ME Huang ti chen kiu king or Emperor 
Hvane tr’s work on Acupuncture and Cauterizing. The 
Rh ya [77] gives yk = ping tai (ice turret) as a synonym 
for a. The Po wu chi [8rd cent.] explains the character 
ping (ice) in the name by the fact that the ai leaves (or 
moxa) were ignited by means of a piece of ice cut into a 
roundish form which collected the sun-beams. 
Amen. exot., 897 :—3E gai, vulgo jamogi. Artemisia 
vulgaris major ; que junior vocatur futz, ex qua fit Mowa, 
celebris stupa pro cauterio actuali. 
Step., Gicon., 218 :—Artemisia chinensis, Moksa japon. 
XX. Ex herba preparantur moksa celebrata.—Zbid., 376 :— 
Artemisia ibuki jomogi (A. vulgaris). Ad preparandam 
moksam, 
So moku, XVI, 16 :—3 Artemisia vulgaris. Japonice 
yomogi, ibukt yamogi.—Gutsourt, in his Hist. naturelle des 
drogues [III, 52], says, as many other authors did before 
him, that mowa is a Chinese and Japanese word. But this 
is an error which has already been refuted, 200 years ago, 
by Rumputvs, who, in his Herbartum Ambotnense [V, 261, 
262, sub Artemisia latifolia, baru tschina], writes :—H.e 
Sinensis fomes igniarius. Hic fomes vulgo mova vocatur, 
per longum autem tempus detegere non potui quenam vox 
Moxa esset, quumque animadvertebam a Sinensibus hic 
habitantibus non intelligi, hine concludi, Portugallicam esse 
Corruptam vocem, derivatam a mocho h.e. muco, cum quo 
forte Portugalli siccatam hujus herbs fomitem comparant. 
BaILurbhre [ Dict. de Médecine, etc., 1873] suggests that 
Moxa may be derived from the Greek Mims, a fungus 
Which in a dried state was used by the ancient Greeks to 
burn the skin, and which is mentioned by Hippocrates, 
