84 FLOilA HOMCEOPATHICA. 



History. — Some doubts exist as to whether the Mczereum 



■ 



was known or used as a remedy by the ancients. Pereira 

 (op. cit.) states that Tragus is the earliest author who men- 

 tions this plant. Adams (App. to Dunbar's Lexicon) has 

 the following : u Dodoneeus states correctly, that Serapion 

 and Avicenna confounded both the Chamaelea and Cha- 

 meleon together, under the name of Mezereon; and it must 

 be admitted that the learned commentators on the Arabian 

 medical authors have not been able entirely to remove this 



perplexity. 



(p 



Daphne oleoides is the species which has the best claim to be 

 identified with the ancient Chamaelea. Matthiolus and the 

 writer of the article on Botany in the Encyclopedic Metho- 

 dique refer it to the Cneorum tricoccon. 



" Notwithstanding the difference of opinion which has pre- 

 vailed among the commentators regarding this plant, we see no 

 good grounds for doubting that it was the Daphne Mezereon, 

 which we believe to have been naturalized in this country by 

 the Eomans for its medicinal uses. Dioscorides savs of its 

 leaves, that they are like those of the olive, but more slender 

 and thick, biting to the taste, and scarifying the trachea. Its 

 leaves, he adds, purges phlegm and bile downwards, especially 

 if taken in a pill with double the quantity of southern-wood, 

 mixed with one part of the Chamselea; let it be taken in water 

 or honey as a pill ; but it is insoluble, for it is evacuated as it 

 is taken. The powdered leaves mixed up with honey cleanse 

 foul ulcers and such as are covered with eschars (iv. 169). 

 We do not meet with it in the works of Hippocrates nor of 

 Celsus. Galen and the other Greek authorities treat of it in 

 very general terms, like our author. Beyond all doubt is this 

 the Mezereon of Serapion, who commences his chapter on it by 

 giving extracts from the descriptions of the Chamelcea given by 

 Dioscorides, Galen, and our author. He then gives a very 

 lengthy account of it from the Arabian authorities, first from 

 AlcanzL and next from Aben MesuaL which w#> m^nt tV,o+ 



