CYCLAMEN EUROP ZUM. 239 
Spec. Cuar.— Leaves heart-shaped, angular, finely toothed, their ribs and 
footstalk roughish, mouth of the corolla toothed. 
The Cyclamen is the chief food of the wild boars in Sicily, hence the 
name, Sow-bread. 
History.—Although at the present time entirely discarded from 
the allopathic pharmacopeeias, Cyclamen was used extensively 
by the Greek, Latin, and Arabian physicians. Dioscorides (op. 
cit., 11. 193—4) recommended it as a phlegmagogue, hydragogue, 
emmenagogue, and alexipharmic; and as an errhine in diseases 
of the head. Galen (De Simplicibus, vii.) recommends it as an 
external application in hardness of the spleen; in jaundice, not 
only by purging but by evacuating the whole body by sweats ; 
and also in amenorrhea, both taken internally and applied as a 
suppository. Avicenna (ii. 271) copies from Galen, and recom- 
mends it as acure for jaundice by sweating; the body to be covered 
by many clothes, so that the bile may be sweated out of the body. 
Mesne (De Simplicibus, xxvi.) states that it is a general purger 
of bile, when taken by the mouth; as an emmenagogue, and in 
induration of the spleen. Serapion ( De Temp. Simp., cap. 
249) gives long extracts from Dioscorides, Galen, Armasius, 
Paulus, Aben Mesnai, etc., upon the virtues of this plant. 
Gerarde (Hist. of Plants, book ii. p. 695) says that “the 
roote hanged about women in their extreme travell with 
childe, causeth them to be delivered incontinent, and taketh 
away much of their paine.” Also, “it scoureth the skin, and 
taketh away sunne burning, and all blemishes of the face, 
pilling- of the haire, and markes also, that remaine after the 
small pockes and mesels; and given in wine to drinke, it 
maketh a man drunke.” And writing of the dangers: “It is 
not good-for women with childe to touch or take this herbe, or © 
to come neere unto it, or stride over the same where it groweth, 
for the naturall attractive vertue therein contained is such, that 
without controversie they that attempt it in maner abovesaid, 
shall be delivered before their time, which danger and incon- 
