GJl AMINE JH, 689 



India, was famous for its Tabashir in the time of Itli-isi (1135) 

 and supplied it to all marts. Ibn Sina describes Tabashir as 

 astringent and stomachic, useful in erysipelas and to allay 

 tliirst in bilious dyspepsia, cardiacal, and strengthening. As a 

 local application it is used to reKeve the heat and irritation 

 caused by aphthous eruptions along with pounded rose leaves. 

 Later Mahomedan writers upon the Materia Medica of the East 

 have added nothing of importance to Ibn Sina's account of the- 

 drug. Fluckigor {Zur Gesckich te des Tahaschir, Zeit. des allg. 

 osfeir. Apoth. Ver. Nr. 14 u. 15,1887) mentions a list of Indian 

 goods on which transit duty was levied at Aden in 12 70 ; in it 

 Tabashir is mentioned together with tamarinds and camphor. 

 He also di-aws attention to a remarkable connection between 

 Tabashir and ivory ashes, generally known by the name of 

 Spodium. Idrisi, in the middle of the 12th century, points out 

 that the latter was used to adulterate the former, while others 

 of a different opinion assign a greater value to Spodium. 

 Garcia d'Orta { Oolloquios 5 1 jraentions both Tabdshir and Spodium, 

 which he considers to be Pompholyx or Turtia (white of zinc ? 

 calamine ?), and states that in Persia and Arabia Tabashir was 

 generally paid for by its weight in silver (" o pre^o ordinario 

 Da Persia e Arabia e a peso de prata ") ; he also describes black 

 or grey Tabdshir, which was of less value and was obtained by 

 burning the bamboo cane. Fliickiger remarks that it is most 

 likely that the name " Spodium da canna " was given to this 

 black Tabashir or perhaps to the ashes of the cane, and that it 



animal 



might be owing to this circumstance that in later times the 

 name Spodium came to be applied to 

 black). The idea of black seems not to have been connected 

 ^-ith the original Greek name ^rrroSos (ashes). Fliickiger also 

 ^raws attention to the Latin translation of a Persian Kambadln 

 or Pharmaeopccia by the Carmelite Friar P. Angelus, published 

 in Paris in 1681, in which Tabashir is spoken of as psendo- 

 ^podiuiu, anfi-spodmm, and sjwdinm-arabicum. Eheede as well 

 as Rumphius notice Tabashir, but it does not appear to have 

 attracted much attention in Europe until Dr. Patrick Russell 

 drew the attention of the Royal Society to it, and induced 



