16 PHARMACOPEIAL DRUGS 



the latest to fruit; but strive to resemble the mulberry- 

 tree which beareth food the first of all growths and is 

 the last to put forth foliage." l Burton's Translation, 

 Vol. XVII: p. 7. 



"He heard a sound of singing, the like whereof he had 

 never heard in the world, for that it was soft as the 

 breeze and more strengthening than Oil of Almonds." 

 Vol. XI: pp. 74-5. 



In connection with spices and groceries, the almond 

 was mentioned in a charter granted the monastery of 

 Corbis, hi Normandy, by Chilperic II, king of France, 

 539-584 A. D. Charlemagne, 812 A. D., wisely ordered 

 the almond tree introduced on the imperial farms. The 

 almond became an important item of Venetian trade 

 in the 14th century. In 1411, the Knight Templars of 

 Cyprus (Fliickiger) taxed almonds, honey and sesame 

 seed. Medieval cookery consumed almonds in enor- 

 mous quantities. As a nourishing food in the form of 

 an emulsion, almonds crept into domestic medicine, 

 and thence into professional use. 



ANISUM (Anise, Aniseed) 



Official in all Pharmacopeias from 1820 to 1910, excepting 

 the New York edition of 1830, which omits the drug, but names 

 theotf. 



This drug, Pimpinella Anisum, is among the oldest 

 known medicines and spices. Theophrastus (633) and 

 later writers, such as Dioscorides (194), Pliny (514) 

 and Edrisi (221), mention it. Charlemagne com- 

 manded that it be cultivated on the imperial farms in 

 Germany. Its ancient source was Egypt and the island 

 of Crete. It was one of the drugs enumerated by Ed- 

 ward I, 1305, to be taxed when carried across the 



' Every work consulted exemplifies the close observation of Nature by the Orientals, 

 past and present. 





