SCOT AGAIN AT COURT 155 



extravagant commendation of its healing powers, 

 ineral medicines were evidently not in fashion in 

 ose days ; for the recipe speaks only of simples 

 rived from herbs of different kinds. It is to be 

 served that this agrees exactly with the practice 



Salerno, as the Materia Medica of that school 

 is chiefly drawn from the botany of Dioscorides 

 ;erwards expounded by Ibn Beithar of Malaga, 

 e great Moorish authority on the healing virtues 



plants. There is no reason then to doubt the 



th of the title which ascribes the prescription 

 these pills to Michael Scot. It is in any case 



urious relic of early medical practice. 

 It is possible that the great plague which fell 



ilitatem cibaria sumpta digeri et membris incorporari facit, valet contra 

 iiachi ventositatem Scotomiam ante oculos inducentem, restaurat 

 noriam quocumque humore perditum, verum(?) dolorem ex frigi- 

 f < ite provenientem mitigat. Recipe : Carium, petrosillini anisi, 

 pati, sexmontani, Bethonice, Cyniini, calamite, pulegii, ysopi, spice- 

 |ii, piperis, sal gemnie, rute, centrumgalli, herbae regiae, heufragie, 

 iani, mastici, croci, mirabolanorum, omnium, et plus de citrinis, an. 5 

 ;t utaris omni tempore indifferenter. Addenda sunt ista ; Cynamomi, 

 inati, maiorane, folii balsainite, niziini, (?) cardamomi, galenge, re- 

 tie, an. ~ 1. pulverizza, et utaris indifferenter.' The MS. is in a hand 

 ,he thirteenth century. The Myrobalans, long discarded from the 

 rinacopceia, were the dried fruits of various species of Phyllanthus 

 Terniinalia which grow in India. They are still used in native 

 itice, especially in the preparation of the Bit laban, >\ remedy in 

 imatic gout prepared by calcining these seeds with the fossil muriate 

 oda. See Asiatic Researches, xi. pp. 174, 181, 192. The bellirica 

 emblica are other species of the same plant, the Tenuinalia. See 

 hin's Historia Plantamm, 1613. The Dyagridiuui or Dacridium 

 i alternative name for scammouy. Azarum, the same as asarum, the 

 tolochia. Maratum or Marathrum an old name for fennel. Reb. is 

 bly the Robes of the early chemical authors = a vinegar, here 

 ignated with the active principle of the fruits prescribed. Cyminum 

 min. Calamita = mint. Pulegium = pennyroyal, another of the 

 ts. Salgemma = rock-salt. We shall become familiar with this 

 i in perusing the Liber Luminis of Michael Scot. Centrumgallus, 

 rding to Du Cange, the common garden cockscomb. Herbia regia, 

 Ocyraum citrinum or citron basil. Olibanum, frankincense, 

 ingha, the root of a species of Alpinia. Regulitia, liquorice. I have 

 i greatly helped in identifying several of these forgotten simples 

 lie kindness of Mr. J. M. Shaw, sub-librarian to the Royal College 

 hysicians, Edinburgh. 



