VOL. LVII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 971 



cane burnt. The Tabashir which is formed at the knots of the cane is round 

 like a dirhem (ducat). This substance is found in the cavity of those canes 

 which have been fired by rubbing one against another. It is frequently adul- 

 terated: the burnt bones of sheep, the skulls particularly, are sold for it. Ebn 

 Beitar, in his Treatise of Simples, says, " Tabashir is a substance found in the 

 hollow of the Indian cane." Ali Ebn Mohammed says, " It is the burnt part 

 of the lower stem of the Indian cane; and is imported only from the coast of 

 India; chiefly from that part of the coast called Sendapour, or Sendafour, whence 

 the black pepper is brought." Avicenna, in his canon, says of Tabashir, " it is 

 the lower part of the cane which has been burnt; it is reported that the canes 

 are fired by being rubbed one against another by the violence of the winds. This 

 drug is produced on the coast of India." 



Mamitha. — Ebn Beitar, in his Treatise of Simples, calls it Mamitha. Abu'l 

 Abbas the Nabathaean, the botanist, calls it Mamithsa. Both these names are 

 sufficiently known. In the Treatise of Simples called Ma-la- Yesa, i. e. a trea- 

 tise of those things which no physician ought to be ignorant of, Mamithsa, is 

 the name of a plant like the papaver maritimum, or corniculatum. At the lower 

 part of the Mamithsa is a moisture which sticks to the hand: it has a yellow 

 flower like the papaver before-mentioned; its seeds are different, inclining to 

 black, like and about the size of the seeds of sesamum. The plant is of a strong and 

 offensive smell, and very succulent. The difference between these two plants is 

 this ; the papaver corniculatum dies to the root in the winter, and sprouts again 

 from its root in the spring; the Mamithsa, on the contrary, sprouts again in the 

 spring from the top of its stem." Avicenna, in his canon, says, " Mamithsa is 

 like acorns, of a yellow colour inclining to black, easily broken. It is bitter, of 

 a substance watery and earthy; cold, but not vehemently so; its juice is in the 

 same degree of cold as the water of pools or lakes. It is prepared from 

 a plant which is brought from Manbedge, (a town of note in Syria), of a very 

 diffusive scent, a bitter taste, whose juice is yellow, of a saffron colour." 



Mamiraan. — In the Liber Memorialis, it is said, Mamiraan is a plant, at the 

 bottom of whose stem are produced knotted, crooked, hard roots. The Indian 

 is the best; this inclines to a black colour: the Chinese to yellow: the other sorts 

 are green. It grows in the water; its leaf is like the leaf of the convolvulus; it 

 is hot find bitterish; its seed is like that of sesamum. It is said in the canon of 

 Chalid and Manown, " Some say it is a root, and called Mamiraan, others say, the 

 smaller roots are called Mamiraan, but the larger 2^radgush." In Castell's 

 Lexicon, col. 308, and in Meninski, col. 2441, the word is Zeradgiob, which 

 signifies yellow wood, and is the Persic namy for curcuma. Avicen, in his canon 

 says, " Mamiraan is a woody, knotted substa ice, inclining to a black colour, has 

 small curvatures, and is one of the things usee by dyers." 



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