SCOT AGAIN AT COURT 155 



an extravagant commendation of its healing powers. 

 Mineral medicines were evidently not in fashion in 

 those days ; for the recipe speaks only of simples 

 derived from herbs of different kinds. It is to be 

 observed that this agrees exactly with the practice 

 of Salerno, as the Materia Medica of that school 

 was chiefly drawn from the botany of Dioscorides 

 afterwards expounded by Ibn Beithar of Malaga, 

 the great Moorish authority on the healing virtues 

 of plants. There is no reason then to doubt the 

 truth of the title which ascribes the prescription 

 for these pills to Michael Scot. It is in any case 

 a curious relic of early medical practice. 



It is possible that the great plague which fell 



debilitatem cibaria sumpta digeri et membris incorporari facit, valet contra 

 stomach! ventositatem Scotomiam ante oculos inducentem, restaurat 

 niemoriam quocurnque humore perditum, verum(?) dolorem ex frigi- 

 ditate provenientem mitigat. Eecipe : Carium, petrosillini anisi, 

 marati, sexmontani, Bethonice, Cymini, calamite, pulegii, ysopi, spice- 

 nardi, piperis, sal gemme, rate, centrumgalli, herbae regiae, heufragie, 

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

 1. et utaris omni tempore indifferenter. Addenda sunt ista ; Cynamomi, 

 Schinati, maiorane, folii balsarnite, mzimi, (?) cardamom!, galenge, re- 

 gulitie, an. 5 1. pulverizza, et utaris indifferenter.' The MS. is in a hand 

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

 Pharmacopoeia, were the dried fruits of various species of Phyllanthus 

 and Terminalia which grow in India. They are still used in native 

 practice, especially in the preparation of the Bit laban, a remedy in 

 rheumatic gout prepared by calcining these seeds with the fossil muriate 

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

 and emblica are other species of the same plant, the Terminalia. See 

 Bauhin's Historia Plantarum, 1613. The Dyagridium or Dacridium 

 is an alternative name for scammony. Azarum, the same as asarum, the 

 Aristolochia. Maratum or Marathrum an old name for fennel. Keb. is 

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

 impregnated with the active principle of the fruits prescribed. Cyminum 

 = cumin. Calamita = mint. Pulegium= penny royal, another of the 

 mints. Salgemm?= rock-salt. We shall become familiar with this 

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

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

 the Ocymum citrinuni or citron basil. Olibanum, frankincense. 

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

 been greatly helped in identifying several of these forgotten simples 

 by the kindness of Mr. J. M. Shaw, sub-librarian to the Koyal College 

 of Physicians, Edinburgh. 



