MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 841 



Arab. : Sendib, aruda, fejan. 



Pers. : Sudab. 



Sanskr. : Sadapaha, somalata, Brami, bramii, sudapata. 



Malay. : Sadsu, sadab. 



Jav. : Inghu. 



Jap. : Mats-kase-so. 

 History and uses : — This plant was well known to tbe ancients. Aristotle 

 tells us in his Historise Animalium (') that the weasel before fighting with 

 serpents eats of the Rue plant, because the snakes hate the smell of it. ('") 

 The famous Greek physician and medical writer Hippocrates (460-377 

 B. 0.) says the plant is resolvent and diuretic and mentions it in the chap- 

 ter on female diseases. In Pliny's opinion (') the Rue is one of the best 

 medicinal herbs ; but he says at the same time that the juice of it taken in 

 great quantity is a poison. As especially harmful he considers that of 

 those plants which grow near the river Aliacmon and in Galatia. The 

 Roman physician Celsus (about 25 A. D.) mentions the following amongst 

 other good qualities of Rue : " Urinam movet, sensus excitat, purgat, 

 mollit ; cum allio recte miscetur ad scorpionis ictum." (') Here it seems we 

 have got the first mention of Rue being used against scorpion bite, but it 

 must be mixed with onion. What Apuleius prescribes "ad profluvium 

 mulieris " is more of a superstitious character : " Herbam rutam circum- 

 scribe auro et argento et ebore, et sublatam earn alligabis infra talum." 

 (^) Rue was a principal ingredient of the celebrated antidote against poison 

 used by Mithridates, King of Pontus :■ — 



Obstat pota mero vel cruda comesta venenis, 

 Hoc Metridates rex Ponti saepe probavit. 

 Qui Rutae foliis, etc. 



(Macer Floridus). 



Rue was well known as antidote against the poison of the spotted cow- 

 bane {Conitmi maciUatum, L.) 



Rue is mentioned by the Arabians amongst their attenuentia, vesicatoria 

 and stimulantia. Their most famous physician, Avicenna (978-1036) con- 

 siders it to be an effective antidote against poisons: "Venenis resistet ; 

 itaque qui timet et suspicatur venenm sibi exbibendum, aut mordendum 

 se a venenatis, seminris drahmam cum foliis ex vino bibat." C^) He distin- 

 guishes three kinds : garden, wild and mountain rue. " He considers it to 

 be hot and dry in the third degree, to increase the mental powers, to act 

 as a tonic and digestive, and to increase the urinary and menstrual excre- 

 tions. He also states that it acts as an antaphrodisiac and causes abortion 

 when given to pregnant women." 



In Europe, during the Middle Ages, the plant was commonly supposed 

 to be much used by witches. De Gubernatis tells ns that the plant was hung 

 round the neck as a charm against vertigo and epilepsy, that it was consi- 

 dered as an emblem of good luck and a protection against sorcery C). 



(1) Aristotelis de Animalibus Historise ed. Did- lib. IX, cap 6. 



(^) Dymock in his PJiarmacographia Indica, Vol. I. p- 250, says that the "weasel 

 rubs itself against this plant '' ; but there is no foundation for this translation in 

 the Greek text. 



{^) Plinius. 



C) Celsus lib. II, cap. v. 



(^) Apuleius. Liber Apuleii de medicam herb, libce, ex rec. et cum not Jo. 

 Chr. Gottl. Ackermann. Xorimb. et Altdorf. 1788. (This book has several times 

 been ascribed to Apuleius Celsus.) 



(^) Avicenna. Canon Med. lib. II, tract. II, p. 222. 



C^) De Guberantis. La Mytholog'ie des plantes. Under Ruta. 



