140 
On the Sesamoids of the Knee-Joiut 
parison to the seed of this plant. These passages have been followed by later 
anatomists, and in each case we are told that certain bones are termed sesamoids 
because they resemble the seed of the sesame. What they themselves meant by 
" sesame," or what the Greeks understood by sesame in Galen's time, seems rarely to 
have entered the minds of these writers ! Through the courtesy of the Director of 
Kew Gardens we have received samples oi Sesamum indicuni or orientale, the sesame 
as at present known in the East. It is almost impossible to believe that the Greek 
anatomists, who at least were familiar with the sesamoids " ex digitis," could have 
called these after their resemblance to the seed of sesame as now known*. 
* The seed is crescent rather than lentil-shaped, and extremely small ; only its coloration is in its 
favour. The most obvious sesamoids for the Greeks were the sesamoids of the big toe (see our Plate I, 
Fig. 2) and there is nothing really comparable between the seed and these bones. In size and shape, 
if less in coloration, they are remarkably like the seeds of Ricinus. We ventured to put our difficulties 
before the Director of the Koyal Gardens, Kew, and he has most kindly sent us the following memorandum 
by Dr 0. Stapf. It seems more than ever probable from this that Galen in his account of the plants was 
not speaking from personal experience, but following Theophrastus and Dioscorides. If the seed of the 
sesame was known to Galen he appears to have had rather a poor imagination for comparisons. Perhaps 
he was familiar with a variety having a much larger seed. The comparison would be excellent had the 
sesamoids first observed been the luiiulae of the squirrel. 
Dr Stapf's Memorandum on Sesamum and Sesamoids. 
1. I have no doubt that tire SESAME of Galen was Sesamum indicum. The Greeks knew it as far 
back as the days of Herodotus, and the Greeks of Asia Minor were probably quite familiar with it. 
2. The history of the plant or drug mentioned by Greek writers under the name S-rjcra/xoeidh has been 
shrouded in mystery from the earliest times. We meet with it first in one of the few fragments which 
have been preserved to us from the writings of Diodes of Karystos, the most prominent physician of the 
fourth century B.C., the " sectator Hippocratis quem Atheuienses iuniorem Hippocratem vocarunt" (see 
Wellmann in Festgabe f. Franz Suseinihl, 1898, S. 23). AiokX^s, says Erotianos in his Glossary of 
Hippocrates, oi/ru (prjcri KaXuudat tov iv 'AvrtKi'ipa eXXe'iSopoc — Irepoi irbav riva erepav (Wellmann, I.e. 26). 
Thus it seems the people of Anticyra, a town in Phokis reputed for its Hellebore cui'es, used the word as 
a synonym of eXKejiopos, whilst others applied it to another herb. Theophrastus (about 370 — 285 b.c.) 
somewhat later speaks of the fruit of the sesamoid Hellebore being administered by the people of Anticyra, 
adding in the way of explanation that the fruit is similar to sesame (oi iv 'ActikiV? toO a-rjaafuiiSovs 
eWejiopov didoaaw bri 6 Kapiros o/noios crTjtrdjUtf), ed. Loeb, Class. Libr. with transl. by A. Hort, ii. 288); 
whilst in another place {I.e. 260) he says that the fruit of the Hellebore which at Anticyra is used as a 
purge contains the well-known tnyo- o/xuiSt/s. Here then the conception of " sesamoides " as a part of 
Hellebore is quite unequivocal. 
Pliny refers in two places to Sesamoides ; but his account is confused. In the 22nd book, chap. 25, 
he introduces it after Sesame and contrasts it with it. Sesamoides, he says, has its name because 
it resembles Sesame, but its grain is bitter, its leaves are smaller and it grows in gravelly ground ; but 
there is also another kind which grows in Anticyra and is called Anticyron by some and this has leaves 
like those of groundsel. The seeds of both are taken as a purgative and the latter kind has white 
Hellebore root added to enhance, its action. He once more reverts to " Sesamoides" in the 25th book, 
chap. 5, where he says that the people of the island of Anticyra add Sesamoides to their Hellebore (the 
black Hellebore is meant) to render it safe to take. There are thus two kinds of Sesamoides indicated, 
just as in Diodes, the Anticyrian and another. The Anticyrian, however, is not any longer a Hellebore 
or part of a Hellebore, but a different plant with leaves like those of Groundsel, whilst the other is also 
a distinct plant but of a different kind. If we now turn to Dioscorides who has largely drawn on the same 
sources as Pliny, we find the two "Sesamoides" still more sharply divided as fj.eyat (lib. iv, chap. 149) 
and fiLKpof (lib. iv, chap. 103; Wellmann, Dioseor. pp. 292 and 309). It is the greater Sesamoides that 
stands for Hellebore in Anticyra and is added to the white Hellebore in preparing the purgative. It is 
described as resembling Groundsel {iipiyipuv) or Peganum, and as having large leaves, white flowers, 
a slender inefficacious root and bitter seeds similar to those of sesamum. The alternative Groundsel or 
Peganum is puzzling. It can dearly not be similar to both, but from Wellmann's annotations it appears 
