Karl Pearson and Adelaide G. Davin 
141 
The natural thing appears to be to consult Galen himself as to what was the 
nature of the plant he termed sesame*. Galen in several passages refers to the 
sesame or to plants of a sesamoid nature. We will give here the references we have 
been able to discover. In his De simpl ten m medicamentorufii facidtatibusf we read : 
Sesamon. Sesamon non panem in se oontinet viscosum et pingue ; quare emplasticum est & 
emolliens ac modice calidimi. Ejusdeni facultatis est, quod ex eo confieitur oleum ; et herbae 
quoque decoctum similem vim obtiuet. 
This is immediately followed by a description of the sesamoid plants J. 
Sesamoides. Sesamoides magnum, quod & anticyricos hellebores appellatum est, propterea 
videlicet quia semen eius ut helleborus purget ; hoc & reliqua facultate helleboro simile est. Nam 
& in abstergendo, excalfaciendo, desiccandoque, similem illi vim obtinet. 
Sesamoides album. Sesamoides albi semen nounullum item acrem qualitatem continet ; sed 
multum amarum est ; excalfacit itaque, rumpit, extergit. 
In Liber l, Cap. xxx, "De Sesamis et Erysimo " of the Be alimentorncm faculta- 
tibus Lihri tres : 
Sesami semen pingue est ideoque ropositum eelerrime tit oleosum ; quaniobrem eos, qui ipso 
that the words -qpiyipoivTL tj are missing in Oribasius' manuscript of Dioscorides, whilst the codices 
of Constantinople, Naples and Munich lack the words rj irrj-ydiiuj. The latter reading is supported by the 
figure in the Coustantinopolitan Codex, which represents faithfully a specimen of Seiwcio Uvidits. This 
figure is very like that of ripiy^pujv in the same code, the latter being unmistakably Senecio vulgaris. 
Compared with this S. lividiis has actually larger leaves, whilst it shares with it the white pappus (flower) 
and slender inefficacious root ; on the other hand it is difficult to see where the resemblance of the 
"seeds" (achenes) with Sesame seeds comes in. Nor are the achenes of either Senecio likely to be 
physiologically active. 
The lesser Sesamoides (also called White Sesamoides or Wild Sesam) is said to have stems a span 
high, leaves like those of Kopoifowovs, but rougher and smaller and to bear on the tips of the stems heads 
of purplish flowers with a white centre and in them bitter yellowish seeds like sesam ; the root is slender 
and the plant grows in rough places. Of this too there is a fair figure in the Constantinopolitan Codex 
which can be identified with Dorijcniuiii Iiirsutitm, whilst Kopwvbirov% with which it is compared is from 
the table in the same Codex Lotus aniithopodioides. The representation of the leaves of the lesser 
Sesaynoides and the Coronopus in the figures of the Code is indeed very similar. The white " centre " may 
mean the pale pods, whilst the seeds might very roughly be compared with those of sesame. As in the 
case of -qpLyipoiv it is dilficult to understand how small doses of the seeds, mixed with honey, as prescribed, 
could have been very effective. At the same time it is true that Donjcnium liirsiitum was at one time in 
use as Herba Loti anti-haemorrhoidalis. Thus the plant was not unknown in the old herbalists' shops; 
but it long ago disappeared from the market. 
To summarize briefly, the name Sesamoides designated early different plants or drugs. One of them 
was identical with the Hellebore of Anticyra or at least with its fruit. The others were entirely different 
species, in Pliny's and Dioscorides' times Senecio lividus and Dorycnium hirsutum. As there is no doubt 
that the (black) Hellebore of Anticyra was Helleborus ci/clophyllns, the comparison of its fruit (follicles) 
with that of Sesame was not very far fetched, however little the two plants have in common in 
other respects. 
To me the question of Sesamoides, whether magnum or parvum, seems to be irrelevant as far as the 
problem of the sesamoid bones is concerned. The sesamoid bones of Galen were no doubt in shape 
similar to the seeds of Sesamum indicum, hence "sesamoid," qua forma, whilst the latter were similar 
to the seeds of Ricinus in yielding a fat oil, that is " sesamoid," qua usu. Their relation to the sesamoid 
bones on one side and the plants called Sesamoides on the otlier is therefore merely that of " tertium 
comparationis." 
* Pfitzner, S. 520, appears to confuse the sesame with the two sesamoides. 
t Basileae, 1561, Liber viii, p. 122. 
X Opera, Secunda Classis, Basileae, 1561, p. 29, Greek Edition, Basileae, 1538, p. 317. 
