37 
of T. Bellerica, all belonging to the tropical family of 
Combretacece. The fifth, or Ernblic Myrobalans, is the 
fruit of Phyllanthus Emblica, now Emblica officinalis, 
which is equally Indian. That the name Triphala is in 
use in India at present, may be seen in Shakespeare's 
Hindoostanee Dictionary, where the word tirphala is 
marked as Sanscrit, and explained as the name of a medicine, 
composed of the three Myrobalans. That it was similarly 
used in former times, may be seen in the Amera-Cosha, a 
Sanscrit Dictionary, considered as having been composed 
at the beginning of the Christian era ; and also in 
Professor Wilson's paper on Leprosy, as known to the 
Hindoos, in the first volume of the Transactions of the 
Medical Society of Calcutta, p. 38, where a prescription is 
given from Susruta, of which Triphala forms one of the 
ingredients, and is translated as the Three Myrobalans. 
This evidence might almost be considered sufficient to 
prove my point : but on referring to a translation of one 
of the earliest of the Arab authors, that is, Serapion, I 
find, under the head De Mirobalanis, the earliest of the 
Hindoo physicians,* Charak, actually referred to by name. 
But as there is no che in Arabic, we have a slight change 
in the name, (in the same way as the Sanscrit mocha was 
converted by the Arabs into mox, whence our Musa sapi- 
entum, or mocha of the Brachmans), as " Et Xarch indus 
dixit in mirobalanis universalit'er mirobalani sunt calidi et 
stiptici, et expellunt stercora ventris, et corroborant sensus 
omnes, et memoriarn, et sensum, et confer unt lepre; et colice, 
et emoroidibus antiquis, et soda et ydropisi ; et inducunt 
nauseam et vomitum i" and, again, under the head De 
emblicis et belliricis, that these, according to " Xarcha 
indus calefaciunt et sunt domini medicinarum." In Avi- 
cenna, sub emblico, we have a similar reference, but the 
name differently written, as " apud Scirak indum? So, in 
