92 
fined myself to those substances expressly mentioned as 
being procured from India, we perceive how largely the 
Greeks were indebted to that country for their Materia 
Medica. From the tropical latitudes and climates in which 
alone these substances can flourish, we may infer the early 
populousness and civilisation of these countries, as well as 
the extent to which ancient commerce reached, independent 
of historical testimony on the subject. That the Greeks 
were still more indebted to eastern nations, might also be 
shewn by numerous articles, which are, and from the 
dependence of vegetation on climate, must ever have been 
the produce of the East. Of many of these the original 
oriental names have, with slight alterations, passed into the 
Greek, and been the source also of the European names 
of these substances. 
Without dwelling on the early employment of Galbanum, 
Assafcetida, Ammoniacum, Sagapenum, and Opoponax, 
the products of Persia, and therefore, indicating the antiquity 
of their investigation in that country, as well as of the 
nations by whom their use was adopted, there are others 
of which the names prove their oriental origin ; as 
kumoon, Cuminum ; kitinub, Cannabis ; kibbur, Cap- 
paris ; koorkum, Crocus; koortum, Carthamus ; semsem, 
Sesamum ; yasmin, Jasminum; sosun, Susinum, Diosc. 1. 
c.62; nurgzis, Narcissus; hoormul, Harmala; molee, Moly; 
belessan, Balsamum ; moor, Myrrha; rnim, Manna; suk- 
moonia, Scammonia; pista, Pistacia; kurseea, xepaao;, 
Cerasus ; burkook, Prcecocia ; the last is also called mala 
armeniaca ; but this, and the names of some of the other 
fruits, as mala medica and persica, point out at once the 
countries whence they became known to the ancients. 
Besides these, there are many others, which we know 
were early employed as medicinal agents, as the Pome- 
granate (Arabic roman, Greek poct(), of which the bark of 
