93 
the root, the rind of the fruit, and both the single and 
double flowers are employed in oriental, as in Greek 
medicine. I do not know whether it be an accidental 
circumstance, that the purgative root of Pityusa has 
turpet assigned as a synonyme, as this is remarkable for its 
resemblance to turbud, the root of Convolvulus Turpethum. 
Many also of the Cucurbitacece, Umbelliferce, and Labiates, 
are common to the Materia Medica of the East, as well as 
to that of the West ; but to dwell further on these is 
unnecessary. 
In examining the list of articles enumerated, as imported 
by the Greeks from India, there are some substances now 
extremely common and extensively used there, which one 
would expect to find among those first known to strangers, 
as Turmeric and Catechu, already mentioned ; so also, 
Turbith, Galangal, Zedoary, and Zerumbet, as well as 
Sandal-wood and Areca-nut. Some of these may have 
been known by other names, or confounded with other 
substances. Such poisons as bish, Aconitum feroas, and 
Strychnos Nux vomica, the ancients seem to have been 
unacquainted with ; but some trace of them may be found 
when the works of the Hindoos on poisons and their 
antidotes, are compared with the oldest works on such 
subjects in the literature of the West, as that of the Poet 
Nicander ; for both Egypt and India were celebrated for 
their poisons, as early even as the time of Theophrastus 
(lib. ix. c. 15). 
If it excite surprise that some of these were unknown to 
the ancients, there are others, of which the absence is signi- 
ficant of the extent to which commerce and navigation had 
advanced, at the times when the other articles were well 
known ; as, for instance, Camphor, Cloves, Nutmeg, 
Mace, Benzoin, Betel-leaf, Cubebs, Croton Tiglium, Gam- 
boge, &c, all of which are so remarkable in nature, that 
