Part 35

Aludels. Pear-shaped pots constructed so that they could be fitted one into another, a series of them being used for sublimations. The name is supposed to have had an Arabic origin, or it may have meant “not luted.”

Amalgam. A compound of mercury and some other metal. Believed to have been a perversion of malagma, a soft ointment, with the Arabic article prefixed.

Amphora. An earthenware vessel with two handles wherewith to carry it. Used by the Greeks and Romans for wine and oil. The Greek vessel contained about 9 gallons; the Roman amphora was equivalent to nearly 7 gallons.

Analeptica. Restorative remedies.

Anoyntment. An old term for ointment.

Antidotary. A frequent title of books of formulas for medicines.

Antidote. Something “given against.” Originally, perhaps, an adjective, and in old medicine employed for various remedies; now limited to substances which will counteract the effect of poisons.

Apozems. Strong decoctions or infusions. A Greek word meaning “boiled off.”

Aqua Mirabilis. Once a popular household remedy. Water distilled from cloves, cardamoms, cubebs, mace, ginger, and other spices.

Aquila Alba. An old name for calomel.

Arcana meant secrets. The original idea of the word was things shut up and protected as the occupants of Noah’s Ark were shut up. The alchemists used the word arcanum freely, but it came to be applied to medicines of known composition but of mysterious action. Arcanum tartari was acetate of potash. Arcanum duplicatum was another name for the Sal de Duobus or sulphate of potash which was supposed to combine the virtues of nitre and vitriol.

Athanor was a self-supplying furnace, the coals or fuel being provided in a reservoir above the fire and intended to be supplied to the furnace automatically.

Balm and Balsam, which are words with the same origin, have always been suggestive of medicinal and healing virtues. Probably balsam has descended through the Greek and Latin from Semitic terms meaning spices. The Hebrew Besem or Bosem, often translated “spices,” in one place “cinnamon,” in another “calamus,” always meant some grateful aromatic. But the opobalsamum or juice of the Balsam tree, the famous Balm of Gilead, was Tsori in Hebrew. Old etymologists, supported by Littré and other moderns, consider that Baal-schaman, prince of oils, was the original word from which balsam was derived. The Arabic Abu-scham, father of perfumed oils, was a name for the balsam tree. Paracelsus taught that the human body contained a natural balsam which tended by itself to heal wounds.

Basilicon ointment is first met with in Celsus. It means royal ointment but no explanation of the origin of the term is given. He compounded it of panax, (perhaps opopanax), galbanum, pitch, resin, and oil. Mesué made a basilicon minus, composed of wax, resin, pitch, and oil. This he also called unguentum tetrapharmacum, because it was made from four drugs. Both of these were black ointments. Later the pitch was omitted and the ointment was then named yellow basilicon. A green basilicon ointment was also formulated in the early London Pharmacopœias, containing verdigris, and used as a detergent. It is sometimes stated that the ointment acquired its name because it contained the plant basil (Ocimum basilicum) among its ingredients; but I find no authority for this statement.

Baths. The most usual form of digesting substances in a gentle heat was in a Balneum Mariæ, Bain-Marie, or as old English writers translated it a St. Mary’s bath. It was supposed to have been derived from balneum maris, as if sea water was used; but there is no justification for this guess. Littré thinks it was called the bath of Mary because of its gentleness. Sand-baths, cinder-baths, horse-dung baths, and iron-filings baths were also ordered.

Bezoards. Mineral bezoard was diaphoretic antimony. Silician earth was also called mineral bezoar.

Blisters. Freind says these were introduced into medicine in Venice and Padua during the plague of 1576. Jerome Mercuriali wrote about them. They superseded dropaxes and metasyncretics.

Bolus was a medicine of the consistence of an electuary or rather stiffer, taken in pieces about the size of a bean. The Greek word meant a lump of earth, and it was used medically by the Romans. It was the same as katapotia.

Calx was the name applied to lime which had been burnt, and from this it came to be applied to the white powdery product yielded by burning metals. Thus came the calx Lunæ, the calx Saturni, the calx Jovis, the calx Mercurii, and others. The ancient theory was that in burning the metal the sulphur principle was driven out, and this was the parent of Stahl’s phlogiston theory.

Caput mortuum and terres damnées were names applied to residues in retorts after operations.

Carminative. A medicine which expels winds. One theory traces it to carmen, a charm, but most authorities consider that it was an application to medicine of the term carminare, to card wool, and suggested that the remedy acted by combing through the humours.

Cataplasm. From Greek kata-plassein, to apply over. Used originally for both poultices and plasters. Cataplasmata were perfumed powders sprinkled over the clothes, or sometimes depilatories.

Catholica. Electuaries which purged all the humours.

Cerates were ointments made solid by wax, but not so hard as plasters.

Cerevisiæ (Beers). Medicinal preparations made by adding medicines to malt wort and letting them ferment together were popular in the early part of the 18th century. It was believed that the process of fermentation extracted the properties of drugs more effectively than mere digestion. Quincy (1739) names thirty cerevisiæ, aperient, antiscorbutic, diuretic, hysteric, stomachic, &c. Many of these were compounded with numerous drugs.

Ceruse. Old Latin name for white lead. Flowers of antimony were called ceruse of antimony. The name is supposed to have had some association with wax, but the connection is not clear.

Cochleare. The usual prescription term for a spoonful, was in Latin the twenty-fourth of a cyathus or wineglassful. It was an egg-spoon, but owed its name to a pointed tip used to extract winkles from their shells as we use pins, and, the cochlear being a small snail, the name was transferred to the instrument. From it has descended the French cuillier, a spoon.

Cohobation came to mean only the repetition of distillation, the distillate being poured on the material from which it had already been distilled, and again distilled. Paracelsus uses the term cohob to signify a repetition of the same medicine.