Part 36

Colcothar. The name was applied to the prepared rust of iron now called rouge, but originally to the residue left in the retort after oil of vitriol had been distilled from sulphate of iron. Paracelsus used, and some say invented, the word; but Murray traces it through the Spanish to an Arabic origin, qolqotar, which Doxy believes to have been a corruption of the Greek Chalcanthos, a solution of blue vitriol (from chalkos, copper, and anthos, flower). Colcothar was the same as crocus Martis.

Collutories. Medicines of the consistence of honey for applying to the gums and mouth. Honey and borax is an example. A fluid mouth-wash was called a collution.

Collyrium. Collyria were “dry,” or powders such as alum, sulphate of zinc, or calomel, which were insufflated into the eye; soft, or pomades applied to the eyelids; and liquid, or eye lotions. The term kollyrion was used in Greek medicine with the same meaning; it was originally derived from kollyra, a roll of bread.

Conserves properly consisted of only one medicament and sugar.

Crocus (Saffron). The term was applied to certain metallic combinations of a saffron colour, such as crocus Martis (rust of iron), crocus Veneris (a copper oxide), and crocus Metallorum (liver of antimony). Damocrates left a formula for Crocomagma, tonic cakes or trochiscs, of which saffron was the principal ingredient.

Crucible. A vessel in which metals are melted. The word is generally attributed to a supposed association with crux, crucis, a cross; but this is not proved. It was originally the name of a night-lamp, and several authorities consider it owes its name to the crossing of the wicks.

Cucupha. A cap to be worn on the head in which certain aromatic drugs were fixed with the idea of curing headaches.

Cucurbit. A gourd-shaped vessel of glass or earthenware used as a retort.

Cyathus, translated wineglassful when the word appears in prescriptions, was the ladle with which the wine was scooped out from the cratera into the poculum. It was also a Roman measure, about the twelfth part of a pint.

Decocta have been attributed to Nero as the inventor. At least they appear to have originated in his household. They were simply boiled water refreshed by ice, and often flavoured by fruits. These were employed as beverages. “Et hæc est Neronis decocta” exclaimed the fallen tyrant as he fled from Rome and allayed his thirst by scooping some dirty water from a pond.

Deliquium. Deliquescence; as when salt of tartar was resolved into “oil of tartar” by mere exposure to the air. This was called “deliquium per se.”

Despumation. The removal of the froth from boiling honey or syrup.

Dia in the “Vision of William concerning Piers the Plowman” written by Langland in 1377 occur the lines:

Lyf leuede that lechecraft lette shulde elde And dryuen away deth with dyas and dragges.

Translated into modern English these lines would read “Life believed that leechcraft should let (hinder) age, and drive away death with dyas and dragges.” The dyas and dragges were evidently the means which leechcraft employed. At that time and for long afterwards a large number of compounded medicines bore titles with the prefix dia-. Diachylon, diagrydium, diabolanum diakodion, diasulphuris are examples of scores. Dia was the Greek preposition, meaning through or from, which appears in a multitude of English words. In medicine it always implies a compound, and in old English it is occasionally found alone as in the instance quoted from “Piers Plowman.” Another given in the Historical English Dictionary is from Lydgate (1430) “Drug nor dya was none in Bury towne.” In combination a few survivals remain in the language as Diachylon, Diapente, and Diacodion, but in the old medical formularies its use is very frequent. Generally it meant an electuary or confection. Thus for example the P.L. of 1746 changed the old Diascordium into Electuarium e Scordio. Apparently the dia- was then going out of fashion.

Diagredium or Diagrydium. This term was often applied to scammony but it was correctly reserved to a prepared scammony (see Dia); the object being to modify the purgative action. One method was to place some scammony in the hollow of a quince and keep it for some time in hot ashes. This gave Diagredium cydoniatum. Or sulphur was burned under a porous paper on which scammony was spread, and the preparation was known as Diagredium sulphuratum. It was also combined with liquorice and called Diagredium glycyrrhisatum.

Dropax was the name of a plaster employed as a depilatory. It was applied warm and pulled off, with the hairs, when cold. It was the Greek term for a pitch plaster.

Drug. The word “dragges” in the “Vision of Piers Plowman” (refer to “Dia”) has been generally supposed to have been an earlier form of drugs; but Skeat contended on philological grounds that the two terms could hardly be the same. Dragges occurs also in Chaucer in the description of the Doctour of Phisike:--

Ful redy had he his apothecaries To send him dragges and his lettuaries.

and Skeat presumed that the dragges were a kind of medicinal sweetmeat corresponding with the French dragées. But Murray has shown that in most of the texts of Chaucer the word is droggis or drugges. So that it is probable that the poet was using the term which we now almost invariably confine to the raw materials of pharmacy. It might easily be shown that in the past it was more generally applied. The etymology of drug is doubtful. The majority of philologists trace it to Anglo-Saxon dryg, and Dutch droog, both meaning dry, the sense originating from dried herbs. There is, however, a Celtic word, drwg, in Irish, droch, which has the meaning of something bad. But Littré suggests that the primary signification of that word is that of an ingredient, and therefore might have been the derivation of our drug. Most likely it is the original of the word when employed as indicating something worthless, as “a drug in the market.” It may well be therefore that the word used in different senses has distinct derivations. (Two interesting articles on this subject will be found in The Chemist and Druggist for February and March, 1882.)

Eclegma. Thick syrups given on a piece of liquorice root to suck with the object of relieving coughs. (See Electuary for Derivation.)

Ecussons. Compounds of theriaca with some added opium used as plasters.

Edulcorate. To deprive substances of their acrid taste. Generally by the addition of syrup.

Electuary. Old dictionaries give the origin of this word as from the Latin electus, on the theory that an electuary was a composition of selected drugs. It is, in fact, a Latin corruption of the Greek ekleikton, which meant something that could be licked. See Eclegma.

Elixir. An Arabic word, al-iksir, which Littré says signified the essence or the quintessence. Murray suggests that it may have had a Greek origin. Xerion, a late Greek medical term, meaning a desiccative powder for wounds, is the word which he supposes the Arabs may have adopted. It is probable that elixir was from the first used to denote a medicine; perhaps the medicine, the great panacea which Arab chemists sought for. For although alchemy, the name at least, may be traced to their laboratories, it is certain that their early efforts were rather in the direction of the discovery of remedies than in that of the production of gold. By the alchemists of Europe and England, however, elixir was understood in both senses. It meant both the philosopher’s stone and the elixir of life. In “The Alchemist,” Ben Jonson (1610) alludes to an old superstition thus:

He that has once the “flower of the sun” The perfect ruby which we call elixir ... by its virtue Can confer honour, love, respect, long life, Give safety, valour, yea, and victory To whom he will. In eight and twenty days He’ll make an old man of fourscore a child.

The word has been a useful one for empirics many times since.

Emplastra are noted by Celsus, many of his formulæ being made with a lead plaster basis as ours are to this day, litharge (spuma argenti) and olive oil being boiled together.