An essay on the antiquity of Hindoo medicine : including an introductory lecture to the course of materia medica and therapeutics, delivered at King's College / by J.F. Royle.

Royle, John Forbes, 1799-1858.

Date:: 1837

Credit: An essay on the antiquity of Hindoo medicine : including an introductory lecture to the course of materia medica and therapeutics, delivered at King's College / by J.F. Royle. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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$as its Arabic names. In the latter language it has, in addition, a variety of other names derived from its intoxi- cating properties, as increaser of pleasure,— ceraenter of friendship,—exciter of desire,— leaf of delusion,&c. Hence it has by some been thought to be the so-much- disputed Nepenthes of Homer. The Acorus Calamus (axopog, Diosc.) sometimes called the only aromatic of Euro- pean countries, is equally common in many parts of India, and has in Persian works akoron given as its Greek appel- lation. As Dioscorides has three kinds of Nard, the Celtic, Mountain, and that which is simply called vap^os, including the two varieties of Syrian and Indian; so, in Persian works derived from the Arabic, we have Sunhul or Narden ukletee; Siinbul jibullee {i.e. mountain); axvA Sunhul- hindee or Indian Nard. For this the synonymcs given are, Greek, Narden; Latin, Nardum; Arabic, Sunhul- al-teeh, or fragrant Nard; and, Hindee, Balchur and Jatamasee. The latter is the Sanscrit, and the former the common Hindoostanee name; but under both names I obtained the hairy spike-like roots of Nardostachys JatamansL With this has often been confounded another far-famed aromatic of Eastern climes, that is, the true Calamus aromaticus, xaXa/zof apufjuxTiKOi of Dioscorides, said by him to grow in India. Tliis he describes imme- diately after axivo;, which is translated Odoratus juncus, a produce of Africa and Arabia, and generally acknow- ledged by botanists to be Andropogon SchcBnanthus, or Lemon-grass, a native both of Arabia and India, perhaps of Africa. The Calamus aromaticus immediately following this, stated to be also a native of India, and among other uses being mixed with ointments on account of its odour; appears to me to have been a plant allied to the former. Mentzel (Ind. Norn. Plant. Multilinguis) gives xa^a/Aoj crxoivog as r$