Notes

lichen

Les dartres.

Lichen

Les dartres: lichen signifie en effet dartre vive, en latin.

Lichen

Pliny xxvi. 4, § 10.

lichen

Sed in lichenis remediis atque tam foedo malo plura undique acervabimus quamquam non paucis iam demonstratis. medetur ergo plantago trita, quinquefolium, radix albuci ex aceto, ficulni caules aceto decocti, hibisci radix cum glutino et aceto acri decocta ad quartas. defricant etiam pumice, ut rumicis radix trita ex aceto inlinatur et flos visci cum calce subactus. laudatur et tithymalli cum resina decoctum, lichen vero herba omnibus his praefertur, inde nomine invento. nascitur in saxis, folio uno ad radicem lato, caule uno parvo, longis foliis dependentibus. haec delet et stigmata, teritur cum melle. est aliud genus lichenis, petris totum adhaerens ut muscus, qui et ipse inlinitur. hic et sanguinem sistit volneribus instillatus et collectiones inlitus. morbum quoque regium cum melle sanat ore inlito et lingua. qui ita curentur aqua salsa lavari iubentur, ungui oleo amygdalino, hortensiis abstinere. ad lichenas et thapsiae radice utuntur trita cum melle.

But of lichen, which is so disfiguring a disease, I shall amass from all sources a greater number of remedies, although not a few have been noticed already. Remedies, then, are pounded plaintain, cinquefoil, root of asphodel in vinegar, shoots of the fig-tree boiled down in vinegar, and the root of hibiscus with bee-glue and strong vinegar boiled down to one quarter. The affected part is also rubbed with pumice, as a preparation for the application of rumex root pounded in vinegar, or of mistletoe scum [The glue-like juice of the mistletoe found chiefly in the berry. For this sense of flos cf. Virgil, Georgics, IV. 39: fucoque et floribus oras | explent, collectumque haec ipsa ad munera gluten | et visco et Phrygiae servant pice lentius Idae.] kneaded with lime. A decoction too of tithymallus with resin is highly recommended; the plant lichen however is considered a better remedy than all these, a fact which has given the plant its name. It grows among rocks, has one broad leaf near the root, and one small stem with long leaves hanging down from it. This plant removes also marks of scars; it is pounded with honey. There is another kind of lichen, entirely clinging, as does moss, to rocks; this too is used by itself as a local application. It also stops bleeding if the juice is dropped into wounds, and applied locally it is good for gatherings. With honey also it cures jaundice, if the mouth and tongue are smeared with it. Patients undergoing this treatment are ordered to bathe in salt water, to be rubbed with almond oil, and to abstain from garden vegetables. To treat lichen is also used the root of thapsia pounded with honey.

lichen

Le mot lichen (λειχὴν), déjà employé par Hippocrate, désigne des affections cutanées ou dartres de nature fort diverse, et différentes du groupe de dermatoses auquel les nosographes modernes ont réservé le nom de lichen. Des textes de Dioscoride, Pline et Galien, il ressort que ce vocable fut transféré de la pathologie à la botanique, et après avoir désignee les dartres, s’appliqua à des cryptogames, à thalle circiné, farineux ou crustacé, simulant l’aspect des lésions cutanées. De plus, de par la théorie des analogies, ceux-là guérirent celles-ci. « In iis [prunis sylvestribus] et sativis prunis est limuis arborum uem Græci lichena appellant, rhagadiis et condylomatis vere utilis », dit Pline, XXIII, 69. Ce lichen du prunellier pourrait ètre Evernia prunastri, Auch. Par contre, les 2 var. de lichen que Pline mentionne ailleurs, XXVI, 10, ne semblent point se rapporter à des lichens, mais plutôt a des Hépatiques : Marchantia polymorpha, L., et M. stellata, Scop. (Paul Delaunay)

lichen

Et in his et sativis prunis est limus arborum quem Graeci lichena appellant, rhagadis et condylomatis mire utilis.

Both on wild and on cultivated plum trees there forms a gummy substance called lichen by the Greeks and wonderfully beneficial for chaps and condylomata.

lichen

thus lichen, a plant botanically blotchy and, medicinally, a cure for skin diseases…

Lichen

Nom qui désigne d’abord des dermatoses caractétisées par des papules.

nommeés par leurs vertus

Le livre d’Estienne fournit toutes ces informations, lichen excepté. Rabelais se souvient sans doubt, sur ce dernier point, d’un auteur qu’il a partiellement édité: Manardi, Epistolae medicinales, XVIII, 3. — Hyoscyame («fève de pourceau») et hanebanes sont même chose, mais les deux noms n’ont pas le même sens. Le second fera encore écrire à Nicot: «Hanebane […] est poison aux poules, de sorte que si le grain qui leur est donné en est frotté, elles meurent. L’Anglois dit Henbene, qui signifie Poison aux Gelines, ou Mort à Gelines.»