Notes

Jusquiamus

Plate 72

Jusquiamus

Menta platearius

Papaver

Jusquiamus (text)

henbane

Hyoscyamus niger.
Blacke Henbane.
Hyoscyamus albus.
White Henbane.

Taxon: Hyosciamus albus L.

hyoscyame

Herculi eam quoque adscribunt quae apollinaris apud alios, apud nos altercum, apud Graecos vero hyoscyamos appellatur. plura eius genera: unum nigro semine, floribus paene purpureis, spinoso calyce; nascitur in Galatia. vulgare autem candidius est et fruticosius, altius papavere. tertii semen irionis semini simile, sed omnia insaniam gignentia capitisque vertigines. quartum genus molle, lanuginosum, pinguius ceteris, candidi seminis, in maritimis nascens. hoc recepere medici, item rufi seminis. nonnumquam autem candidum rufescit, si non ematuruit, inprobaturque, et alioqui nullum nisi cum inaruit legitur. natura vini ideoque mentem caputque infestans. usus seminis et per se et suco expresso. exprimitur separatim et caulibus foliisque. utuntur et radice, temeraria in totum, ut arbitror, medicina. quippe etiam foliis constat mentem corrumpi, si plura quam quattuor bibant; bibebant etiam antiqui in vino febrim depelli arbitrantes. oleum fit ex semine, ut diximus, quod ipsum auribus infusum temptat mentem, mireque ut contra venenum remedia prodidere iis qui id bibissent et ipsum pro remediis, adeo nullo omnia experiendi fine ut cogerent3 etiam venena prodesse.

To Hercules too they ascribe the plant which is called apollinaris by some, altercum by us Romans [I have adopted here the emendation of Urlichs, omitting, however, his a rabulis. Pseudo-Dioscorides, IV. RV 68 (Wellmann), has twenty names for hyoscyamos, including ἐμμανές, Ἀπολλινάρις and ἰνσάνα. A copyist or commentator might be tempted to add a few of these, and perhaps the vulgate text arose in this way. To see in the corrupt arabilis or arbilis of three MSS. a reference to the madness supposed to be caused by hyoscyamos is natural; hence the a rabie of Mayhoff. But the variations in the MSS. have the appearance of corrupt glosses. The curious a rabulis of Urlichs supposes a connection between altercum and altercor.], but by the Greeks hyoscyamos (“pig’s bean”). There are several kinds of it: one has black seed, with flowers that are almost purple, and a thorny calyx, growing in Galatia. The common kind, however, is whiter and more bushy; it is taller than the poppy. The seed of the third kind is like the seed of irio; but all kinds cause insanity and giddiness. A fourth kind is soft, downy, richer in juice than the others, with a white seed, and growing in places near the sea. This is a kind that medical men have adopted, as they have that with a red seed. Sometimes, however, the white seed turns red if gathered before getting ripe, and then it is rejected; and generally no kind is ever gathered before it has become dry. It has the character of wine, and therefore injures the head and brain. Use is made of the seed as it is or when the juice has been extracted from it. The juice is extracted separately also from the stems and leaves. They also use the root, but the drug is, in my opinion, a dangerous medicine in any form. In fact, it is well known that even the leaves affect the brain if more than four are taken in drink; yet the ancients used to take them in wine under the impression that fever was so brought down. An oil is made from the seed, as I have said, which by itself if poured into the ears deranges the brain. It is a wonderful thing that they have prescribed remedies for those who have taken the drink, which implies that it is a poison, and yet have included it among remedies; so unwearied have been researches in making every possible experiment, even to compelling poisons to be helpful remedies.

Hyoscamus (Pig-nuts)

Pliny xxv. 4, § 35.

hyoscyame

De ὖζ, oirx, χύαμοζ, fève, fève de porc. Élien dit que les sanglier quio en ont mangé sont atteints de mouvements convulsifs, et contraints d’aller boire et se baigner. «Apollinaris, apud Arabas altercum, apud Græcos vero hyoscyamus appellatur». Pline, XXV, 17. Pline en mentionne plusieurs espèces, toutes de notre genus Hyoscyamus ou jusquaime, et que Rabelais ne distingue pas autrement. Cependant, si le mot Hanebane ci-dessous désigne H. niger, la jusquiame que vise ici Rabelais est autre : probablement H. albus, L., du Midi. (Paul Delaunay)

hyoscyama

thus hyoscyama, derived from Greek words meaning swine and bean (wild boars eat it and go into convulsions!)…

nommés pas leurs vertus et operations

Sauf pour le lichen, tous les détails sont dans De latinis nominibus («Alysson … dicitur (ut ait Galenus) quod mirifice morsus a cane rabido curet. [gk] enim rabiem significat. Ephemerium… quo die sumptum fuerit (ut nominis ipsa ratio ostendit) intermit. Bechion autem appellatum est, quod [gk], id es tusses … juvet. Nasturtium, cresson alenois … dicitur a torquendis naribus. Hyoscame, faba suis, vulgo hannebane, … dicitur … quot pastu ejus convellantur sues ». R. a mal lu ses notes, faisant de hanebanes une plante différente de l’hyoscame.

Hyoscyame,

De ὓζ, « porc », et χύαμοζ, « fève » (Pline, XXV, xviii). [From the Greek for pork and beans.]

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.»

hyoscyamus

hyoscyamus [adaptation of Greek ueroskuamoj (formed on ueoj, gen. of uj pig + kuamoj bean), in Palladius (C. 1420 Palladius on husbondrie) written iusquiamus, whence jusquiam.]

A genus of plants belonging to the N.O. Solanaceæ; the British species is Hyoscyamus niger, henbane. The narcotic extract or tincture of henbane.