The Encyclopedia of Ancient Natural Scientists: The Greek tradition and its many heirs

(Ron) #1

H, I (P.), K (P.), K, K,


M , M  A, M, M VI,


N, N (P.), P  A, P 


B, P  M, R, T, Z.


krisis the decision-point in the course of a disease, usually accompanied by diagnostic
signs on the basis of which doctors attempted to predict the final resolution (health or
death); see H C A; D  K.
leikhe ̄n skin-disease, named after lichen, and characterized by peeling and scaliness
(perhaps similar to modern psoriasis): Durling 1993: 219.
I C, P  A, S, Z (H.).
leuko ̄ma eye-disease, characterized by dense opacity of the cornea, or, more generally
“a white spot on the eye,” D, MM 3.84.3 (ammo ̄niakon clears away
leuko ̄mata); -G, Introd. 16 (14.775 K.); A  A 7.38 (CMG 8.2,
p. 290): “All scars on the iris of the eye appear white because the cornea is thicker [on
account of the scar] and the blacker color from inside is unable to shine through it;
those [scars] that are [like] papules are almost all white, those that are smooth [or level]
are less white.. .”; J. Hirschberg, Wörterbuch der Augenheilkunde (1887) 51, 62–65. (Modern
ophthalmology uses “leukoma” only as a general term to describe a white density of the
cornea, and occasionally one sees in the professional literature an “adherent leukoma,”
i.e. a healed scarring of the cornea to which a portion of the iris is attached.)
See also: H, P.
litharge (Grk.: litharguros “stone of silver”) the residue from the cupellation of
silver out of galena (lead sulfide); it is primarily lead monoxide, which also occurs as a
mineral: D, MM 5.87; G, Simples 9.3.17 (12.224–225 K.).
See also: A P, A R, A, A 
K, A “-,” A, A ,
A C, A  T, A III, B, C-
, D, D (P.), D  L, E
(P.), H, H, H  S, I ( A),
I/I, K, K  K, K (P.),
K, L, M (P.), M, M, M,
M (P.), P, P, S, T, T,
T, T.
lukion “common” or “dyer’s buckthorn,” one of a number of species in the shrub genus
Rhamnus (of over 100 species world-wide): e.g. R. catharticus L., R. frangula L., R. infectorius
L., R. lycoïdes Boiss., R. petiolaris Boiss., R. punctata Boiss. S L 142;
D, MM 1.100.1–4 (the most complete description of medical uses, espe-
cially as an astringent for discharges, but also as a yellow dye: 1.100.3); P 12.30– 32
and 24.125–127; G Simples 7.11.20 (12.63–64 K.); Usher 1974: 501–502; Stuart
1979: 251; L. Boulos, Medicinal Plants of North Africa (1983) 151; André 1985: 149 (#1);
Casson 1989: 192–193; Durling 1993: 226. (R. catharticus yields a purgative syrup from
the berries, a yellow dye from the bark, and a hard yellow wood; the bark of R. frangula
produces a laxative, primarily the glycoside frangulin, and a hard wood; and R. infectoris
has berries that were an important source of a yellow dye.) Compare above Indian
buckthorn.
See also: D (P.), E, L.
Lyceum (Grk. Lukeion) alternate name for the Peripatos.


GLOSSARY
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