A dissertation on the Oleum Palmae Christi, sive Oleum Ricini; or, (as it is commonly called) castor oil; in which its history is illustrated; its properties and virtues explained; and its uses in bilious, calculous, and other disorders recommended / By Peter Canvane.

  • Canvane, Peter, 1720-1786.
Date:
1775
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A dissertation on the Oleum Palmae Christi, sive Oleum Ricini; or, (as it is commonly called) castor oil; in which its history is illustrated; its properties and virtues explained; and its uses in bilious, calculous, and other disorders recommended / By Peter Canvane. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    eual plants. He planted the Ricinus Africahui maximus near Chelfea ; one of the leaves of this plant was upwards of two feet diameter, and the ftem was as large as a middle-iiz’d broom-flaff, tho* but of one fummer’s growth. Some imagine the Ricinus to be the tree that fhaded Jonas after he was difcharged from the whale e. \ ■ ' It e The following anecdote concerning this plant, which is Called in Hebrew kik, is recorded in Gerard’s herbal, or aniverfal Hillcry of plants; printed in the year 1633.—- Ricinus (whereof mention is made in the fourth chapter and fixth verfe of the prophecy of 'Jonas) was called by the Tab* mudifts kik, for in the Talmud we read thus, njelo befchemen kik, that is, in Englifh, and not with the oil of kik, which oil is called in the Arabian tongue alkerva. Moreover a certain o rabbin £ks this queftion, what is kik ? to which Refih Lachijh makes anfwer in Ghemara, faying, kik is nothing elfe but Jonas's kikaijon ; and that this is true appears from the Greek name xly.i which the antient Greek phyficians ufed, which Greek work is derived from the Hebrew' kik, whereby it appears that the old writers long ago called this plant by its tiue and proper name, but the old Latin writers knew it by the name of cucurbita, which is evidently demonftrated by a hiflory, mentioned by St. Aufin to St. Jerome, in thefe words: The name kikaijon is of fmall moment, yet fo fmall a matter lately caufed a great tumult in Africa, for a certain Bifhop, having an occafion to treat of what is mentioned in the fourth chapter of Jonas*s prophecy, (in a fermon he made in the cathedral church) faid that this plant was called cucurbita, a gourd, becaufe it increafed fo hugely in fo fhort a time, or, faid he, it is called hedera: upon the novelty and untruth of this do&rine the people were greatly offended, and there fud- denly