Page:Chronicles of pharmacy (Volume 2).djvu/298

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hysteric, stomachic, &c. Many of these were compounded with numerous drugs.

Ceruse. Old Latin name for white lead. Flowers of antimony were called ceruse of antimony. The name is supposed to have had some association with wax, but the connection is not clear.

Cochleare. The usual prescription term for a spoonful, was in Latin the twenty-fourth of a cyathus or wineglassful. It was an egg-spoon, but owed its name to a pointed tip used to extract winkles from their shells as we use pins, and, the cochlear being a small snail, the name was transferred to the instrument. From it has descended the French cuillier, a spoon.

Cohobation came to mean only the repetition of distillation, the distillate being poured on the material from which it had already been distilled, and again distilled. Paracelsus uses the term cohob to signify a repetition of the same medicine.

Colcothar. The name was applied to the prepared rust of iron now called rouge, but originally to the residue left in the retort after oil of vitriol had been distilled from sulphate of iron. Paracelsus used, and some say invented, the word; but Murray traces it through the Spanish to an Arabic origin, qolqotar, which Doxy believes to have been a corruption of the Greek Chalcanthos, a solution of blue vitriol (from chalkos, copper, and anthos, flower). Colcothar was the same as crocus Martis.

Collutories. Medicines of the consistence of honey for applying to the gums and mouth. Honey and borax is an example. A fluid mouth-wash was called a collution.

Collyrium. Collyria were "dry," or powders such as alum, sulphate of zinc, or calomel, which were