Fw: Fw: Historic poisons

Anthony, the following message is a response from a friend who is a Latin scholar. 
 
Sent: Monday, August 05, 2002 1:35 PM
Subject: Re: Fw: Historic poisons

Cornuis is the inflected form of Cornus (ie the ablative plural; this case form is dependent on the preposition 'de' which here means 'about'). Cornus = dogwood, aka 'cornel-tree' or 'cornel cherry'.

spica (spicae = plural) means 'tuft' or 'head'; can also mean 'ear' as in 'ear (or 'spike') of corn'.

>
>> In his book on poisons written in about 1300, Pietro D'Abano has a
>> section on "Cornuis", mentioning (i) De Cornuis spicae (ii) De Cornuis
>> Oleander and (iii) De Cornuis Bedeguar. What a "Cornuis" is has been
>> distracting me for the last two years, it is not a word that appears in
>> either my Latin or Italian dictionaries. Assuming that Spicae refers to
>> Lavender, Oleander to Nerium and Bedeguar to some sort of thistle, it is
>> hard to think of any part, common to all three, that might be toxic.
>> Most people associate "Cornus or Cornu with horns, but none of these
>> plants has anything resembling horns, so is this a red herring? Bark
>> doesn't work because thistles don't have bark, sap doesn't because he
>> has a large section dealing with sap, including a chapter dealing
>> specifically with that of Oleander and it can't be seed because Pietro
>> has a seed section too
>>
>> I am totally perplexed by this problem, please can someone from down by
>> the Mediterranean come up with an answer and put me out of my misery!
>>
>> Many thanks
>>
>> Anthony
>>
>>
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