Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In pharmacy, a dried bulbous root, probably obtained from Colchicum variegatum or checker-flower, formerly brought from Turkey in considerable quantities, and much esteemed as a cathartic, but now entirely discarded.
Wiktionary
- n. obsolete A type of root, probably from a plant of the genus Colchicum, as imported and used in Western medicine.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (med.) A heart-shaped bulbous root, about the size of a finger, brought from Turkey, formerly used as a cathartic.
Etymologies
- From Medieval Latin hermodactylus, from Ancient Greek ἑρμοδάκτυλος ("Hermes's finger"). (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Juliani_ "the" _Pilulae Arabice_, "the" _Pulvis Petrocelli_, "the" _Oleum benedictum_, "the" _Pilulae Johannicii_, "etc. It is important, too, to remark that the active ingredient of very many of these formulae is the root called hermodactyl, believed by the majority of our botanists to be the _colchicum autumnale_.”
“Proud flesh upon the dura mater is to be repressed by the application of a sponge, well-washed and dried, and if it appears upon the surface of the wound after the healing of the fracture, it is to be destroyed by the use of the hermodactyl.”
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