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ELECTUARY

Volume 6 · 163 words · 1797 Edition

in pharmacy, a form of medicine composed of powders and other ingredients, incorporated with some conserve, honey, or syrup; to be divided into doses, like boluses, when taken.

Vossius observes, that all the remedies prescribed for the sick, as well as the confections taken by way of regale, were called by the Greeks ἀλειθρα, and ἀλειθρα, of the verb ἀλειθρα, "I lick;" whence, says he, was formed the Latin eleuthrium, and afterwards eleutharium. This Eleuthrium conjecture he supports from the laws of Sicily, where it is ordained, that eleutharies, syrups, and other remedies, be prepared after the legal manner. The Bollandists, who relate this etymology, seem to confirm it. For the composition and different sorts of eleutharies, see PHARMACY.

ELEEMOSYNA Carucarum, or pro Aratri, or Atrarii, in our ancient customs, a penny which king Ethelred ordered to be paid for every plough in England towards the support of the poor. Sometimes it is also called eleemosyna regis, because first appointed by the king.