SALEP, in the Materia Medica, the dried root of a species of orchis. "The restorative, mucilaginous, and demulcent qualities of the orchis root, render it of considerable use in various diseases. In the sea-scurvy it powerfully obtunds the acrimony of the fluids, and at the same time is easily assimilated into a mild and nutritious chyle. In diarrhoeas and the dysentery it is highly serviceable, by sheathing the internal coat of the intestines, by abating irritation, and gently correcting putrefaction. In the symptomatic fever which arises from the absorption of pus from ulcers in the lungs, from wounds, or from amputation, salep used plentifully is an admirable demulcent, and well adapted to resist the dissolution of the crisis of the blood, which is so evident in these cases. And by the same mucilaginous quality it is equally efficacious in the strangury and dysury, especially in the latter when arising from a venereal cause, because the discharge of urine is then attended with the most exquisite pain, from the ulceration about the neck of the bladder and through the course of the urethra. I have found it also an useful aliment for patients who labour under the stone or gravel." (Dr Percival's Essays, Medical and Experimental.) The ancient chemists appear to have entertained a very high opinion of the orchis root, as appears from the Secreta Secretorum of Raymond Lully, a work dated 1565.