As a kitchen spice thyme was used during antiquity.7) Theo-phrastus, Dioscorides, Pliny and Columella8) mention thyme and distinguish it from wild thyme or Thymus Serpyllum, whereas the two were not always kept separate by writers during the middle ages. It is probably for this reason that Valerius Cordusl) refers to thyme as Thymus nostras.

1) See p. 67.

2) Schultz, Dissertatio de Melissa. Halae 1739.

3) Friedr. Hoffmanii Observationum physico-chemicarum selectiorum. Halae 1722 - 1736. Lib. III, p. 19.

4) Crell's Chemische Annalen 3 (1780), 29.

5) Prosper Alpinus, De plantis AEgypti fiber. Veneti 1591. Cap. 20. - Dioscoridis De materia medica libri quinque. Editio Kuhn-Sprengel 1829. Vol. 1, p. 374. - 1. Kings, 4:33. - Exodus, 12 : 22. - Lev. 14:4; Numbers, 19:6 and 18.

6) Rosenmuller, Handbuch der bibl. Altertumskunde. 1830. Vol.4, p. 108.

7) Apocalypse, 18:13.

8) Dioscoridis De materia medica libri quinque. Editio Kuhn-Sprengel. 1829. Vol. 1, p. 385. - Plinii Naturalis histories libri 37. Lib. XXI, 31. - Columellas De re rustica. Editio Nisard. 1877, p. 446.

Although it never played an important role in medical practice, it, as well as the oil distilled therefrom, has been officinal in the medical treatises since the 16. century, also in the drug and spice ordinances. The oil was introduced into the 1589 edition of the Dispensatorium Nor/cum.

Thyme camphor (thymol) was first observed by Caspar Neumann2) in 1719, then by Friedr. Cartheuser3) in 1754. It was examined by Lallemand4) in 1853 who named it thymol.