James Young Simpson

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ON THE DISCOVERY, CHARACTERS, ETC., OF ROMAN MEDICINE STAMPS.

About two hundred years ago there were found at Nymegen, in Holland, two small, greenish, flat, square-shaped stones or tablets, each engraved on its four lateral surfaces or edges with inscriptions, the letters of which were cut incuse and retrograde. In his work on the Roman and other antiquities of Nymegen,424 Schmidt, one of the greatest archÆologists of his day, described these two stones; but he confessedly altogether failed in interpreting their nature and uses, or in reading the legends inscribed upon them.

A few years later, another distinguished Dutch antiquary, Spon of Leyden, published an account of a third tablet, similar in character to the two described by Schmidt;425 and he suggested that they were engraved stones, which the ancient pharmacopolists used as lids for covering the jars or boxes in which their ointments, oils, or collyria were kept.426

Subsequently, during the currency of the last century, Chishull,427 Caylus,428 Walch,429 Saxe,430 and Gough,431 published accounts of various other stones, analogous in their character to the two first discovered at Nymegen. And, through the labours and interpretations of these and other authors, it came at last to be generally admitted among antiquaries, that the nature of the legends upon the stones in question,—the incuse and retrograde form of their inscriptions,—and the localities in which they were found, all proved them to be medicine-stamps, employed for the purpose of marking their drugs, by the Roman doctors, who (some sixteen or seventeen centuries ago) practised at the various stations throughout Europe, that were in those olden times occupied by the colonists and soldiers of Rome. Latterly, since the beginning of the present century, various additional examples of similar Roman medicine-stamps have been discovered at different old Roman towns and stations in France, Germany, etc., and described by Tochon,432 Sichel,433 Duchalais,434 Dufour,435 and others.

These Roman medicine-stamps all agree in their general characters. They usually consist of small quadrilateral or oblong pieces, of a greenish schist and steatite, engraved on one or more of their edges or borders. The inscriptions are in small capital Roman letters, cut retrograde and intagliate (like the letters on modern seals and stamps), and consequently reading on the stone itself from right to left, but making an impression, when stamped upon wax or any other similar plastic material, which reads from left to right. The inscriptions themselves generally first contain (and that repeated on each side) the name of the medical practitioner to whom the stamp pertained; then the name of some special medicine, or medical formula; and, lastly, the disease or diseases for which that medicine was prescribed. In a few instances, the modes and frequency of using the medicine are added. In some instances, the designation of the medicine, and of the disease for which it is intended, are alone given. Perhaps still more frequently, when the number of items is limited, the name of the medical practitioner only appears, along with the name of some special medicinal preparation or remedy prepared or sold by him. And sometimes the stamps present merely the appellation of the medicine alone, without either the name of the practitioner who vended it, or the name of the disease against which it was supposed to be efficacious.

To this brief description one more curious fact remains to be added,—namely, that in almost all, if not in all, the Roman medicine-stamps hitherto discovered, the medicines inscribed upon them are drugs for affections of the eye and its appendages; and the diseases, when specified upon them, are always ophthalmic diseases. Hence it may, with great probability, be concluded, that either these stamps were used by oculists alone, or they were used by the general medical practitioner in marking his eye-medicines only. On this account some authors have not inaptly described them under the special designation of Roman Ophthalmic or Oculist stamps.

The number of the stamps that have already been discovered amply proves that ophthalmic diseases must have been extremely frequent in the sites of the old Roman colonies spread throughout western Europe; and although only three such oculist-stamps are as yet described as having been found within the confines of Italy itself,436 yet the frequent references to individual oculists at Rome by Celsus, Galen, and others, and the elaborate descriptions of eye-diseases left us by the various Greek and Roman medical authors, who practised in the Eternal City during the time of the empire, alike testify to the fact, that these diseases were also sufficiently common in the Roman capital, and that many of the fellow-citizens of Horace could probably personally apply the well-known description which the poet gives of himself:—

Hic oculis ego nigra meis Collyria lippus

Illinere.

Galen, Celsus, Ætius, Paulus Ægineta, etc., all describe the different diseases of the eye with care and minuteness; and the Roman practitioners had evidently studied these affections, and their specific distinctions, with no small degree of attention. In modern times medical literature has been enriched with more complete and elaborate monographs upon the diseases of the eye, than upon the diseases of any other single organ of the body. But, perhaps, few of these monographs describe a larger number of ophthalmic diseases than was professed to be known and discriminated in those distant times when Galen wrote and practised. This author, in the 16th chapter of his book, entitled Introductio seu Medicus enumerates and defines nosologically not less than one hundred and twenty-four diseases to which the eye and its appendages are liable.437

In the management of these diseases of the eye, the Roman practitioners used, as we shall afterwards see, bleeding, antiphlogistics, scarification, and other appropriate constitutional and local treatment. But the practical part of their treatises, referring to ophthalmic affections, is specially loaded with collyria—professedly of use in almost every stage of every disease of the eye.438 Galen speaks of Asclepiades describing in his works a plentiful forest of collyria (collyriorum silva).439 In his book, De Compositione Medicamentorum secundum Locos, Galen has himself left us formulÆ for upwards of two hundred of the ancient collyria. Ætius gives as great, if not a greater number. The “Opus de Compositione Medicamentorum” of Myrepsus contains recipes for eighty-seven ophthalmic collyria; and the works of Scribonius Largus, Celsus, Actuarius, Oribasius, Alexander Trallianus, Marcellus, Paulus Ægineta, etc., present us with abundance of formulÆ for the same class of preparations.

These collyria were composed of very various,440 and in some instances of very numerous, ingredients. But most of them which had attained any great degree of reputation, seem (like the compound formulÆ, or prescriptions in our modern pharmacopoeias), to have each passed under a short specific name, by which they were no doubt readily and generally recognised by the profession, and perhaps also by the public, in those ancient times. The specific appellations of the individual collyria were derived from different sources.

Some of them were known under the names of the oculists who invented or employed them. Thus Galen gives recipes for the collyria of Asclepiades, of Philoxenis, of Capiton, of Zoilus, of Cassius, of Sosandrus, of Phaedrus, of Syneros, of Hermeius, of Erasistratus, of Marcus, of Antonius Musa; the collyrium of Sergius, the Babylonian oculist; the collyrium of Philip of CÆsarea; and many others.441 Occasionally the appellation under which the collyria were known was derived from some of their more marked physical properties, as the “collyrium Chloron appellatum,” from the green colour of the preparation; the Cirrhon, from its yellowish tint; Euchron, from its agreeable hue (a colore bono dictum); the collyrium Cygnus, from its white or swan-like hue;442 the Aromaticum, from its pleasant odour; and so forth. One or other of the principal ingredients entering into its composition seems to have given the name under which other collyria were known, as the Nardinum, from its containing spikenard; the collyrium Diasmyrnes (d?a, with, and s???a, myrrh), from its containing myrrh; the Diarrhodon, from its containing roses, etc. Occasionally the collyrium seems to have derived its name and fame from some great person whom it had been fortunate enough to benefit or to cure. Thus, for example, Galen gives a recipe for the collyrium which Phlorus used in the case of Antonia, the mother of Drusus; for the “collyrium Harmatium,” which King Ptolemy used, etc. One was termed Achariston, from its cheapness; and this collyrium repeatedly occurs on the oculist-seals. Another was termed Atimeton, from its supposed great value. But perhaps the most common mode of appellation was the use of some recommendatory name, advertising the supposed high qualities of the drug. Thus the old Greek and Roman authors give various species of the collyrium Monohemeron,—so named from its being alleged to effect a cure in a single day; others are designated the Miraculum, the Mysterium, the Nectar collyrium (Nectarium); the Royal (Collyrium Basilicon); the Royal Indian (Collyrium Indicum Regale); the gold-like (Isochryson); the divine (Isotheon), etc. etc. And lastly, a collyrium was often known under some high-sounding but unmeaning name, such as the collyrium Olympus, Proteus, Phoenix, Phyon, SphÆrion, Philadelphium, etc. etc.

Under such designations the principal collyria of the Roman oculists were known and used (like the one invented and boasted of by Galen) “per omnes gentes quibus imperant Romani;” and it is under such special appellations that we find these different collyria mentioned in the inscriptions engraved upon the old oculist-stamps, which have been turned up among the ruins of their ancient colonial stations.

Above sixty Roman oculist-stamps have now been discovered in different parts of Western Europe, but particularly in Germany, France, and Holland. Some time ago one was found about ten miles east of Edinburgh; and it is principally with the view of describing this, and along with it the other specimens that have been detected in the British Islands, that I have ventured to draw up the present imperfect essay. I have been the more induced to do so because this Scottish stamp is remarkable, both as being found on almost the very frontier of the ancient Roman empire, and as being one of the most perfect yet discovered. Besides, I entertain a strong hope that such a publication as the present may perhaps be fortunate enough to lead, through the zeal of some members of the profession, to the detection in this country of additional examples of these curious remains of our Roman medical predecessors.

In treating, in the following sections, of the individual Roman medicine-stamps that have been found in Great Britain, I shall begin with some account, first, of the specimen found at Tranent, and of two other undescribed specimens contained in the British Museum. Afterwards I shall notice the other similar stones or tablets that have been hitherto brought to light in these islands, in an order chronologically in reference to the dates at which they severally happened to be rediscovered in those localities in which they had lain concealed and buried for many a long century. And lastly, I shall attempt to offer some general remarks upon the probable uses of the medicine-stamps; the nature of the drugs and the character of the diseases mentioned upon them; the names, status, and residences of their proprietors; and various other correlative points.

SECTION II.

STAMP NO. I.—FOUND AT TRANENT.

The Scottish specimen of Roman medicine-stamp, to which I have adverted in the preceding page, was discovered some years ago at Tranent in East Lothian, not far distant from the old, and doubtlessly in former times extensive, Roman settlement or Municipium at Inveresk.443 The stamp now belongs to the Museum of the Society of Scottish Antiquaries.

It was presented to the Museum by the late Mr. Drummond Hay, formerly one of the Secretaries of the Society. From Mr. Hay’s notes it appears that it was found amid a quantity of broken tiles, brick, and other debris of an old (and probably Roman) house, near the church of Tranent. For many years after being deposited in the Antiquarian Museum its character remained undiscovered, till the present excellent Secretary of the Society, my esteemed friend Mr. Daniel Wilson, was led, in reading the descriptions of other similar stamps, to ascertain its true character.

The stamp itself is, as usual, formed out of a greenish-coloured steatite. The stone is of the figure of a parallelogram, nearly two and a half inches in length, and with inscriptions cut upon two of its sides. There is a roundish projection at either extremity of the stone, as seen in the accompanying lithograph (Plate I., No. I., Figs. 1, 2, 3), where the stone and letters of the two inscriptions are, in every respect, faithfully copied from the original as to form and size. The letters are, as in all other similar medicine-stamps, cut incuse and reversed, so as to read from left to right when the inscription was stamped upon any impressible material. Fig. 2 shows one of the inscriptions as it appears cut intagliate upon the stone. Fig. 3 presents an accurate copy of this inscription as it is seen when stamped upon wax. Fig. 1 is an equally faithful copy of the second inscription placed on the opposite side of the stone. It will be observed that, as in the original, the size of the lettering varies on the two sides.

The lettering on the two sides (1 and 2) runs thus, as it stands inscribed upon the stone:—

1. LVALLATINIEVODESADCI

CATRICESETASPRITUDIN

2. LVALLATINIAPALOCRO

CODESADDIATHESIS

The two inscriptions read as follows, when we separate the individual words composing them from each other:—

1. L VALLATINI EVODES AD CI-

CATRICESETASPRITUDIN

2. L VALLATINI APALOCRO-

CODES AD DIATHESIS.

Let us endeavour to interpret each of these inscriptions in detail, supplying the elisions and contractions which exist in almost all Roman inscriptions; but which are less in this seal than in most others.

1. L(ucii?) VALLATINI EVODES AD CICATRICES ET ASPeRITUDINes.—Lucius Vallatinus’ Evodes for cicatrices and granulations.

Several of the collyria derived, as I have already observed, their designation from some special physical character. The present instance is an example in point, the appellation Evodes (e??de?) being derived from the pleasant odour (e?, well, and ???, I smell) of the composition. Marcellus, in his work De Medicamentis, specially praises the collyrium known under the name of Evodes; and that too in the class of eye-diseases mentioned on the Tranent seal. For, in his collection of remedies for removing ulcers, cicatrices, etc., of the eyes and eyelids, he recommends (to use his own words) “prÆcipue hoc quod quidam Diasmyrnon, nonnulli Evodes, quia boni odoris est, nominant.” And he directs the Evodes to be dissolved and diluted in water, and introduced into the eyes with a probe, or after inverting the eyelid, when it was used with the view of extenuating recent cicatrices of the eyes, and removing granulations of the eyelids,—“ex aqua autem ad cicatrices recentes extenuendas, et palpebrarum asperitudinem tollendam teri debet, et subjecto specillo aut inversa palpebra, oculis inseri.”444

Scribonius Largus had previously described, in nearly the same words, the collyrium,—“quod quidam e??de? vocant,” and its uses in recent cicatrices and granulations, etc. Both these authors give the same recipe for the composition of the Evodes,—viz. pompholyx, burnt copper, saffron, myrrh, hematites, opium, and other ingredients, rubbed down in Chian wine. Its agreeable odour was probably owing to a considerable quantity of spikenard being used in its composition.445 Galen gives two other collyria, of a different composition, and for other affections, as known at his time under the same name of Evodes,—the one termed the “Evodes of Zosimus,” the other the “diasmyrnon Evodes of Syneros.”446

2. L. VALLATINI APALOCROCODES AD DIATHESIS.—L. Vallatinus' mild Crocodes for affections of the eyes.

The term diathesis in this inscription is used in a different sense from that in which we now employ the same word in modern medicine. At the present day we apply the term diathesis to designate the tendency or predisposition to some special disease, or class of diseases. In the times of the Roman physicians, it was often used as synonymous with disease itself; and in the Latin translations of the Greek texts of Galen, Aetius, etc., it is hence rendered usually by the general word “affectus,” “affectio,” etc. The first sentence in Paulus Ægineta’s chapter on Ophthalmic Diseases, affords an instance in point: “Quum dolores vehementiores in oculis fiunt, considera ex quanam affectione (d?a?ese?) oculum dolere contingit.”447 Thus, also, the Evodes of Zosimus (to which I have before alluded) is entered by Galen as a remedy simply against “dolores et recentes affectus,” according to the Latin translation of KÜhn,—“p??? pe???d???a? ?a? p??sfat??? d?a?ese??,” according to the original Greek text. He uses diathesis, in fact, as a general term for eye-diseases. Thus, when speaking of diseases of the eye in general, he observes,—“Scripsi omnia quÆ necesse est Medicum de oculorum affectibus (d?a?ese??) nosse.”448 In its last syllable in the inscription on the seal, diathesIS stands instead of the Roman accusative diathesES, or the Greek accusative diathesEIS. This usage, however, is not without classical authority.

The collyrium mentioned in the prescription (the Crocodes) derives its designation from its containing the crocus, or saffron, as one of its principal ingredients.

In describing the therapeutic effects of the crocus, Dioscorides mentions, as its first special use, its efficacy in “fluxions of the eyes”—(oculorum fluxiones cohibet).449

Pliny, in enumerating the qualities of the crocus, begins by observing that it has a discutient effect upon all inflammations, but chiefly on those of the eyes (discutit inflammationes omnes quidem, sed oculorum maxime); and in speaking of its combinations he tells us that it has given a name to one collyrium (collyrio uno etiam nomen dedit).450 But it entered into the composition of very many of the ancient eye-medicines, and more than one of these passed under the name of Crocodes, as in the inscription on the seal. Galen, in his list of eye-remedies, gives the recipe for the composition of a Crocodes collyrium for epiphorÆ, pains, and affections (d?a?ese??) from wounds of the eye.451 He discusses the composition also of the aromatic Crocodes of Heraclides, and the oxydercic Crocodes of Asclepius, etc.452 When describing, in another part, the remedies for ulcers of the eyes, he mentions a collyrium containing crocus, and adds, “habet autem hoc plurimum in se crocum, unde etiam Croceum (?????de?) appellatur.”453

Celsus,454 Alexander Trallianus,455 and Paulus Ægineta456 give recipes for eye collyria, under the name of diacrocus (d?a ??????).

I have not yet alluded to the expression APALO, standing before Crocodes. This expression presents the only difficulty in reading the inscription; and various suggestions might be offered in regard to its explanation. But it seems most probable that it was used as a qualifying term to the Crocodes. Several of the collyria have the Latin adjective “lene,” and “leve,” placed before them, in order to certify their mild nature. Scribonius Largus gives a whole division of collyria, headed “Collyria composita levia.” Aetius has a chapter, “De Lenibus Collyriis.” The expression apalo, as a part and prefix to Crocodes, would seem to indicate the same quality in the crocodes sold by Vallatinus, the term being in all likelihood derived from the Greek adjective apa???, or the corresponding Latin adjective apalus (mild, soft). Homer frequently uses the word as signifying soft, delicate, and especially as applied to different parts of the body (see Iliad, book iii. 371; xvii. 123, etc.); and, indeed, both Aetius and Paulus Ægineta employ the Greek adjective therapeutically in the sense of mild, and as applied to collyria. In the treatment of acute inflammatory ulcers of the eye, after inculcating the usual antiphlogistic treatment, Aetius adds, “collyria vero tenera (apa?a) ulcerate oculo infundantur.”457

When treating of carbuncles and carcinoma of the eye, Paulus Ægineta observes that the affection may be alleviated “by the injection of soothing (tenera, apa?a) collyria, such as the Spodiacum, Severianum, and the like.”458 And again, when giving his formulÆ for different collyria in another part of his works, he applies the term apa??? to the collyrium Diathalium, or collyrium made from olive leaves (??a?a???? apa???), upon the same principle, and evidently with the same signification, as the word is used in the Tranent stamp, as applied to the collyrium Crocodes.459

I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. Birch for the impressions of two unpublished oculist-stamps, contained in the British Museum. Their forms and inscriptions are represented in Plate I., Nos. II. and III.; and I shall describe them under these numbers. They are supposed to have formed part of the collection of Sir Hans Sloane; but no note exists as to the precise locality in which they were discovered.

SECTION III.

STAMP NO. II.—CONTAINED IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM.

This large stamp consists (Plate I., No. II.460) of a flat quadrilateral stone, about an inch and a half broad, and engraved upon three of its sides. A portion of one corner of the stone is broken off. The probable deficiency which is thus produced in one of the inscriptions is supplied in this, and in some other similar instances in the sequel, by Italic letters. The three inscriptions read as follow:—

1. SEX: JUL: SEDATI

CROCOD PACCIAN

2. SEX: JUL: SEDATI CRO-

CODES DIALEPIDOS

3. (Sex): JUL: SEDATI CRO-

(cod)ES AD DIATHES

The name of the oculist—Sextus Julius Sedatus—is imperfect on the third or broken side, the prÆnomen “SEX” being wanting on that side in the first line, and the middle syllable “COD” of the word Crocodes being also wanting, from the same cause, in the second line.

The restored reading of this third side—viz., sexti julii sedati crocodes ad diatheses—need not be dwelt upon, as it is so very similar to that on one side of the Tranent stone. The other two sides contain the names of two new varieties of crocodes.

One of these varieties—the CROCODES PACCIANUM—received its name from Paccius, a celebrated Roman medical practitioner, who either invented this special collyrium, or brought it into repute. Paccius, who lived about the commencement of the Christian era, is said to have amassed a fortune by the sale of a secret nostrum. At his death he bequeathed the prescription for it to the Emperor Tiberius, who placed a copy of it in the various public libraries.461 In the list of his ophthalmic medicines, Galen gives formulÆ for various collyria invented by Paccius, such as the “Sphragis Paccii,”462 “Asclepiadeum Paccii,”463 “Collyrium ex terra Samia Paccii Ophthalmici ad affectus intensos (ep?tetae?a? d?a?ese??).”464 Galen does not give any recipe for the Crocodes of Paccius; but it was evidently a collyrium duly esteemed at the time in which he wrote; for, in his chapter on ulcers of the eyes, he specially names the “CROCODES PACCIANUM,”465 and recommends its use in cases in which the accompanying inflammation has already ceased, and at the stage when a stimulating application becomes necessary.

The other variety of crocodes used by Sedatus is the CROCODES DIALEPIDOS. A formula for Dialepidos is given by Marcellus,466 with the crocus as the first ingredient mentioned in its composition. The Dialepidos derived its name from its containing the scales—(?ep?de?) of burnt copper, or the black peroxide of that metal,—a preparation which Dioscorides (lib. v. cap. 89) describes as useful in eye-diseases; and which Galen declares to be a “medicamentum multo utilissimum,” vol. xii. p. 223.

SECTION IV.

STAMP NO. III.—CONTAINED IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM.

A second Roman medicine-stamp is (as I have already stated, p. 244) contained in the British Museum. The stone is small and broken, and only engraved on one side (see Plate I., No. III.) The inscription does not include, as usual, the name of the oculist who possessed and employed it.

The lettering on this stamp is very distinct, except in one particular. It is doubtful whether the third last letter is intended for an “L,” or stands, as suggested by Mr. Way, for an “I,” with a period-point after it, thus—“I.” An inspection of the stamp itself has impressed me with the belief, that the doubtful letter is truly an “L;” and if so, the inscription would run:—

COLLYR. P. CLOC.

Or, to read it in an extended form, COLLYRium Post CaLiginem OCulorum—Collyrium for blindness of the eyes. And I may observe that several of the prescriptions found on these medicine-stamps are collyria professing to be useful against and after (ad and post) caliginem.

But if the doubtful letter is an “I,” and not an L, then the inscription, when extended, may be read as follows:—COLLYRium Post CIcatrices OCulorum, or, “Collyrium after cicatrices of the eyes.”

The P may stand for Pro, and not for Post; but I am not aware of any instance of the former preposition (Pro) occurring in these inscriptions, while several examples of this use of the latter preposition (Post) are known. An instance of this use of the preposition Post will be found in the sequel, in Stamp No. VI.

SECTION V.

STAMP NO. IV.—FOUND AT COLCHESTER.

The first Roman medicine-stamp discovered in Great Britain was described about a hundred and thirty years ago by Mr. Chishull in the learned “Dissertatio De Nummo ?????,” which he addressed to Haym, and which this last-mentioned author has published in the preface to his second volume of the Tesoro Brittanico.

The stamp had been found some years previously at Colchester, a well-known and extensive Roman colonial station. Mr. Chishull believed it to have belonged to some old Roman Iatraliptes, or curer by ointments.467 The following is a copy of the inscription on this Colchester stamp, as given by Chishull:—

1. QIULMURRANIMELI

NUMADCLARITATEM.

2. QIULMURRANISTAGIU

MOPOBALSAMATADCAP.

And Mr. Chishull interpreted these inscriptions thus:—“Quinti Julii Murranii Melinum, sive ex malis cotoneis oleum, ad claritatem oculorum faciens. Iterumque, Quinti Julii Murranii stagium opobalsamatum, sive myrrhÆ oleum opobalsamo permixtum, ad cap. i.e., ad caput medicandum utile.”

In this interpretation, Mr. Chishull seems to have fallen into more than one important error, as we shall endeavour to show by considering the two inscriptions in detail.

1. Q. JULII MURRANI MELINUM AD CLARITATEM.—The Melinum of Q. (Quintus?) Julius Murranus, for clearness of vision.

Two or three varieties of the collyrium Melinum are given by Galen.468 Thus, in his list of collyria he gives formulÆ for the Melinum of Lucius; for the Melinum atarachum (i.e. against the taraxis); and for a Melinum delicatum, fitted for those who could not bear the irritation of any powerful medicament.

Different opinions have been expressed in relation to the origin and signification of the term Melinum. Walch,469 like Chishull, derives the term from “malum” (????), an apple, supposing it to be the principal ingredient in the collyrium. And certainly Pliny and Paulus Ægineta speak of an oil termed melinum,470 being made from the quince (Malum Cydoneum); and the flower of the plant is described by Pliny as useful in inflammation of the eyes. But no “malum” enters into the composition of any of the three Melina collyria, which I have referred to in Galen.

The best variety of alum seems, in ancient times, to have come from the island of Melos; and, according to Pliny, this drug was consequently termed Melinum. It was believed to be useful in discussing granulations of the eyes (oculorum scabritias extenuat).471 Hence Saxe (p. 29) and Tochon (p. 18) have conjectured that the alum or Melinum of Pliny was the Melinum which has been found inscribed on several oculist-stamps. But again, the same objection holds,—namely, that in none of the collyria Melina of Galen was alum a component ingredient.

In his observations, however, upon the different forms of emplastra (and many of which were named Melina), Galen gives a sufficient explanation of the origin of this term as it was applied to plasters; and the same holds, no doubt, also in reference to its application to collyria. According to his own explanation, it was a term significant merely of the colour of the resulting medicament, like the green, brown, etc., plasters and collyria, named chloron, cirrhon, etc. etc. Gesner, Cooper, and other philologists, lay down Melinum as an adjective, meaning yellow. And perhaps the term was originally derived from the yellow colour of the quince or ????, in the same way as the citrine (Unguentum Citrinum), which is still common in modern pharmaceutical language, was a term originally derived from the yellow colour of the citron (??t????) or lemon, and was applied to designate ointments, etc., of that special tint. In further proof of this origin and signification of the term Melinum, I may add, that, in mixing together the ingredients contained in the collyrium melinum delicatum of Galen (vol. xii. p. 769), I find that a yellow or orange-coloured fluid is the result. The yellowish tint of the emplastra melina was, as Galen tells us, generally, but not always, derived from their containing verdigris, altered by a moderate boiling with the other component ingredients.472 The collyria Melina of Galen contain ceruse and calamine in their composition.

The Melinum is professed, in Murranus’ stamp, to be efficacious for the clearing of the eyesight (ad claritatem). The Melina collyria of Galen are all alleged by him to have effects conducive to this object—viz. the removing of cicatrices and calli, and every weakness of vision (omnem hebetudinem visus).

2. Q. JULII MURRANI STAGIUM (STACTUM) OPOBALSAMATum AD CAP (CALigines).—Q. Julius Murranus’s Opobalsamic Stactum, or Opobalsamic Eye-drops, for dimness or blindness.

Mr. Chishull read Stagium instead of Stactum, the CT of the latter word having been mistaken by him for GI. Mr. Forster showed to the London Antiquarian Society,473 in 1767, a plaster-cast of what was doubtlessly this same Colchester stamp, and gave the reading correctly in the second inscription as Stactum.

The Latin designation Stactum, analogous to the Greek terms Stacton, Enstacton, and derived from the verb sta?? (I drop), denoted any liquid collyrium, applied by drops into the eye—“collyria enstacta, hoc est, instillatitia, appellata.”474

A collyrium, with the appellation Stactum or Staticon, is described by Marcellus,475 Myrepsus,476 Paulus Ægineta,477 etc.; and Aetius478 gives a chapter of collyria under this designation. In this chapter Aetius describes five collyria Stactica; and, of these, four contain the Opobalsam479 as an ingredient, showing the origin and propriety of the term Opobalsamatum in the inscription on the seal.

Chishull read the last three letters of the inscription CAP, and thought that the oil was serviceable for head diseases. But if the inscription is not really CAL, the P has in all probability been substituted by an error of the engraver for L (CAL), an abbreviation for Caligines. In confirmation of this opinion, I may remark that the same inscription occurs at greater length on an oculist-stamp found at Daspich in France; and in it the Stactum Opobalsamatum is professed to remove Caligines.480 There is, indeed, little doubt but that Murranus of Colchester vended, of old, his Opobalsamic Eye-drops for the same alleged purpose. This quality of “visum acuens” is attributed to two out of the four forms of Opobalsamic Eye-drops mentioned by Aetius. And the Stactum is (according at least to the testimony of Myrepsus) “ad acumen visus mirabile admodum.”—P. 660.

SECTION VI.

STAMP NO. V.—FOUND AT BATH.

This stamp was found, in the year 1731, at Bath, a well-known Roman station. It was discovered in a cellar in the Abbey-yard. Shortly afterwards the stamp was exhibited to the Antiquarian Society of London by Mr. Cutler. Mr. Mitchell of Bristol, who possessed the stone about the middle of the last century, submitted it also for examination to the Royal Society of London. I have, through Mr. Norman of Bath, and other friends in England, attempted to trace out the present proprietor of the stamp, with a view of ascertaining more correctly the exact nature of the inscriptions upon it; but these efforts have been quite unsuccessful.

Mr. Lethieullier presented to the London Antiquarian Society plaster casts of the inscriptions on the stamp; and three of these plaster impressions of it are still preserved in the London Antiquarian Museum. These plaster casts, however, are very imperfect; and the lettering upon them is now unfortunately defective at some of those very points that are otherwise the most difficult to decypher.

Manuscript notices of this Bath medicine-stamp exist in the Minute-books of the Antiquarian Society for 1744 (vol. iv. p. 210), and for 1757 (vol. viii. p. 29); the last is with an impression taken with ink from the inscriptions. For copies of these I am deeply indebted to the polite kindness of Mr. Akerman, the distinguished secretary to the Society. The outline in Pl. II., No. V., presents a copy of a rude drawing of the Bath stamp given in the Minute-book of the Antiquarian Society for April 27, 1732.481 Mr. Akerman has also obligingly furnished me with this sketch, which is interesting as giving us the form of the stone. On the exposed sides of this sketch there is given retrograde, as on the original stone, one of the inscriptions. This inscription the engraver has entered in the plate, as corrected from the pertaining plaster-cast in the museum; and below it, in the plate, is a reversed impression of this inscription.

ROMAN MEDICINE STAMPS.

In 1788 Mr. Gough published, in the ArchÆologia, “Observations on certain Stamps or Seals used anciently by the Oculists.”482 In this communication he has given, amongst others, copies of the inscriptions on the medicine-stamp found at Bath; but without making any attempt whatever to read and decypher these inscriptions. He appears to have seen the stone itself, as he describes it as “square, of a greenish cast, and perforated.” He presents the following as the legends or inscriptions on the four sides of the stamp:483—

The two first of these inscriptions are given with sufficient distinctness and accuracy; and they do not offer any great difficulties in the way of explanation. But the two last have been copied so imperfectly,—and, perhaps, so inaccurately,—by Mr. Gough, as to surround their meaning with no small degree of uncertainty and doubt.

In all of the four inscriptions, the name of the proprietor or oculist, T(itus?) JUNIANUS, is perfectly distinct. The first side reads as follows:—

1. T. JUNIANI THALASSER AD CLARITATEM. T. Junianus’ Thalasser (or Marine Collyrium) for clearness of vision.

The collyrium Thalasseros (?a?asse???) is mentioned by several of the old Greek and Roman authors, who have discussed the subject of diseases of the eye and collyria, as by Galen,484 Myrepsus,485 Aetius,486 Alexander Trallianus,487 and Paulus Ægineta.488

The name itself—Thalasseros—is evidently derived from ?a?ass?, the sea. Fuchs, the translator of Myrepsus, avows that he can form no conjecture as to why the collyrium was termed Thalasseros (quam autem ob causam nescio). In Cornarius’ translation of Aetius, it is entered as “Thalasserum, hoc est marinum.” And in all probability it originally received its high-sounding and attractive appellation from the marine colour of the preparation, the hue of the collyrium being, as we have already seen, sometimes the cause and source of its distinctive appellation, as in the collyria termed Melinum, Cygnus, Cirrhon, etc. It has been conjectured that the name was imposed upon it in consequence of one or other of its ingredients being of marine origin. But in none of the formulÆ given for it by the authors already named, does any sea ingredient enter into its composition.489

The object of the Thalasseros in our inscription was to produce clearness of vision (ad claritatem). It was used in vision impaired from cataract (suffusio) and other causes. Galen describes the Thalasseros of Hermophilus as “accomodatum ad suffusiones et ad omnem hebetudinem visus; facit et ad incipientem suffusionem” (vol. xii. p. 781). Myrepsus assigns to it the powers of “lachrymas retinens, ad inchoantes suffusiones et nyctalopas, et ad recentem pupillÆ dilatationem” (sect. xxiv. cap. 51). It is adapted, according to Trallianus, “ad hebetudinem, et incipientes suffusiones; et callos exterit” (lib. ii. cap. v. p. 175).

2. T. JUNIANI CeRusSOMAELINUM AD CLARITATEM.—T. Junianus' Leaden (?) Melinum (or Golden Yellow Collyrium) for clearness of vision.

I have already had occasion to speak of the signification and qualities of the collyrium named Melinum. In the Colchester stamp the Melinum is invested with the same supposed properties as the Crsomelinum in the above legend on the Bath seal,—namely, “ad claritatem.”490

The prefix CRSO, in Crsomelinum, admits of more than one interpretation. Galen gives four different formulÆ for “collyria Melina.” Three of these contain, as one of their ingredients, the Cerussa, or carbonate of lead; and the prefix CRSO may possibly stand as a contraction for Cerussa, implying the presence of this medicine in the collyrium. And, in relation to this view, it is to be recollected that this preparation of lead was, in these ancient times, held in some esteem as a local application in eye-diseases. Galen recommends it as an anodyne in pains of the eyes, and as a general astringent and sedative application.491

Another, and perhaps more probable meaning, has been suggested to me by my friend M. Sichel. He supposes the CRSO to be a contraction for CHRSO, golden (from ???s??, gold), the prefix marking the golden colour of this melinum, or yellow collyrium. In this way we would have Junianus retailing his “Golden Yellow Collyrium” to the colonists and natives of Bath some sixteen centuries ago. And we all know that “Golden Ointment” for the eyes is an application not by any means unknown to the medical practitioners and pharmacopolists of England in the nineteenth century.

3. T. JUNIANI DIEXUM AD VETeRES CICATRICES.

In the above line I give the reading of the third side of the Bath medicine-seal, such as it stands copied into the manuscript minute-books of the Antiquarian Society for 17th November 1757. By turning back to the inscription, as cited in a previous page from Gough, it will be seen that the three medial letters IEX are in a rude Brittano-Roman character, which allows us only to guess at their true signification. Unfortunately, the plaster cast of this side of the stamp does not happen to be preserved with the others, so as to enable us to ascertain the probability of either reading; and it is more than doubtful whether the inscription thus given by these opposed authorities is correctly copied, either by Gough, or in the Society’s minute-book. And I believe I state the general experience of all who have worked at the deciphering of Roman and other inscriptions, in observing that the perplexities connected with the reading of them have often been produced, much more by grave errors in the published copies of the inscriptions, than by actual difficulties in the interpretation of the original, after a true copy has been once obtained.

In the present instance, by reversing the usual mode of procedure in such investigations, we may perhaps arrive at the probable truth. In other words, if we consider the disease prescribed for, we may possibly arrive at a knowledge of the drug prescribed. Now the affection on this side of the Bath stamp is old cicatrices (VETERES CICATRICES). This disease, or rather result of disease, is mentioned on various Roman medicine-stamps discovered on the continent of Europe, as on examples found at Verona, Lillebonne, Ingweiler, and Saint Cheron,492 and in one which I shall notice in the sequel, lately detected in Ireland. In all the instances which I have just named, the collyrium indicated on the inscriptions as the remedy (veteres cicatrices), is the collyrium termed DIAMYSOS or DIAMYSUM, which contained, as its principal ingredient, the metallic preparation known under the name of ??s?, or Mysy, among the ancient medical authors; and Marcellus Empiricus gives a formula for the formation of a collyrium DIAMYSOS from it. Looking to these facts, in relation to other analogous Roman medicine-seals, it seems not an improbable conjecture that the word on this third side of the Bath stamp is the same, perhaps more or less mis-spelt or contracted; and consequently, that the whole inscription is T. JUNIANI DIAMYSUM AD VETERES CICATRICES. The re-discovery of the stamp itself can alone settle this and other difficulties connected with it.

If we judged of the nature of the inscription by the characters of the letters, as given by Gough, the disputed word might perhaps be more correctly read DRYCUM or DRYXUM. And possibly, in this way, it may signify an astringent and detergent collyrium, made from the bark, acorn, or galls of the DRYS (d???) or oak—a tree that held a place in the materia medica of Hippocrates, Galen, and the other ancients, and which still maintains its place in our own modern Pharmacopoeias. Dioscorides, and the other old pharmaceutical authorities, describe the Drys or Quercus as possessing desiccant, astringent, and other properties; and they attribute especially these powers to the gall excrescences that so often grow upon it, and which they incorrectly deemed the fruit of this tree. According to Oribasius, the gall of the oak—“siccat, repercutit, contrahit, constringit, et particulas infirmas roborat.”493

Further, in favour of the present supposition, that the collyrium of the inscription may possibly be named from the DRYS, I may take the present opportunity of mentioning that the ancient Roman oculists seem to have pursued, in regard to old cicatrices of the eye, a treatment which is not followed by their successors in modern times. “All cicatrices on the transparent part of the eye,” says Aetius, “appear white (omnes cicatrices in nigro oculi albÆ apparent”);494 and consequently give, by their presence, a disagreeable and disfiguring effect to the eye.495 Some of the Roman oculists seem to have used various collyria, for the purpose of dyeing or changing the colour of these white specks or pearly cicatrices, and of thus imparting to them some kind of tint that rendered the appearance of the eye, and the distinction between the transparent cornea and its white opacities, less marked and striking. For this purpose the gall-nuts of the oak or DRYS appear to have been greatly used. Aetius does not approve of the practice of tinting cicatrices; but, in a chapter bearing the heading of “Albuginum TincturÆ,” he describes half-a-dozen applications and collyria that might be employed for the purpose of staining and correcting the colour of old cicatrices of the eyes, lest, he adds, his readers should be ignorant of the means which might effect this (ut ne ignorentur ea quÆ hoc facere possunt). In three or four of these collyria the gall-nut forms a leading ingredient,496 and it seems to have been generally used previously to, or in combination with, blue vitriol (atramentum sutorium). Myrepsus gives a “collyrium tingens crassas albugines et cicatrices,” containing galls with chalcanthus (or copperas), roasted lead, etc.; and a second formed of burnt and washed lead, etc., combined with unripe galls.497 Paulus Ægineta mentions two dyes for cicatrices, both of them containing galls along with chalcanthus.498 Alexander Trallianus gives a collyrium for staining cicatrices, which he pronounces “valde generosum.” It consists principally of chalcanthus and galls.499

Lastly, let me offer one more conjecture. If the debateable word in this legend be correctly copied as diexum into the Antiquarian Society minute-book, it may probably signify the collyrium DIOXUS or dioxum given by Marcellus, and which he recommends for the removal of granulations of the eyelids. This collyrium was composed of cadmia, burnt copper, hÆmatites, myrrh, and gum.500

4. T. JUNIANI HOBSUM AD?UECUMO DELICTA A MEDICIS.

This fourth legend on the Bath stone offers the most puzzling of all the inscriptions hitherto found upon the Roman medicine-stamps discovered in Great Britain. As Mr. Gough gives it, the last words of the inscription DELICTA, or more probably DELECTA501AMEDICIS (esteemed by physicians), are alone intelligible. The plaster cast of this side of the seal, contained in the Museum of the Antiquarian Society of London, contains an extremely imperfect copy of the second line, and not an over perfect one of the first; but we see enough in it to be quite aware of the great carelessness with which Mr. Gough had originally copied the whole inscription. The second last letter in the line is not the Greek ?, as Gough prints it, but the Latin Q; and the name of the collyrium is not HOBSUM, as he gives it, but apparently PHOEBUM. At all events there is a P, which he has omitted, before the H; and the two medial letters, which he read F S, are seemingly E B. Such is the conclusion to which a careful examination of the lettering of the cast itself forces me; and what is much more important,—because affording far stronger evidence than mine,—Mr. Akerman reads this inscription in the same way. I may add, that (as I am informed by the same gentleman) the word is always copied and written as PHOEBUM, in the several notices of the stamp contained in the minute-books of the Antiquarian Society, and to which I have already referred; and Gough’s Greek ? is always given as the Roman Q.

Still, with all these emendations, I confess myself quite at a loss to decipher, satisfactorily, the inscription. The spelling of all the inscriptions on this stamp is executed very carelessly,—as in crsomaelinum for crysomelinum; thalaser for thalasser; and possibly the term QUECVMO may be a mis-spelling by the engraver for LEUCOMA. If so, the inscription would stand as

Or, as we may then translate it, “The Phoebum of T. Junianus for Leucoma, esteemed by physicians.”

I am not aware that any of the old authors have described a collyrium under the name of PHOEBUM. But it looks like one of those specious titles which the oculists were so fond of selecting and assuming; and we find described in their works collyria with analogous semi-astronomical and mythological appellations, such as Sol, Aster, Lumen, Phos, Uranium, etc.502

I shall venture only one more remark, viz. the possibility of the term being PHORBIUM and not PHOEBUM. “The PHORBIUM,” observes Galen, “possesses attenuating, attractive, and discutient powers. They apply its seeds, mixed with honey, to LEUCOMA; and it is believed to have the power of extracting spicula of wood.”503

SECTION VII.

STAMP NO. VI.—FIRST DESCRIBED BY MR. DOUCE.

Mr. Douce published in 1778504 a notice of a square flattened Roman medicine-stamp, a quarter of an inch thick, and each side or edge measuring about two inches.

Mr. Gough published in the ArchÆologia a sketch of this stamp, which is copied into Pl. II., No. VI. Some wax impressions were taken of the stone, but the stone itself was (it is stated in the same volume of the Gentleman’s Magazine, 1778, p. 510) “lost out of a pocket that had a hole in it, and probably, instead of gracing a museum, has contributed its mite towards mending the roads.”

The four sides of the stone contained the following series of inscriptions, the terminal and initial letters of three of the lines being wanting, and supplied in our copy below by italic letters:—

The name of the oculist, M. JUL. SATYRUS—M(arcus?) Jul(ius) Satyrus—is sufficiently distinct, and occurs with each of the four legends of the stamp. When we analyse further the inscriptions on the four sides of the seal, they severally read as follows:—

1. M(arci) JULii SATYRI DIALEPIDOS AD ASPeRitudines.—Marcus Julius Satyrus’ Dialepidos or Copper collyrium for granulations of the eyelids.

The three first sides of this stamp have the special collyria inscribed upon them, beginning each with the letters DIA, from the Greek preposition d?a, “with,” and here signifying “made with.”505 The three principal ingredients in the three first inscriptions are all given, combined with this initial preposition d?a, and under their Greek appellatives,—?ep?d??, s???a and ??a???—forming instances, among many others, of the anxiety of the ancient Roman oculists to invest their drugs with all the mysterious attraction and formality of a Greek name; just as some modern English physicians foolishly enough consider it still proper to write always the names of the medicines which they now prescribe in the language of the ancient Romans, thus, like their predecessors, attempting, in the exercise of their profession, to act upon that principle in the weakness of human nature which holds “omne ignotum pro mirifico.”

I have already described (see Stamp No. II., p. 245) the composition of the collyrium termed Dialepidos, and the origin of the name of the inscription from the ?ep?de?, or scales of the oxide of copper.

2. M. JUL. SATYRI DIASMIrnES POST IMPETUM LIPPITudinis.—The Diasmyrnes or Myrrh collyrium of M. Jul. Satyrus, after the commencement of ophthalmy.

The principal ingredients in the collyrium Diasmyrnes, namely, myrrh (???a or s???a), was a drug to which important therapeutical virtues were formerly ascribed. It was applied in the treatment of various diseases. In reference to affections of the eye, it had the power, according to Dioscorides, of filling up ulcers of the organ, removing cicatrices and scales obstructing the pupil; and besides, it cured eruptions and granulations of the eyelids (oculorum ulcera complet, exteritque albugines, et ea quae pupillis tenebras offundunt; quin et scabritias seu asperitudines expolit).506

Various collyria were used by the ancients, bearing the name of Diasmyrnes or Diasmyrnon, from myrrh constituting their leading ingredient. Aetius has one of his long chapters on collyria headed “Collyria Diasmyrna et Chiaca appellata.”507 Actuarius, in his section “De affectionibus Oculorum,” speaks of the collyria Diasmyrna (quÆ ex myrrha constant) in the plural number, and as well known in his time.508 Paulus Ægineta, in discussing the treatment of hypopion or suppuration in the cornea, speaks of sometimes making the abscess burst; and, if so, then, he adds, “cleanse the ulcer by means of the more potent remedies, such as those called Diasmyrna,”509 etc. Among his formulÆ for individual collyria in his several books, he gives a receipt for the collyria Diasmyrnes. (Aldine edition, p. 118.)

Galen gives several collyria Diasmyrna, as the Diasmyrnum Odorum Synerotis,510 the Diasmyrnum Glaucidanum, and the Diasmyrnum ex hÆmatite.511 And in his work De Simplicium Medicamentorum Temperamentis ac Facultatibus, he states, “Sed et collyria sunt plurima quÆ medeantur suffusionibus, et maxime quod plurimam recipit myrrham, quale est quod a Democrate compositum est, quod vocant Diasmyrnon.”512

The term Lippitudo in this legend, and which we will find recurring in the sequel, was, according to Galen, anciently applied to that form of ophthalmy which consists of inflammation of the conjunctival covering of the cornea (lippitudo inflammatio est membranÆ, quÆ corneÆ adnata est.)513 But the term was also used to designate other forms or varieties of ophthalmic inflammation. The disease described by Celsus under the name of Lippitudo appears (says a high modern authority on eye-diseases) to have been “catarrhal conjunctivitis.”514 The same oculist speaks of Lippitudo as “an excoriation of the edges of the lids, or bleared eyes;” and he describes obliteration of the Meibomian follicles as the cause of incurable Lippitudo.

3. M. JULII. SATYRI DIALIBANUm AD SUPPURATionem.—M. Jul. Satyrus’ Dialibanum, or Incense collyrium, for Suppurative discharge from the eyes.

Frankincense (thus, ??a???, ??a??t??)515 was frequently used by the ancient oculists in their collyria. According to Galen516 and Paulus Ægineta,517 in consequence of its detergent powers, it apparently cleanses and fills up ulcers in the eyes (expurgare et implere quÆ in oculis consistunt ulcera videtur). It has the power, according to Oribasius, “astringendi, calefaciendi, caliginem oculorum discutiendi, cava ulcera implendi, ad cicatricem perducendi,”518 etc.

Alexander Trallianus gives a formula for the collyrium Dialibanum ad chemosim efficax; and he describes the Dialibanum as, like the Libanum, of much use in eye-diseases, and particularly for inflammations which are accompanied with ulceration (multi est usus, maxime ad inflammationes quae cum ulcere infestant).519 Celsus recommends it in ulcers of the eye following pustules (fit quoque proprie ad hÆc quod d?? ?????? vocatur).520 Paulus Ægineta gives a formula for the Dialibanum, in his chapter on collyria.521 Marcellus Empiricus, who offers two recipes for its composition, ascribes to it the power of being efficacious in the disease noted on our inscription, namely, “ad suppurationes oculorum.”522

When speaking of the treatment of suppuration of the eye, Galen lays down the following indications for the use of the Diasmyrnes, and Dialibanum:—“At quando pus, quod in oculis est, digerere placet, collyriis quÆ myrrham habent, maxime utemur; quÆ utique et Diasmyrna GrÆci proprie vocant; his certe minus, sed reliquis melius faciunt quÆ Dialibanum vocant.”523

4. (m): jul: satyri penicillum LENE EX OVO.—M. Jul. Satyrus' mild Penicillum; to be used with an egg.

The term Penicillum has been found inscribed on several different Roman medical stamps, as upon specimens discovered at Vieux and Paris, each marked with lene penicillum; upon one discovered at Nais (penicillum ad omnem lippitudinem); and upon another at Famars. Its signification has given rise to several opinions somewhat differing from each other.

M. Grivaud considers the Penicillum indicated on the Roman medicine-stamps, to be merely a small brush or hair-pencil, such as is still used at the present day to wipe away the more viscid discharges that may be found adhering to the palpebrÆ and eyelashes.524 According to M. Sichel, the Penicillum consisted of a pledget or folds of charpie, which the ancient oculists used both for the purpose of cleansing the eyes, and of introducing into them soothing washes and collyria.525 M. Eloi Johanneau,526 and M. Duchalais,527 describe the Penicillum as a soft and fine sponge, employed in applying collyria to the diseased eye. Blancardi, in his Lexicon Medicum, defines the word Penicillum as “lint reduced to charpie, and besmeared with ointment to be applied to ulcers.”

The word Penicillum occurs in the writings of Pliny and Celsus, and is used by these ancient authorities in such a manner as to give countenance to each of the preceding opinions. Thus Pliny, in his chapter on sponges (De Spongiarum Natura), speaks of a variety of very fine sponge under the name of Penicillum; and this, when soaked in a preparation of honeyed wine (mulso), was, he says, applied to tumours of the eyes.528 These Penicilli were also (he adds) useful, when very soft and fine, in cleansing the eye in ophthalmy.529 Celsus, in his observations on the diseases of the eye, three or four times, and in different senses, uses the term. In inflammation of the eye, he recommends the eyes to be fomented with a Penicillum or pledget, squeezed out of a warm watery decoction of myrtle or rose leaves, before local medicines and collyria are applied to them.530 Elsewhere, he recommends a pledget or Penicillum to be laid, or, if necessary, bound over the eyes, squeezed out of water; or, if the attack is more severe, out of vinegar and water (Penicillo uti expresso ex aqua; si major, ex posca).531 In another passage, he states that in intense ophthalmia the white of an egg or the milk of woman, dropped into the eye with a Penicillum, relieves the inflammation, and that this may be used by the patient when neither a physician nor other medicines are at hand.532 And again, he recommends the patient to take a bath, and foment his head and eyes freely with the warm water, then to wipe both with a Penicillum, and anoint his head with iris ointment.533 Here we have the Penicillum used by the same author as a mechanical means both of cleansing the eye and of making local applications to it. Further, in his chapter on the surgery of the eyes, Celsus uses the word Penicillum in the signification of tents. Thus, in describing the operation for ancyloblepharon, or agglutination of the eyelids, he directs the eyelids, after being separated by a probe, to be kept asunder by small penicilla laid between them, till the ulceration of the part is cured.534

The preceding quotations show that, besides other significations, there is no doubt that the term Penicillum was used to designate a soft sponge, and perhaps also a brush or pledget of charpie that was occasionally employed in ophthalmic practice, for the double purpose of fomenting or cleansing the eye, and of dropping local applications into it. But it seems very unlikely that a stamp should be used by the oculist to mark the material of these Penicilli with. It would be both difficult and unnecessary to stamp in any way either a piece of sponge or of charpie with such an inscription as that found upon this and the other Roman seals. And I would venture to suggest, that it appears much more probable that the collyrium, ointment, or lotion, that was to be used with the sponge or charpie, was sometimes designated Penicillum, from the special mode in which it was to be applied; in the same way as we have found various eye-drops passing under the general designation of Stactum, from the special mode in which they were applied to the diseased organ. In this way the LENE PENICILLUM in the legend of our present oculist-stamp would not signify the material which was used in the application of the medicine, but the name of the medicine or collyrium as indicative of the mode in which it was to be used.

The employment of the collyrium PENICILLUM mixed with an egg (EX OVO) is often indicated upon the oculist-stamps; and in the ancient Roman authors it is a mode in which many of the collyria were directed to be prepared before they were applied to the diseased eye.

SECTION VIII.

STAMP NO. VII.—CONTAINED IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM.

In his paper in the ArchÆologia (vol. ix.), Mr. Gough published a sketch and account of a medicine-stamp, inscribed on three of its sides, and remarkable in one or two respects. The sketch which he has given of it is copied into Plate II., No. VII. The stamp itself is preserved in the British Museum. It is thicker, and more rounded at the edges, than the generality of these flat medicine-stones.

After quoting the three inscriptions on its sides, Mr. Gough gives the following very brief and unsatisfactory account of the reading of this stamp. “From the inscriptions,” he observes, “we learn that the owner’s name was FL., or Flavius Secundus, and that his composition was made of Opobalsamum and Myrrh, and the white of eggs.”535

Mr. Gough pointed out that the third side of the stamp was engraved in letters of a rude and negligent form, and different in character from the inscriptions on the two other sides. But he failed in seeing that the remaining sides are both imperfect; and that the latter half of one of the inscriptions, and the first half of the other, are deficient, in consequence of the stone, which was at first much larger, having been broken or reduced in size, and subsequently again rubbed down and smoothed on two of its sides before one of these sides was cut with the rude lettering above alluded to. When these circumstances are attended to, the inscriptions on the three sides appear to stand as follows:—

The name of the proprietor is evidently L. JUL. IVENIS [L(ucius?) Jul(ius) Ivenis]; and I may remark in passing, that the cognomen of IVENIS is one which has been found recurring among the Roman pottery-stamps found in England.

It is impossible to fill in, with anything like precision and certainty, the defective words in the two first inscriptions. But judging from the analogy of other similar and more perfect stamps, these two inscriptions probably read somewhat as follows when the seal was entire.

1. L. JUL. IVENIS Diapsoricum OPOBALSAMaTUm ad Claritatem.—L. Jul. Ivenis’ Opobalsamic Diapsoricum for clearing of the sight.

The adjective, OPOBALSAMATUM, has hitherto been generally found united upon medicine-stamps with one of two collyria—viz. with Stacticum (as in seal No. IV.); or with Diapsoricum, as in seals found at Jena and Lyons. The D preserved in the first line is, in all probability, the initial letter of the latter collyrium.

The Psoricum was a mixture of cadmia and chalcitis, according to Dioscorides, Pliny, and Celsus;536 or of litharge and chalcitis, according to Galen, Aetius, and Paulus Ægineta.537 This metallic compound derived its name of Psoricum from its supposed utility in the treatment of parts affected with the eruption of scabies or psora. The eyelids, according to the ancient oculists, were the occasional seat of eruptive or pruriginous inflammation (psorophthalmia, scabrities, prurigo, etc.) In enumerating the diseases of the lining membrane of the palpebrÆ, Galen mentions, among others, sycosis, chalazosis, and psoriasis.538 Various collyria employed for the removal of these affections were termed Psorica, and most of them, though not all, contained the metallic compound alluded to. “Quae scabros in palpebris affectus persanant, atque ob id Psorica appellantur.”539 When speaking of the specific affections of the eyes and their appropriate local applications, Actuarius, in the same way, remarks, “Quae scabiosis palpebrarum affectionibus medentur, id circo Psorica appellantur.”540 He gives (p. 307) formulÆ for various forms of the Collyrium Psoricum; as the Psoricum aridum, the Psoricum Aelii, etc. Aetius recommends the collyrium Psoricum against “scabros ac corrosos angulos, et intensos pruritus, milphoses et prurigines.”541 Scribonius Largus describes the composition of a collyrium Psoricum made from the metallic compound of the same name (facit hoc collyrium bene quod psoricum dicitur), and fitted to remove blindness, granulations, and xero-ophthalmia.542 Marcellus Empiricus credulously invests the collyrium Psoricum with signal powers for various eye-diseases, but particularly for old-standing blindness (antiquam coecitatem). For if (says he) we may credit the experience of the author of the remedy, it has, at the end of twenty days, restored sight to a person who had been blind for twelve years (nam ut auctori hujus remedii de experimento credamus, duodecim annorum coeco intra dies viginti visum restituisse se dicit).543

On the Jena medicine-stamp the Diapsoricum Opobalsamatum is entered as efficacious for the clearing of the sight (ad claritatem);544 and in the proposed restoration of the reading of the present English stamp, I have added to it the same therapeutic indication, as one not unlikely to have originally filled up the part that is now deficient in this line of the stamp.

2. L. Jul. Ivenis DiASMYRNES BIS Lippitudinis iMPETU EX OVO.—The myrrh collyrium of L. J. Ivenis, to be used twice a day, mixed with an egg, at the commencement of Ophthalmy.

Already we have considered the composition, etc., of the Collyrium Diasmyrnes (see pp. 267, 268.) It is entered, as efficacious in attacks of Lippitudo, on the medicine-stamps of Jena, Nais, etc. In the Jena stamp it is, as in the present instance, ordered to be used mixed with an egg.545

The word BIS denotes, in all probability, the frequency with which it was to be used daily. Occasionally the ancient authors state in the same way in their works the frequency with which a special collyrium was to be used. Thus, for example, Paulus Ægineta, after describing the composition of the brown collyrium (collyrium fuscum), adds that it is to be applied thrice a day (illinitur ter in die ... ex ovo aut lacte, etc.)546 Indeed when speaking of the variety of collyrium mentioned in the legend on this stamp,—namely, of the “collyria quÆ quod ex myrrha constant d?as???a vocantur,” Actuarius expressly states that the affected eye is to be annointed with the Diasmyrnes “twice a day (bis in die).”547

3. The third side of this medicine-stamp is engraved, as already observed, by a different and far more inexperienced hand than the other two sides. The letters are very roughly and rudely formed. The inscription indicates the name of another oculist,—of one who probably became the possessor of the stamp after IVENIS. The new proprietor’s name is F., or probably FL., SECUNDUS, and the inscription reads, F. SEKUNDI AT ALBAS, the collyrium or preparation of F. Secundus against Albugines.

In reading it, I suppose the AT to be a mis-spelling for AD,—a mistake of which there are not wanting other examples in the illiterate and careless engravings sometimes found upon these medicine-stamps.548 And I have interpreted the ALBAS as signifying albas cicatrices (white cicatrices), or, in other words, albugines of the cornea,—a suggestion for which I am indebted to M. Sichel. Already I have quoted the expression of Aetius to the effect that all cicatrices of the cornea are “AlbÆ;” and the nouns by which such eye-cicatrices are designated, both by the Greek and Roman physicians, namely, ?e???a and albugo, are words derived from, and intended to signify, the white colour (?e????, albus) of these lesions.

SECTION IX.

STAMP NO. VIII.—FOUND AT SOUTHWELL.

An anonymous correspondent, C. D., sent to the Gentleman’s Magazine, in 1772, a sketch and notice of what, no doubt, is a Roman medicine-stamp, but both the sketch given of it and the description are excessively meagre. The correspondent dates his letter from Southwell, in Nottinghamshire. He says, “The inscribed stone was found lately by casting up the ground, in the neighbourhood of Littleborough in this county. The stone is oblong, about two inches long, and one broad. It contains inscriptions on the edges or rim of the two ends, and on one of its oblong sides, but not on the other.”

“It is,” says the correspondent, “supposed to be a Tessera or kind of tally, such being, as we are told, a little flat square piece of stone, and having a particular inscription, and was used in the Roman armies, by being on certain occasions delivered to each of the soldiers, to distinguish them from the enemy, and also in setting their nightly guard, by being given from one centurion to another, quite through the army, till it returned to the tribune who first delivered it. Upon the receipt of this, the guard was set immediately. But,” he continues, “as the inscription on the above drawing cannot be made out to satisfaction, many of you will be glad to know whether it has been such a Tessera as is above supposed; or what else it may have been, or also an explanation of its legend, by some of your antiquarian correspondents.”

The inscription on one of the long sides of the stone appears to be the name of the proprietor of the stamp; but the published copy of it presents such irregular lettering, as to defy any certain deciphering of what the name is. (See Plate III., No. VIII.) On the other two sides the inscriptions are as follow:—

These two words evidently are mis-spellings, either on the original stamp, or (what is equally probable) in its published copy, for the Collyria termed Diapsoricum and Stactum. But I have already, in reference to previous inscriptions, discussed the signification of these two terms at such length as not to require to revert to them. (See under Stamps No. IV. and No. VIII.)

The initial B, as it stands in the first line, seems to defy all kinds of conjecture in regard to its signification. In this, as in one or two other instances, the only hope of obtaining a true reading of the legend is in the re-discovery of the stamp itself.

SECTION X.

STAMP NO. IX.—FOUND AT WROXETER.

This seal is remarkable both from its inscription, and from its round form. In this last respect it is, I believe, as yet unique,—no other specimen of a medicine-stamp of the same circular figure having, as far as I know, been hitherto described. The stone is about seven-eighths of an inch in diameter, and a quarter of an inch thick. Its form and inscription are seen in Plate III. No. IX., where the upper figure shows the stamp presenting the usual incuse and reversed inscription; and the second or lower figure shows the impression left by the stamp upon wax.549

This curious medicine-stamp was found, in 1808, by a person ploughing in a field near the Roman wall at Wroxeter (the ancient Uriconium), Shropshire. It was first figured and very briefly noticed by Mr. Parkes in the Gentleman’s Magazine for 1810, p. 617. “Several (observes Mr. Parkes) have attempted to decipher the legend, but no one has as yet been able to give a satisfactory reading.” Mr. Nightingale (1813), in his account of Shropshire in the Beauties of England and Wales550 mentions the stamp; and Mr. Hartshorne in his Salopia Antiqua551 (1841), has given an embellished and consequently less accurate copy of the inscription than that originally published by Mr. Parkes. Mr. Hartshorne describes it as “an amuletal seal,” and adds, “it has hitherto baffled the endeavours of those who have attempted to explain it.” Lastly, Mr. Albert Way has lately correctly published it as a specimen of a Roman medicine-stamp, and has interpreted the second and fifth lines, leaving the others still undetermined. But the whole appears capable of being deciphered. The inscription runs thus:—

IBCLM

DIA LBA

AD OM

NE ? VN

O EX O

J (ulii?) B (assi?) CLeMentis DIALiBAnum AD OMNEM ??a?es?? (Diathesin) VNO EX Ovo.—The Dialibanum or Incense collyrium of Julius Bassus Clemens, for every eye-disease; to be used mixed with an egg.

The name of the practitioner or proprietor, given in the first line of the seal, offers the principal difficulty in reading the inscription. But the CLM is in all probability a contraction, as I have ventured to interpret it, for CLEMENS,—a common cognomen or family name among the Romans. The B as an initial could stand for any of the various gens names which begin with this letter, as Balbus, Betutius, etc. I have conjecturally given it as Bassus, principally because on an old monumental tablet, discovered at Leyden,552 the cognomen of CLEMENS is preceded by the nomen gentilicium of BASSUS,—showing the combination in question not to have been unknown among the Roman colonists formerly scattered over Western Europe. Besides, Bassus was a name by no means unknown in ancient Roman medical literature and practice. When mentioning, in the preface to his first Book, the more distinguished disciples and followers of Asclepiades, Dioscorides places, as the foremost in his enumeration, Julius Bassus. Galen (De Simpl. Medicam. Facult. lib. i. cap. 7) and CÆlius Aurelianus (Contra Hereses—Preface to lib. i.) both cite the practice and authority of Bassus; and Pliny, in his Index Auctorum, mentions that this physician wrote in Greek, although he was by birth a Roman.553

The nature and composition of the Collyrium Dialibanum we have already had occasion to consider under a former head. (See Stamp No. VI., p. 253.)

I have also formerly shown that the Greek term ??a?es?? was used as a general term for eye-disease (see p. 241); and no doubt its initial letter ? stands in the present inscription under this signification.

Many of the ancient collyria were, like the Dialibanum, preserved and sold in a firm or solid form, and were directed to be dissolved or mixed with the white of one or more eggs at the time when they were required for application to the eye.554 Hence the expression, UNO “EX OVO,” in this and other stamp legends.

This stamp, like some others, has a rude figure of a plant engraved along with the inscription. The trunk of the plant is given at the commencement of the third line by Mr. Hartshorne as an I—thus unnecessarily confusing the reading of the legend.

SECTION XI.

STAMP NO. X.—FOUND AT KENCHESTER.

In the Journal of the British ArchÆological Association for 1849, Mr. Roach Smith has described a medicine-stamp found at Kenchester, in Herefordshire, and communicated to him by Mr. Johnson. I myself am indebted to the kindness of Mr. Johnson for both a model and drawings of this medicine-stamp, which is quadrilateral, and engraved on its four sides. It has, besides, the word SENIOR inscribed on one of its flat surfaces; and the four first letters of the same word are repeated on the opposite surface. I shall afterwards have occasion to re-advert to this curious point.

Mr. Smith has published a sketch of the stamp; but the more correct drawings of it in Plate III., No. X., have been kindly furnished to me by Mr. Johnson. The six lowest figures in this plate represent, first, the two flat surfaces of the stone, with the retrograde inscriptions upon its four sides; and, secondly, these four inscriptions as they appear when impressed upon wax.

The inscriptions on the four sides of this stamp read as follows:—

The name of the oculist or proprietor, t. vindac ariovistus, Titus (?) Vindacius or Vindex Ariovistus, is singular; the name ARIOVISTUS being the same as that of the celebrated German king and general that plays so interesting and important a part in the Commentaries of CÆsar, and the reputed valour and prowess of whose troops daunted for a time, and almost created a mutiny in, CÆsar’s army.

On this stamp there are no names of any specific eye-diseases given; but the four sides contain the designation of four collyria that we have not met with on any of the previous medicine-stamps which we have had occasion to describe. These are the collyria Anicetum, Nardinum, Chloron, and Thurinum.

1. T. VINDACii ARIOVISTI ANICETUM.—The Anicetum or infallible Collyrium of T. Vindacius Ariovistus.

The collyrium Anicetum, or ?????t??, is, as far as I know, described by Oribasius alone. It was composed of red copper, combined with henbane, hemlock, spikenard, frankincense, etc. Oribasius enters it as a collyrium “ad carbunculos aptum.”555

Mr. Roach Smith supposes that the collyrium Anicetum of this stamp derives its name from being a preparation containing aniseed. But the formula given by Oribasius does not present this ingredient; and the origin of the term is, we believe, very different. Galen presents us with a clue to its true meaning, when discussing the subject of plasters, in the sixth book of his work, De Compositione Medicamentorum. One, bearing the name of ANICETUM, is (he observes) called so in consequence of its many and wonderful effects (vocatum est insuperabilis (????????) propter miranda et multa ipsius opera).556 The term itself is, no doubt, derived from the Greek participle ????t?? “conquered,” with the prefix of the privative a. Among his own list of collyria, Galen enters the one known in his time under the name of Collyrium Aster,557 as unsurpassed (?ste? ?????t??558).

2. T. VINDAC.—ARIOVISTI NARDINUM.—T. Vindacius Ariovistus' Nardinum or Spikenard Collyrium.

The ancient authorities on the Materia Medica describe several kinds of spikenard, according to the localities in which it is procured, as the Indian, Syrian, Celtic, etc. It was used by the Romans in many of their ointments and perfumes,559 and sometimes added to their wines.560

The nard, or spikenard, was used principally to perfume various medicines, etc. But high medicinal properties were also attributed to it in various diseases, and, amongst others, in diseases of the eye. (See Dioscorides, lib. i. cap. vi.) It entered into the composition of many of the ancient collyria, and several were named from it in consequence of its forming their leading ingredient. Aetius has a long chapter on formulÆ for “Collyria Nardina et Theodotia,”561 and bestows the most extravagant praises upon some varieties of the spikenard eye-applications. Speaking of one of them, he observes, “It is not easy to relate the powers and efficiency of this medicine; indeed my readers would scarcely credit it, for under the most desperate affections it recalls the eye to its natural state.”562

3. T. VINDAC. ARIOVISTI CHLORON.—The Chloron or green Collyrium of T. Vindax Ariovistus.

Already I have had occasion to allude to the collyrium Chloron, as one of those which derive their particular appellation from the tint or colour of the preparation. The green collyrium, or Chloron, is mentioned in many of the old treatises upon affections of the eye. For example, Galen gives several such collyria in succession, as, vol. xii. pp. 763 and 768, the “Chloron ad diatheses;” and again, two forms of Chloron used by Zoilus the oculist.

4. T. VINDAC. ARIOVISTI TuRINUM. The Frankincense Collyrium of T. Vindacius Ariovistus.

The designation of the collyrium on this fourth side of the Kenchester stone is so very much destroyed as to render the deciphering of it extremely difficult and problematical.

Mr. Roach Smith has not attempted to read it; but has contented himself by giving N as the last letter of the collyrium, and the only one capable of being deciphered, printing the whole legend on this side thus:—

T VINDAC. ARIO
VISTI ..... N.563

But certainly the terminal letter is not N. Mr. Johnson has kindly supplied me with two wax impressions of the legend on this side. One of these is faithfully copied in Plate III., No. X., lowest figure. The examination of it will show that the terminal letter is not an N; for the supposed middle or oblique line of the letter descends downwards from left to right, and not, as it should do, provided the letter were N, from right to left. The two first letters of the name of the collyrium are entirely obliterated. In the position of the third letter there is the head of a letter which may stand for R, B, or P. The following letter is apparently an I; and the next an N. In reading it, I have supposed these three consecutive letters to be RIN, and the terminal letter to be an M, or rather a V and M braced together. An instance of a similar bracing or conjunction of two letters is seen in the legend of the second side of this stone, where the terminal two letters TI of “Ariovisti” are conjoined into one. Further, I have ventured to suggest the two initial letters as TU, and the whole name as consequently TURINUM.

The collyrium Thurinum, or Turinum, is inscribed on three Roman medicine-stamps that have been discovered in France,—the first in Paris, the second at Cessi-sur-Tille, and the third at Solangei. The two last are both described by M. Fevret de Saint-Mesmin.564 The collyrium evidently derived its specific name from its principal ingredient frankincense, or thus, this latter Roman noun being sometimes spelt with, and sometimes without, the h. In the Solangei stamp the collyrium is written THURINUM; but in the stamps of Paris and Cessi-sur-Tille it appears without the H, or as TURINUM.

The collyrium Turinum is, it is scarcely necessary to add, merely a latinised form for the Greek collyrium Dialibanum, the composition and virtues of which we have considered in the previous pages (see pp. 269 and 283). The Latin translators of Oribasius and Paulus Ægineta render the collyrium Dialibanum as written by these Greek authors by the term “Collyrium ex thure.”565 In the same way the ?????????? t? d?a ??a??? ????e??? of Galen is rendered by KÜhn, and his other translators, as “Collyrium quod fit ex THURE.”566

SECTION XII.

STAMP NO. XI.—FOUND AT CIRENCESTER.

In the beautiful work on the Roman remains of Cirencester, published last year by Professor Buckman and Mr. Newmarch, a Roman medicine-stamp is described.567 It was found, in 1818, in the Leauses garden at Cirencester, deposited in a fictile urn.

This stamp is of the form of a parallelogram, and is inscribed on two of its sides. Plate III., No. XI., shows the lettering of these two inscriptions, as well as the size of the sides, and the rude cross-markings that appear on the two ends of the stone. The inscriptions are as follow:—

Messrs. Buckman and Newmarch read MINERVALIS as signifying “pertaining to Minerva;” but it is no doubt the name, as in other specimens, of the oculist who was the proprietor of the stamp. And from the inscriptions left us upon Roman tombs, we know that Minervalis was a Roman cognomen.568

The two inscriptions are easily read; they are as follow:—

1. MINERVALIS DIALEBANUM AD IMPETum LIPPitudinis EX OVO.—Minervalis' frankincense Collyrium for attacks of Ophthalmy; to be used with an egg.

We have already had occasion to discuss the nature of the Collyrium Dialibanum (p. 269), and it is unnecessary to recur to it. On a previous occasion, also (p. 284), the signification of the common expression, ex ovo, was adverted to.

2. MINERVALIS MELINUm AD OMNEM DOLOREM.—Minervalis' yellow Collyrium for every pain or disease of the eye.

More than once we have had occasion to allude to the Collyrium Melinum (pp. 250, 257). The only singularity in the present instance is, that we have here the Melinum offered as a panacea for every painful affection to which the eyes of the colonists and natives of Cirencester might be subject, at the time that Minervalis practised amongst them. One of the forms of the Collyrium Melinum given by Galen is professed by him to be efficacious “ad omnem oculorum hebetudinem.”—(KÜhn’s edit. vol. xii. p. 786.)

SECTION XIII.

STAMP NO. XII.—FOUND IN IRELAND.

A Roman medicine-stamp has lately turned up in these islands, in a locality in which its presence could be little expected—viz., in the county of Tipperary, in Ireland. It has been described by Mr. Albert Way in an interesting paper, published after the first part of the present essay appeared in the Monthly Journal of Medical Science.569 Dr. Dowsley, of Clonmel, who now possesses this stone, has kindly furnished me with a wax impression of its inscription, and with the following note relative to the locality in which it was discovered:—“It was found (he says) near the village of Golden, parish of Relig-Murry, in the county of Tipperary, in a field near the ruins of an old hospital, or at least what was supposed to be such; but it was built at so remote a period, that there is now no record of what the building was for, nor of the founder of it, and so little of the walls are at present standing, that even the style of architecture cannot be known. The seal was discovered by a labourer when digging. There was no pottery nor coin found; but near it was a human skeleton much decayed, the position of which in the ground was not noticed. The soil in this field is peculiarly rich and very deep; it is frequently carted away for manure; most likely it was an ancient burial-ground. The village of Golden is about a mile from the old Abbey of Athassel.”

It is unnecessary to discuss here how such a Roman relic reached this part of Ireland,570 and whether it was conveyed there or not when the Romans were colonising Britain; or, what is probable, at a later period. But I may merely remark, there can be no doubt that Roman civilisation and Roman practices spread in the earlier centuries of the Christian era to parts beyond the precise line of Roman conquest. Other Roman relics have been found in Ireland,571 though Ireland was never subject to the Roman arms; and Roman vases, ornaments, and coins, have been discovered even in those more distant and northern Scandinavian settlements, to which the Roman power never penetrated.572

Plate III., No. XII., shows the figure of this Irish medicine-stamp. It is engraved only on one side, and the inscription runs as follows:—

M(arci?) JUVENtii TUTIANI DIAMYSUS AD VETeres CICatrices.—The Diamysus of Marcus Juventius Tutianus, for old cicatrices.

At the end of the first line there is a small cut in the inscription (see Plate), which, in all probability, is not a letter, but a mark or ornament intended to fill up that space. If a letter, it is most likely C, standing perhaps for collyrium.

In speaking of the Bath stone, I have already taken occasion to state that this same inscription of Diamysus ad veteres cicatrices has now been found on various Roman medicine-stamps discovered in different parts of France.

The collyrium DIAMISYOS or DIAMYSOS derived its designation from containing as its principal ingredient the Misy, a metallic vitriolic preparation, used to a considerable extent as a stimulant and escharotic among the ancients; and it was retained even to a comparatively late period in the London Pharmacopoeia.573 It appears to be still used medicinally in the East.574

The chemical nature, however, of Misy has given rise to some considerable doubt and discussion. It was usually found, and generally described, along with two other cognate fossils, Sori and Chalcitis. And Galen, who enters into an elaborate description of them, visited the copper mines of Cyprus, with a view of determining the precise nature of these three mineral substances.575

Dr. Adams,576 who has examined this question with all his well-known great learning and care, believes that these three minerals were merely varieties of chalcanthum or copperas. In his opinion the Chalcitis was probably a kind of pure sulphate of copper which had contracted an efflorescence from age; the Sori was sulphate of copper combined with zinc or other impurities; and the Misy was a combination of sulphate of copper with sulphate of iron, the predominance of the chalybeate salt giving to the fossil its peculiar colour. For the Misy, says Dioscorides, is “of a golden appearance, hard, shining like gold when broken, and glancing like stars.”

In his remarks on the Misy, Dioscorides speaks of the analogy of its caustic power with those of Chalcitis; but the only diseases that he referred to as having the Misy used in their treatment, are the diseases of the eye. And he does so in telling us that the Egyptian kind of Misy is quite inferior to the Cyprian in forming eye-medicines (ocularia medicamenta).577

In speaking of its medical powers, Galen,578 Oribasius,579 and Paulus Ægineta,580 describe the Misy as escharotic, and astringent. In giving his list of eye-medicines, Galen places the Misy, Sori, etc., amongst those local applications which have a detergent effect.581 Paulus Ægineta enters the Misy in his list of “detergents of foul ulcers” of the eye (vol. iii. p. 548). Pliny, in describing the properties of Misy, states that “extenuat scabrities oculorum.”582 Celsus in his work repeatedly alludes to the Misy and its effects.583 One of the collyria which he describes when treating of granular ophthalmia, contains the Misy (see page 294). And he adds, that with the exception of those affections which require mild applications, this special collyrium is adapted to every kind of disorder of the eye (adversus omne genus oculorum valetudinis idoneum est). Galen (vol. xii. p. 736), Oribasius (lib. iv. p. 51), and Paulus Ægineta (vol. iii. 556), all give formulÆ for the collyrium Panchrestos of Erasistratus, which contained Misy as its leading ingredient. “It has,” says Paulus, “wonderful efficacy in diseases of the eyes.” Oribasius enters it as a “compositio admirabilis.” The Misy, as a reputed “valedissimum medicamentum,” enters as an ingredient into several of the collyria described by Actuarius.584

In a previous page I have already taken occasion to state that Marcellus Empiricus gives a formula for a collyrium under the name inscribed upon the stone of the collyrium DIAMISYOS; and he describes it as calculated “ad aspritudines oculorum tollendas et ad lachrymas substringendas.”

The collyrium Diamisyos of Marcellus Empiricus consists of Misy burnt till it becomes red, and then combined with spikenard, saffron, cadmia, calcined copper, opium, myrrh, Cyprian scales, and gum, with all which it was to be rubbed down in the best wine, shaken and filtered. But he gives also the alternative of adding to the Diamysos another ingredient, which was long an article in the materia medica—viz. vipers. For some (he observes) add to the collyrium Diamisyos “a viper, dried and baked well in the sun, as if it were salted” (quidam adjiciunt huic collyrio viperam siccam et arefactam bene in sole tanquam si sit salita). He goes on, however, still further to explain that prayers and incantations must be used in making this addition to the Diamisyos. For (he observes) if you thus wish to add the dried viper, you must first extract its bones, roll it up in linen, and then pour over it the wine of the collyrium, previously charming the viper (sed prius eam praecantabis) as follows, lest it cause tears and produce harm, saying, “As thou dost not see, even so may thy juice, when tasted, hurt no one, but I pray that with the purpose for which thou hast been added, thou mayest585 further the cure (quomodo tu non vides, sic et tuus succus gustatus nulli noceat, sed ob rem propter quam adjecta es proficias bene curationi, precor).”586