Chap. 23.] MEDICIIS^AL EFFECTS OF CALCINED COPPER. 193 



second time upon a iire of pure charcoal, and when duly 

 inciuerated, is quenched in Aminean*^'' wine, if required for 

 making plasters, but in vinegar, if wanted for the cure of itch- 

 scab. Some persons first pound it, and then burn it in 

 earthen pots ; which done, they wash it in mortars and then 

 dry it. 



!N'ymphodorus^° recommends that the most heavy and dense 

 pieces of mineral cadmia that can be procured, should be 

 burnt upon hot coals and quenched in Chian wine; after 

 which, it must be pounded and then sifted through a linen 

 cloth. It is then pulverized in a mortar and macerated in 

 rain water, the sediment being again pounded until it is 

 reduced to the consistency of ceruse, and presents no gritti- 

 ness to the teeth. loUas^^ recommends the same process ; 

 except that he selects the purest specimens of native cadmia. 



CKAP. 23. FIFTEEN KEMEDIES DERIVED FROM CADMIA. TEN- 

 MEDICINAL EFFECTS OF CALCINED COPPER. 



Cadmia^- acts as a desiccative, heals wounds, arrests dis- 

 charges, acts detergently upon webs and foul incrustations of 

 the eyes, removes eruptions, and produces, in fact, all the good 

 effects which we shall have occasion to mention when speaking 

 of lead. Copper too, itself, when calcined, is employed for 

 all these purposes ; in addition to which it is used for white 

 spots and cicatrizations upon the eyes. Mixed with milk, it 

 is curative also of ulcers upon the eyes ; for which purpose, 

 the people in Egypt make a kind of eye- salve by grinding it 

 upon whet stones. Taken with honey, it acts as an emetic. 

 Por these purposes, Cyprian copper is calcined in unbaked 

 earthen pots, with an equal quantity of sulphur ; the apertures 

 of the vessel being well luted, and it being left in the furnace 

 until the vessel itself has become completely hardened. Some 

 persons add salt, and others substitute alum^^ for sulphur; 

 others, again, add nothing, but merely sprinkle the copper with 

 vinegar. When calcined, it is pounded in a mortar of Thebaic 

 stone, ^* after which it is washed with rain water, and then 



89 See B. xiv. e. 16. ^o See end of B. iii. ^^ See end of B. xii. 

 ^■- We have the same account of the medicinal effects of Cadmia, and 

 the other preparations mentioned in this Chapter, given by Dioscorides. — B. 

 '•** For an account of the " alumen" of the ancients, see B. xxxv. c, 52, 

 91 See B. xxxiii. c. 21, and B. xxsvi. c. 13, 

 VOL. VI. O 



