Chap. 35.] riFTEEN YAEIETIES OF ANTISPODOS. 203 



cadmia with copper ore. This substance, which is the lightest 

 part of the metal disengaged by fusion, escapes from the fur- 

 nace, and adheres to the roof, being distinguished from the 

 soot by the whiteness of its colour. Such parts of it as are 

 less white are indicative of incomplete combustion, and it is this 

 which some persons call ** pompholyx." Such portions of it as 

 are of a more reddish colour are possessed of a more energetic 

 power, and are found to be so corrosive, that if it touches 

 the eyes, while being washed, it will cause blindness. There 

 is also a spodos of a honey colour, an indication that it con- 

 tains a large proportion of copper. All the different kinds, 

 however, are improved by washing ; it being first skimmed with 

 a feather,^'* and afterwards submitted to a more substantial 

 washing, the harder grains being removed with the finger. That, 

 too, which has been washed with wine is more modified in its 

 efi'ects ; there being also some difierence according to the kind of 

 wine that is used. "When it has been w^ashed with weak wine 

 the spodos is considered not so beneficial as an ingredient in 

 medicaments for the eyes ; but the same kind of preparation is 

 more efficacious for running sores, and for ulcers of the mouth 

 attended with a discharge of matter, as well as in all those 

 remedies which are used for gangrene. 



There is also a kind of spodos, called *' lauriotis,"^" which 

 is made in the furnaces where silver is smelted. The kind, 

 however, that is best for the eyes, it is said, is that produced in 

 the furnaces for smelting gold. Indeed there is no department 

 of art in which the ingenuity of man is more to be admired ; 

 for it has discovered among the very commonest objects, a 

 substance that is in every way possessed of similar properties. 



CHAP. 35. FIFTEEN VARIETIES OF ANTISPODOS. 



The substance called " antispodos "^^ is produced from the 

 ashes of the fig-tree or wild fig, or of leaves of myrtle, to- 

 gether with the more tender shoots of the branches. The 

 leaves, too, of the wild olive^^ furnish it, the cultivated olive, 

 the quince-tree, and the lentisk ; unripe mulberries also, before 



^* From the corresponding passage in Dioscorides, there is some doubt 

 whether the account of this process here given is correct. — B. 



^= So called from Laurium, a district iu Attica, in which there were silver 

 mines. See Pausanias, B. i. — B. 



*^ Meaning '* Substitute for spodos." s? ggg ^^ xxiii. cc. 38, 63. 



