Chap. 54.] PSIMITHIUM OE CEEUSB. 219 



furnaces in wMcli gold and silver have been smelted ; and in this 

 case it is called " metallic." The most esteemed kind is that 

 prepared at Zephyrium.^^ Those kinds, too, are considered the 

 best that are the least earthy and the least stony. It is used in 

 preparing liparae,-^ as also for soothing or cooling ulcers, and as 

 an ingredient in plasters, which are applied without ligatures, 

 but are used only as a liniment for producing cicatrization on 

 the bodies of delicate persons and the more tender parts. The 

 composition is made of three pounds of molybdsena, one pound 

 of wax, and three heminse of oil ; to which are added lees of 

 olives, in the case of aged persons. Combined with scum of 

 silver^ and scoria of lead, it is employed warm in fomentations 

 for dysentery and tenesmus. 



CHAP. 54. — PSIMITHITJM, OE CEEUSE ; SIX REMEDIES. 



Psimithium,^^ which is also known as ceruse, is another 

 production of the lead-works. The most esteemed comes from 

 Rhodes. It is made from very fine shavings of lead, placed 

 over a vessel filled with the strongest vinegar ; by which means 

 the shavings become dissolved. That which falls into the 

 vinegar is first dried, and then pounded and sifted, after 

 which it is again mixed with vinegar, and is then divided 

 into tablets and dried in the sun, during summer. It is also 

 made in another way ; the lead is thrown into jars filled with 

 vinegar, which are kept closed for ten days ; the sort of mould 

 that forms upon the surface is then scraped off, and the lead is 

 again put into the vinegar, until the whole of the metal is 

 consumed. The part that has been scraped off is triturated 

 and sifted, and then melted in shallow vessels, being stirred 

 with ladles, until the substance becomes red, and assumes the 

 appearance of sandarach. It is then washed with fresh water, 

 until all the cloudy impurities have disappeared, after which 

 it is dried as before, and divided into tablets. 



Its properties are the same as those of the substances above 



-5 In Cilicia : see B. v. c. 22. He is speaking, no doubt, of the 

 "metallic," or artificial kind. 



26 A kind of ointment. See B. xxiii, c. 81, and B. xxxiii. c. 35. 



2' Our Litharge. See B. xxxiii. c, 35. 



28 According to Ajasson, this substance is properly a sub-carbonate of 

 lead, commonly called white lead, — B. 



