Chap. 17.] LEUCOPHOEON. 23/ 



was as highly esteemed among the ancients as the island that 

 produces it ; it was never sold except in sealed packages, a cir- 

 cumstance to which it was indebted for its additional name of 

 *' sphragis." It is with this material that they give the under- 

 coating to minium, in the adulteration of which it is also ex- 

 tensively employed. 



In medicine it is very highly esteemed. Applied to the 

 eyes in the form of a liniment, it allays defluxions and pains 

 in those organs, and arrests the discharges from lachrymal 

 fistulas. To persons vomiting blood, it is administered with 

 vinegar to drink. It is taken also internally for affections of 

 the spleen and kidneys ; and by females for the purpose of 

 arresting flooding. It is employed too, to counteract the 

 effects of poisons, and of stings inflicted by sea or land ser- 

 pents ; hence it is that it is so commonly used as an ingredient 

 in antidotes. 



CHAP. 15. — EGYPTIAN EAUTH. 



Of the other kinds of rubrica, those of Egj^pt and Africa are 

 of the greatest utility to workers in wood, from the fact of 

 their being absorbed with the greatest rapidity. They are 

 used also for painting, and are found in a native state in iron- 

 mines.^- 



CHAP. 16. — OCHRA : EEMEDIES DEEIVED FEOM ET7EEICA. 



It is from rubrica also, that ochra'^^ is prepared, the rubrica 

 being burnt^* in new earthen pots well luted with clay. The 

 more highly it is calcined in the furnace, the better the 

 colour is. All kinds of rubrica are of a desiccative nature, and 

 hence it is that they are so useful for plasters, and as an ap- 

 plication even for erysipelas. 



CHAP. 17. — LEUCOPHOEON. 



Half a pound of Pontic sinopis, ten pounds of bright sil,^^ 



22 Ajasson thinks that this was an hydroxide of iron, of a greenish yel- 

 low or brown colour. 



23 Whence our word " ochre." See " Sil," in B. xxxiii. cc. 66, 57. 



2* Theophrastus, on the contrary, says that it is " ochra" that is burnt, 

 in order to obtain "rubrica." 25 ggg B. xxxiii. cc. 56, 57. 



