Chap. 52.] ALUMEN. 297 



fingers. This last kind is calcined by itself upon hot coals, 

 unmixed with any other substance, until it is entirely reduced 

 to ashes. 



The best kind of all, however, is that called " melinun],"^^ 

 as coming from the Isle of Melos, as already mentioned ; none 

 being more effectual for acting as an astringent, staining 

 black, and indurating, and none assuming a closer consistency. 

 It removes granulations of the eye-lids, and, in a calcined state, 

 is still more efficacious for checking defluxions of the eyes : 

 in this last form, too, it is employed for the cure of prurigi- 

 nous eruptions on the body. Whether taken internally, or 

 employed externally, it arrests discharges of blood ; and if it is 

 applied with vinegar to a part from which the hair has been 

 first removed, it will change into a soft down the hair which 

 replaces it. The leading property of every kind of alumen is 

 its remarkable astringency, to which, in fact, it is indebted for 

 its name^® with the Greeks. It is for this property that the 

 various kinds are, all of them, so remarkably good for the 

 eyes. In combination with grease, they arrest discharges of 

 blood ; and they are employed in a similar manner for check- 

 ing the spread of putrid ulcers, and for removing sores upon 

 the bodies of infants. 



Alumen has a desiccative efi'ect upon dropsical eruptions ; 

 and, in combination with pomegranate juice, it removes dis- 

 eases of the ears, malformed nails, indurations resulting from 

 cicatrization, hangnails, and chilblains. Calcined, with vine- 

 gar or nut-galls, in equal proportions, it is curative of phage- 

 dsenic ulcers ; and, in combination with extracted juice of 

 cabbage, of leprosy. Used in the proportion of one part of 

 alumen to two of salt, it arrests the progress of serpiginous 

 eruptions ; and an infusion of it in water destroys lice and 

 other parasitical insects that infest the hair. Employed in a 

 similar manner, it is good for burns ; and, in combination with 

 the serous^^ part of pitch, for furfuraceous eruptions on the 

 body. It is used also as an injection for dysentery, and, em- 

 ployed in the form of a gargle, it braces the uvula and tonsil- 

 lary glands. For all those maladies which we have men- 



25 He has previously said that the most esteemed kind was the Egyptian, 

 that of Melos being the next best. 26 ^rvirrnpia, the " styptic." 



" " Sero picis." Hardouin is of opinion that under this name pisse- 

 Ijeon IS intended. See B. xv. c. 7, 13. xxiv. cc. 11, 24, and B. xxv. c. 22. 



