366 Flint's natural iiistort. [Book XXXVI. 



calcined state it is employed as a dentifrice. ^^ It is particularly 

 useful for the cure of litemorrhoidal swellings, applied either 

 in lint or by the aid of linen pledgets. 



cuAr. 42. — PUMICE ; nine kemediks. 



And here, too, I must not omit to give some account of 

 pumice. ^^ This name is very generally given, it is true, to tliose 

 porous pieces of stone, which we see suspended in the erec- 

 tions known as *' musaea,"^'^ with the view of artificially 

 giving them all the appearance of caverns. But the genuine 

 pumice-stones, that are in use for imparting smoothness to the 

 skin of females, and not females only, but men as well, and, as 

 Catullus'-*'' says, for polishing books, are found of the finest quality 

 in the islands of Melos and Nisyros"" and in the ^Eolian Isles. 

 To be gooil, they should be white, as light as possible, porous and 

 dry in the extreme, friable, and free Irom sand when rubbed. 



Considered medicinally, pumice is of a resolvent and desic- 

 cative nature ; for Avhieh purpose it is submitted to calcination, 

 no less than three times, on a fire of pure charcoal, it being 

 quenched as often in white wine. It is then washed, like 

 eadraia,^^ and, after being dried, is put by for keeping, in a 

 place as free from damp as possible. In a powdered state, 

 pumice is used in ophthalmic preparations more particularly, 

 and acts as a lenitive detergent upon ulcerations of the eyes. 

 It also nuikes new llesh upon cicatrizations of tliose organs, 

 and removes all traces of the marks. Some prefer, after the 

 third calcination, leaving the pumice to cool, and then triturating 

 it in wine. It is employed also as an ingredient in emollient 

 poultices, being extremely useful for ulcerations on the head 

 and generative organs ; dentifrices, too, are prepared from it. 

 According to Theophrastus,^ persons when drinking for a wager 

 are in the habit' of taking powdered pumice first ; but they 

 run great risk, he says, if they fail to swallow the whole 

 draught of wine at once ; it being of so rcfrigerative a nature 



^^ Pumice is still usexl as the basis of a dentifrice, but it destroys the 

 enamel of the teeth. ^^ gi^.^ ]Sote 90 above. 



uG Oi- n temples of the ^fiises :" evidently grottos in tlie present instance. 



^^ hi allusion to the line, "Aridy. modo pumice expolitum" — "Ju.st 

 polished with dry pumice-stone." Ep. I. 1. 2. Both the backs of books 

 and the parchmeut used for writing were rubbed with pumice. 



'■'•» See 13. V. c. 36. "^ See l). x.\xiv. c. 22. ^ Hist. B. ix. c. IS. 



- As a preventive of vomiting. 



