10 



tlons ill England. One was, some years ago, found amid a quan- 

 tity of broken tiles, brick, and other debris of an old (and probably 

 Roman) house near to the church of Tranent, and consequently not 

 far from the old and extensive Roman town or station of Inveresk. 

 This Roman medicine stamp, now deposited in the Scottish Anti- 

 quarian Museum, is remarkable both as being thus found on almost 

 the very frontier of the ancient Roman Empire, and as being one of 

 the most perfect yet discovered. 



The stone is of the figure of a parallelogram about an inch and 

 a-half in length, and a quai'ter of an inch in thickness, and with in- 

 scriptions cut upon two of its sides. The two inscriptions read as 

 follows when we separate the individual words composing them from 

 each other : — 



1. L. VALLATINI EVODES AD CI- 

 CATRICES ET ASPKITUDIN 



2. L. VALLATINI APALOCRO- 

 CODES AD DIATHESIS 



When the elisions and contractions which exist in these (as in 

 almost all other Roman inscriptions) are supplied, thv two legends 

 may be read as follows : — 



1. hltcii VALLATINI EVODES AD CICATRICES ET ASPeRITUDIN05. 



The Evodes of Lucius Vallatinus for cicatrices and granulations. 

 Several of the collyria described in the works of Galen. Cel-us, 

 Aetius, &c., and inscribed on the oculist-stamps, derived their de- 

 signation from some special physical character. The present in- 

 stance is an example in point, the appellation Evo-Jcs Quudes) being 

 derived from the pleasant odour (JD, well, and o^w, I smell) of the 

 composition. Marcellu.s, in his work " De Medicamentis," specially 

 praises the collyrium known under the name of Evodes ; and that 

 too in the class of eye diseases mentioned on the Tranent seal. 

 For, in his collection of remedies for removing ulcers, cicatrices, &c., 

 of the eyes and eyelids, he recommends (to use his own words) 

 " prsecipue hoc quodquidam Diasmyrnon, nonnuUi Evodes, quia boni 

 odoris est, nominant." And he directs the Evodes to be dissolved 

 and diluted in water, and introduced into the eyes with a probe, or 

 after inverting the eyelid, when it was used with the view of ex- 

 tenuating recent cicatrices of the eyes, and removing granulations of 



