Chap. .50.] REMEDIES DEIUVED FROM LEAD. 217 



noxious vapour is discharged from the furnace, of a deadly 

 nature, to dogs in particular. Indeed, the vapours from all 

 metals destroy flies and gnats ; and hence it is that in mines 

 there are none of those annoyances. 1 * Some persons, during the 

 process, mix lead- filings with the sulphur, while others substi- 

 tute ceruse for sulphur. By washing, a preparation is made 

 from lead, that is much employed in medicine : for this pur- 

 pose, a leaden mortar, containing rain water, is beaten with a 

 pestle of lead, until the water has assumed a thick consistency ; 

 which done, the water that tloats on the surface is removed 

 with a sponge, and the thicker part of the sediment is left to 

 dry, and is then divided into tablets. Some persons triturate 

 lead-tilings in this way, and some mix with it lead ore, or 

 else vinegar, wine, grease, or rose-leaves. Others, again, 

 prefer triturating the lead in a stone mortar, one of Thebaie 

 stone more particularly, with a pestle of lead; by which 

 process a whiter preparation is obtained. 



As to calcined lead, it is washed, like stibi 17 and cadmia. 

 Its action is astringent and repressive, and it is promotive of 

 cicatrization. The same substance is also employed in prepa- 

 rations for the eyes, cases of procidence 18 of those organs more 

 particularly ; also for tilling up the cavities left by ulcer?, and 

 for removing excrescences and fissures of the anus, as well as 

 hcemorrhoidal and condylomatous tumours. For all these pur- 

 poses the lotion of lead is particularly useful ; but for serpigi- 

 jious or sordid ulcers it is the ashes of calcined lead that are 

 used, these producing the same advantageous effects as ashes of 

 burnt papyrus. 19 



The lead is calcined in thin plates, laid with sulphur in 

 shallow vessels, the mixture being stirred with iron rods or 

 stalks of fennel-giant, until the melted metal becomes calcined ; 

 when cold, it is pulverized. Some persons calcine lead- 

 filings in a vessel of raw earth, which they leave in the 

 furnace, until the earthenware is completely baked. Others, 

 again, mix with it an equal quantity of ceruse or of barley, and 

 triturate it in the way mentioned for raw lead; indeed, the 



18 Ilardouin observes, that these insects are never met with in mines ; 

 but probably this may dcnend more upon other causes, than upon the 

 vapours which are supposed to proceed from the metals. B. 



" See B. xxxiii. cc. 33, 34. 1& See B. xx. c. 81, and B. xxiv. c. 73. 



"Chartu." See B. siiv. c. 51. 



