462 ON THE PRICE OF MATERIALS 



use of copperas was by no means remedial to the disease, and 

 that it must have injured the wool. 



In 1300 the farmer at Waleton, i. e. Walton in Suffolk, and 

 in 1301 the Southampton bailiff, use orpiment. I do not 

 know certainly whether this was that sulphide of arsenic which 

 is now known by the name. Arsenites still form, I believe, an 

 element in washes for the scab, but the use must be dangerous* 

 In 1300 the medicament was purchased at id. the pound. 



Another remedy was mercury. This was rubbed down with 

 lard, so as to form an ointment in the same way that mercurial 

 ointments are prepared at present. Seventeen entries of quick- 

 silver have been found, with prices annexed to them, but many 

 more might have been given had the bailiff specified the 

 quantity purchased. The average price, as deduced from all 

 the entries, is about <)\d. the pound, the entry (vol. ii. p. 531. 

 iii.) from Farley under the year 1395 being, beyond doubt, a 

 clerical error of the medieval scribe, in which c ounce' is 

 written for c pound.' The average is raised in consequence of 

 the fact that one year (1307) the Bradwell (Oxfordshire) bailiff 

 gave zs. %d. a pound for the article. The latest instance of its 

 use is at Boxley in 1333. The bailiff of this manor seems to 

 have been very conservative in the use of sheep medicines. 



Quicksilver must have been exported from Spain or Tran- 

 sylvania. It has been long known, the earliest mention of 

 the metal, as far as I am aware, being that by Aristotle a . 

 The singular properties of mercury made it a favourite 

 object of experiment with the alchemists, and the Moorish 

 physicians more wisely studied the medicinal virtues of its 

 compounds. It is more likely that it was introduced from 

 Spain than from South-eastern Europe, for, as we shall see, 

 a considerable trade was carried on between Spain and Eng- 

 land in the period before us. The price at which mercury is 

 ordinarily obtained indicates, I think, a steady and abundant 

 supply, for if we exclude the particularly dear year of 1307 the 

 average is only >]\d. 



* Meteorology, iv. 8. 9 ; De Anima, i. 3. ir. 



