BOOK XXXIW xxxiv. i3i-xxx\'i. 134 



are picked out by the fingers. When it is washed 

 with wine it is particularly powerful. There is also 

 some difference in the kind of wine used, as when it 

 is M'ashed with weak wine it is thought to be less 

 serviceable for eye-salves, and at the same time more 

 efficacious for running ulcers or for ulcers of the 

 mouth that are always wet and more useful for all the 

 antidotes for gangrene. An ash called Lauriotis " 

 is also produced in furnaces in which silver is smelted ; 

 but the kind said to be most serviceable for the eyes 

 is that wliich is formed in smelting gold. Nor is there 

 any other department in which the ingenuities of life 

 are more to be admired, inasmuch as to avoid the 

 need of searching for metals experience has devised 

 the same utilities by means of the commonest things. 



XXXV. The substance called in Greek ' anti- 

 spodos ' ' substitute ash ' is the ash of the leaves of the 

 figtree or wild fig or myrtle together with the tender- 

 est parts of the branches, or of the wild oUve or cul- 

 tivated olive or quince or mastic and also ash obtained 

 from unripe, that is still pale, mulberries, dried in the 

 sun, or from the foliage of the box or mock-gladiolus, 

 or bramble or turpentine-tree or cenanthe. The 

 same virtues have also been found in the ash of 

 bull-glue or of hnen fabrics. All of these are burnt 

 in a pot of raw earth heated in a furnace until the 

 earthenware is thoroughly baked. 



XXXVI. Also ' smegma ' ^ is made in copper 

 forges by adding additional charcoal when the 

 copper has already been melted, and thoroughly 

 fused, and gradually kindhng it ; and suddenly 

 when a stronger blast is applied a sort of chaff of 



by cleansing; so here it meana floating impurities containing 

 sorae copper (K. C. Bailey). 



22; 



