8 N'OTES OI<r LATIN INSCRIPTIONS 



Lis time, however, the subject has been explained and illustrate J by 

 Spou, ChishuU, Caylus, Saxe, Walche, Gough, Tochon, Sichet, Ducha- 

 lais. Way, and Simpson,* so that there now remains no doubt that they 

 were medicine stamps used by the Roman physicians or empirics for- 

 marking their drugs or preparations, especially for diseases of the* 

 eyes. 



One of the most interesting of these stones, inasmuch as it presents- 

 very great difficulties in interpretation, is that which was found at Bath, 

 in a cellar in the Abbey yard,fn 1731. " It was shewn to the Society 

 of Antiquaries in London, at that time and twice afterwards. Mr. 

 Lethiecullier gave them a cast of it in plaster, and in 1?57, the stone it- 

 self was the property of Mr. Mitchell. It is squ,are, of a greenish cast 

 and perforated." Dr. J. Y. Simpson, (Edinburgh Medical Journal,. 

 March, 1851,) informs us that he "had attempted to trace out the 

 present proprietor of the stamp, with a view of ascertaining, more cor-^ 

 rectly, the exact nature of the inscriptions j but that these efforts were 

 quite unsuccessful." Fortunately, however., "some manuscript notices 

 of this Bath stamp exist in the minute books of the Antiquarian Society, 

 with an impression taken with ink from the inscriptions." From a 

 comparison of these notices with the copies of the inscriptions given by 

 Gough (x'irchgeologia, vol. IX., p. 228,) Dr. Simpson has determined 

 the reading and interpretation of two of the legends with certainty,^, 

 and of the third with some probability, whilst he states that the fourth 

 side " offers the most puzzling of all the inscriptions hitherto found 

 upon the Koman medicine stamps discovered in Britain." It is to this- 

 inscription that I now desire to direct attention. Mr. Gough (Archaeo- 

 logia, vol. IX., p. 228,) reads it : 



T. IVmANI HOFSVMADp:\r 

 EC YMODELICTA A MEDICIS. 

 and Dr. Simpson offers the following^ explanatory remarks r 



" This fourth legend OH; tile Bath stone offers the most puzzling of all the ih-^ 

 periptions hitherto found upon the Roman medicine stamps discovered in Biitain* 

 As Mr, Gough gives it, the last wosds of the inseription (DELIGTA; A MEDICIS' 

 — esteemed by physicians,) are alone intelligible. The plaster east of tliis side- 

 of the seal, contained in the Museum of the Antiquarian, Society of LoikIoh, con- 

 tains an extremely imperfect copy of the second line-, and not an ov-er perfect one 

 of the first; but we see enough of it to be quite aware of the great carelessness 

 with which Mr. Gough had originally copied the whole inscription. The second' 

 last letter in the line is not the Greek p, but the Latin Q ; and the name of the' 



* Dr. Simpson's articles in the Edinbur9;h Medical Journal, January and March, 1851,, 

 afford ample and. satisfactory information, relative to the stamps found in the Unitetfe. 

 Kingdtaaa.. 



