86 Aster HIsTorY 
Aster leucas, dating hevubs, Aretaeus Cappadocis, De curatione, 
98, 19, 20, writing about 55 A.D. (but ignored for centuries, and 
named by Dioscorides, Aétios and Paulus Aegineta only among the 
ancients), who here mentions dorip dsvxdg as “a white earth, 
also called Samia; or Eretria or Sinopica or Lemnia’”’; and men- 
tions it bk. 2, as an astringent in his chapter 2 on ‘“‘ Curatio sanguinis 
refectionis.” Aretaeus’ phrase, 98, 19, is 77 dptoty Lapia xo 
"Kostpias zat dacno xdora Aevxoc. 
From Pliny ; ‘Of Samian earth there are two varieties ; one 
known as Collyrium ; the other by the name of Aster. To be in 
perfection, the first kind should be fresh, remarkably smooth and 
glutinous to the tongue; the second being of a more solid con- 
sistency, and white. They are both prepared for use by being 
calcined and then rinsed in water, some persons giving the prefer- 
ence to the first. They are both of them useful for discharges of 
blood from the mouth, and are employed as an ingredient in 
plasters of a desiccative nature. They are also used in the prepa- 
ration of ophthalmic compositions. All these earths are well 
washed in water and then dried in the sun, after which they are 
again triturated in water and left to settle; this done they are divided 
into tablets.” —Puiny, 35, 53-55. 
“Earth of Lemnos, the best is found in quarries of Lemnos 
and Cappadocia; it approaches very nearly [as a pigment] to 
minium [red lead] and was as highly esteemed among the ancients 
as the island that produces it; it was never sold except in sealed 
packages, a circumstance to which we are indebted for its addi- 
tional name of sphragis [a seal]. It is with this that they give the 
undercoating to minium, and in the adulteration of minium it is 
Melos, The earth of Lemnos was sealed with the figure of Diana, and to this day the 
bolar argils brought from Greece bear various seals and characters; hence the Solus 
Armeniae and the dofus ruber are called terra sivillata.”’ Millengen, Curiosities . 
Medical Experience, 2: 139. London, 1837 : 
The term ¢erra sigillata occurs 1779 in a London recipe for a preparation to fs 
used as a mouth-wash, beginning “ Take Mace, Cinnamon, Cloves, Pellitory of ise 
and Terra Sigillata or Sealed Earth, of each half an ounce,’”’ in ‘ Spirit of Wine," 
eg of Scurvy Grass and Water.’? The Toilet of Flora, 91. Lon. 177% 
ee pve al mane other “‘earths”’ also, used medicinally and in painters’ mixtures; 
oe as described by Pliny, bk. 35. Even Attica produced its peculiar earth, “ Atticus 
sil’’ or ochre, of violet color, Ruel, 634. . 
