As?ptemberP i9™' }    Manufacture  of  Medicinal  Plasters.  417 
some  beneficial  action.  From  the  priesthood  of  Isis  down  to  the 
monks  of  the  near  past,  we  find  a  remarkable  knowledge  of  gums, 
juices,  resins,  and  that  remedial  applications  of  plasters,  salves, 
and  ointments  were  skilfully  prepared  therefrom.  In  the  Materia 
Medica  of  the  Aryans,  we  find  that  they  gave  particular  attention 
to  the  preparation  of  ointments,  salves,  plasters,  and  poultices. 
The  Greeks  assigned  a  place  within  their  temples,  where  plasters 
were  spread  and  medicines  prepared  by  trained  pharmacists.  From 
the  writings  of  Moses  and  from  Egyptology  we  find  that  the 
Egyptians  had  a  skilful  knowledge  of  gums,  resins,  ointments, 
salves,  blisters,  etc.,  and  knew  how  to  apply  them.  In  the  plaster 
dispensed  by  the  Chinese  pharmacist  of  to-day,  we  look  upon  the 
form  of  plaster  in  use  at  least  as  far  back  as  the  middle  ages.  A 
novel  method  of  plaster  making  is  of  ancient  Arabic  origin.  It 
seems  that  certain  kinds  of  domestic  wines  are  treated  with  pitch, 
which  gives  to  them  a  decidedly  smoky  flavor.  This  wine  is  stored 
or  carried  about  in  leather  bottles.  In  the  course  of  time  the 
interior  of  the  container  is  coated  with  the  deposited  pitch  and 
wine  sediments.  The  leather  bottle  is  then  cut.  into  plasters,  which 
find  a  ready  sale.  Many  formulas  found  in  the  pharmacopoeias 
of  the  present  day,  including  those  of  plasters,  are  modifications 
of  similar  ones  which  descended  from  Hippocrates,  Herophilus, 
and  Mantras,  who  lived  in  periods  ranging  from  250  to  500  years, 
B.C.  One  branch  of  the  so-called  "  sects  "  who  controlled  medicine 
about  300  B.C.  relied  largely  upon  the  use  of  narcotics,  such  as 
opium,  conium,  and  hyoscyamus,  in  their  plaster  and  poultice  mak- 
ing. The  well-known  diachylon  plaster  is  quite  similar  to  one 
devised  by  Menecrates,  who  lived  in  the  first  year  of  the  Christian 
Era.  In  the  first  authoritative  guide,  or  pharmacopoeia,  viz.,  that 
of  Valerius  Cordus,  the  formulas  for  plasters  included  a  large 
proportion  of  diachylon  base,  with  which  he  incorporated  vegetable 
and  mineral  drugs,  plant  juices,  etc.  Many  of  the  pharmacopceial 
plasters  of  the  present  time  are  evolutions  of  those  given  by 
this  author.  As  Menecrates  compiled  and  put  into  intelligent  form 
the  formulas  of  the  schools  preceding  him,  we  can  believe  that 
many  of  our  official  formulas  have  the  merit  of  antiquity. 
That  the  condition  of  the  drug  trade,  especially  as  applied  to 
plasters,  has  not  greatly  changed  may  be  deduced  from  a  memorial 
of  the  druggists  of  Nuremberg,  in  1581,  who  recite,  among  other 
things,  that — "  Counter  sales  are  now  made  by  the  cheap  corner 
