CHAP. 23.—FIFTEEN REMEDIES DERIVED FROM CADMIA. TEN MEDICINAL EFFECTS OF CALCINED COPPER.

Cadmia[1] acts as a desiccative, heals wounds, arrests discharges, acts detergently upon webs and foul incrustations of the eyes, removes eruptions, and produces, in fact, all the good effects which we shall have occasion to mention when speaking of lead. Copper too, itself, when calcined, is employed for all these purposes; in addition to which it is used for white spots and cicatrizations upon the eyes. Mixed with milk, it is curative also of ulcers upon the eyes; for which purpose, the people in Egypt make a kind of eye-salve by grinding it upon whet stones. Taken with honey, it acts as an emetic. For these purposes, Cyprian copper is calcined in unbaked earthen pots, with an equal quantity of sulphur; the apertures of the vessel being well luted, and it being left in the furnace until the vessel itself has become completely hardened. Some persons add salt, and others substitute alum[2] for sulphur; others, again, add nothing, but merely sprinkle the copper with vinegar. When calcined, it is pounded in a mortar of Thebaic stone,[3] after which it is washed with rain water, and then pounded with a large quantity of water, and left to settle. This process is repeated until the deposit has gained the appearance of minium;[4] after which it is dried in the sun, and put by for keeping in a box made of copper.

1. We have the same account of the medicinal effects of Cadmia, and the other preparations mentioned in this Chapter, given by Dioscorides.—B.

2. For an account of the "alumen" of the ancients, see B. xxxv. c. 52.

3. See B. xxxiii. c. 21, and B. xxxvi. c. 13.

4. See B. xxxiii. c. 37.