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
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