CHAP. 55.—SANDARACH; ELEVEN REMEDIES.

We have already mentioned nearly all the properties of sandarach.[1] It is found both in gold-mines and in silver-mines. The redder it is, the more pure and friable, and the more powerful its odour, the better it is in quality. It is detergent, astringent, heating, and corrosive, but is most remarkable for its septic properties. Applied topically with vinegar, it is curative of alopecy. It is also employed as an ingredient in ophthalmic preparations. Used with honey, it cleanses the fauces and makes the voice more clear and harmonious. Taken with the food, in combination with turpentine, it is a pleasant cure for cough and asthma. In the form of a fumigation also, with cedar, it has a remedial effect upon those complaints.[2]

1. The Realgar of the moderns, red orpiment, or red sulphuret of arsenic. Pliny has in numerous places spoken of it as a remedy for certain morbid states both of animals and vegetables, B. xvii. c. 47, B. xxiii. c. 13, B. xxv. c. 22, and B. xxviii. c. 62, but he has not previously given any account of its origin and composition.—B.

2. Dioscorides, B. v. c. 122, informs us, with respect to this effect of sandarach, that it was burned in combination with resin, and that the smoke was inhaled through a tube.—B.