Roman oculists' medicine stamps and collyria / [C.J.S. Thompson].

  • Thompson, C. J. S. (Charles John Samuel), 1862-1943
Date:
[1920?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Roman oculists' medicine stamps and collyria / [C.J.S. Thompson]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    12. Juniperus excelsa (and) lolium thou shall pound (and) strain, in lees of kurunnu-beer [bhou shall knead, press, bind on and not take off for three days ?]. 13. Mustard (and) barhus thou shalt pound (and) strain, in lees of kurunnu-beer [thou shalt knead, press, bind on and ditto ?]. 14. Pine-gum, fir-gum, *galbanum, lolium, salicornia-alkali [thou shalt bray, apply?]. 15. Copper-dust [in . . . thou shalt bray, knead, press, bind on and not take off for three days ?]. 16. ... lolium, J ka of usa-beer . . . [thou shalt knead, press, bind on and not take off for three days ?]. No. 5. AM. 2, 3 (K. 13502), top broken. 2. ... sulphur, nigella . . . 3. ... thou shalt bray soot (=sal ammoniac)1 2 . . . 1 im.kal. It is better to discuss the longer group im.kal.gug first, im.kal, meaning literally “ strong wind ”, must signify “ vapour ” or something vaporized, gug — sdrntu, sdndu, most noticeable in to,fGUG, i.e. a red stone. Now one of the most obvious “ red stones ” is the cinnabar, which gives vermilion paint. It must be different from ta*AN.GUG.me, following “gold, silver, copper”, perhaps cornelian used in decorating the palace (Sennacherib, King, CT. xxvi, 23, 14). But the “ vapour of cinnabar ” is mercury, well known to the ancients (IB. No. 1143 says mercury came from Azerbaijan). Cf. Pliny (xxxiii, 37 ff.), who says that minium (our cinnabar, according to Bostock), which is found in silver mines, comes from Carmania. He describes the method of obtaining hydrargyros from the “ inferior ” minium, either by pounding minium and vinegar, or else by putting minium into flat earthen pans covered with a lid, and then enclosed in an iron seething-pot, well luted with potter’s clay. A fire is then lighted under the pans, and the flame kept continually burning by the aid of bellows ; which done, the steam that is found adhering to the lid is carefully removed, being like silver in colour, and similar to water in its fluidity. He notes that minium is a poison. Now im.kal.gug is used : (a) in fumigating ears (33, 1, 31 ; 34, 5, 7; 35, 1, 7 ; 38, 2 r. 10) (cinnabar is used in application to ears in SM. ii, 114, 115) ; (6) brayed and applied, [eyes] (11, 2, 12) (cinnabar is used for eyes in SM. ii, 98) ; (c) as ecbolic in difficult labour, to be brayed and drunk in beer (67, 1, iv, 22). We may, therefore, see “ mercury ” in im.kal.gug with reasonable probability. Santu, sdnclu, the name for the “red stone ”, may have an echo in the Syr. sdna, Fers. sddnah, Arab. A) 5 U haematites (Lane, Did. sub voce), and still more probably in advZv^ “a bright red colour” (with -£ termination, like so many words onurvava^, arvpa|, etc.). Leclerc’s note to IB. No. 1132 gives sandyx = minium. What, then, is im.kal in our present text ? Obviously it cannot be “ vapour ”, since it is brayed. On my asking Mr. N. V. Sidgwick for his opinion about it, on the analogy of