I loved it to have belonged to some at Roman Lacrainte or less in sintments. The following is a copy of me spA E TO Wish heater stamp as given by Chishun 1. QIULMURRANIMELI NUMADCLARITATEM. 9. QIULMURRANISTAGIU And My Chechull interpreted these inscriptions tha: Cana NANE MILANUM AD CLARITATEM.-The Melinum levens, for clearness of vision. * 99% var af Pre-collyrium Melinum are given by Mollyria he gives formula for the materichum (i. e. against the Atarichum fitted for those who could stamps. But again, the same objection holds,-namely, that in none of the collyria Melina of Galen was alum a component ingredient. In his observations, however, upon the different forms of emplastra (and many of which were named Melina), Galen gives a sufficient explanation of the origin of this term as it was applied to plasters; and the same holds, no doubt, also in reference to its application to collyria. According to his own explanation, it was a term significant merely of the colour of the resulting medicament, like the green, &c., plasters and collyria, named chloron, cirrhon, &c. &c. Gesner, Cooper, and other philologists, lay down Melinum as an adjective, meaning yellow; and perhaps the term was originally derived from mel (e), honey, honey-coloured. The yellowish tint of the emplastra melina was, as Galen tells us, generally, but not always, derived from their containing verdigris, altered by a moderate boiling with the other component ingredients. The collyria Melina of Galen contain ceruse and calamine in their composition. The Melinum is professed, in Murranus' stamp, to be efficacious for the clearing of the eyesight (ad claritatem). The Melina collyria of Galen are all alleged by him to have effects conducive to this object, viz., the removing of cicatrices and calli, and every weakness of vision (omnem hebetudinem visus). 2. Q. JULII MURRANI STAGIUM (STACTUM) OPOBALSAMATUM AD CAP (CALigines).-The Opobalsamic Stactum, or Opobalsamic Eyedrops, of Q. Julius Murranus, for dimness or blindness. Mr Chishull read Stagium instead of Stactum, the CT of the latter word having been mistaken by him for GI. Mr Forster showed to the London Antiquarian Society, in 1767, a plaster-cast of what was doubtlessly this same Colchester stamp, and gave the reading correctly in the second inscription as Stactum. The Latin designation Stactum, analogous to the Greek terms Stacton, Enstacton, and derived from the verb oraw (I drop), denoted any liquid collyrium, applied by drops into the eye—“ collyria stactica, hoc est, instillatitia, appellata.' A collyrium, with the appellation Stactum or Staticon, is described by Marcellus, Myrepsus, Paulus Aegineta &c.; and Aetius' gives 5 1 Quemadmodum viridium emplastrorum plurima propter æruginem præpollentem talia fiunt, presertione quæ sunt ex ipsis coloratiora; ita quoque Melina. Sed viridia æruginem incoctam habent, Melina vero coctam quidem, sed mediocriter; nam si amplius coquas, bicolora emplastra quibusdam appellata, quibusdam gilva, efficies. Solent Medici simpliciter viridia, Melina, et rufa, nominare, &c.-Galen de Compositione Medicamentorum per Genera, Cap. VI.-Kuehn's Edit., Vol. XIII., p. 503. 2 See Archæologia, Vol IX., p. 228. 3 Etius' Tetrabilias, Cornarius' Edit., p. 435. 4 De Medicam. Liberi; Principes Artis. Part III., p. 284. De Compos. Med. in Ib. Part III. p. 660. Paulus Aegineta's Work. Dr Adams's Translation, Vol. III. p. 551. 7 Cornarius' Translation, p. 435. NEW SERIES.-NO. XIII. JANUARY 1851. G believed it to have belonged to some old Roman Iatraliptos or dealer in ointments. The following is a copy of the inscription on this Colchester stamp as given by Chishull: 1. QIULMURRANIMELI NUMADCLARITATEM. 2. QIULMURRANISTAGIU MOPOBALSAMATADCAP. And Mr Chishull interpreted these inscriptions thus :—“ Quinti Julii Murranii Melinum, sive ex malis cotoneis oleum, ad claritatem oculorem faciens. Iterumque, Quinti Julii Murrani stagium opobalsamatum, sive myrrhæ oleum opobalsamo permixtum, ad cap. i. e., ad caput medicandum utile." In this interpretation Mr Chishull seems to have fallen into more than one important error, as we shall endeavour to show by considering the two inscriptions in detail. 1. Q. JULII MURRANI MELINUM AD CLARITATEM.- -The Melinum of Q (Quintus?) Julius Murranus, for clearness of vision. Two or three varieties of the collyrium Melinum are given by Galen. Thus in his list of collyria he gives formulæ for the Melinum of Lucius; for the Melinum atarachum (i. e. against the taraxis); and for a Melinum delicatum, fitted for those who could not bear the irritation of any powerful medicament. 2 Different opinions have been expressed in relation to the origin and signification of the term Melinum. Walch, like Chishull, derives the term from "malum," (μñλov) an apple, supposing it to be the principal ingredient in the collyrium. And certainly Pliny and Paulus Aegineta speak of an oil termed melinum," being made from the quince (Malum Cydoneum); and the flower of the plant is described by Pliny as useful in inflammation of the eyes. But no "malum" enters into the composition of any of the three Melina collyria, which I have referred to in Galen. The best variety of alum seems, in ancient times, to have come from the island of Melos; and, according to Pliny, it was consequently termed Melinum, and was useful in discussing granulations of the eyes (oculorum scabritias extenuat). Hence Saxe (p. 29) and Tochon (p. 18), have conjectured that the alum or Melinum of Pliny was the Melinum which has been found on several oculist 1 Kuehn's Galen, vol. xii. p. 787, 786, and 769. Actuarius gives a formula for a collyrium melinum, but it is a copy of the last of Galen. See Principes Artis Medicæ, Part ii. p. 309. 2 Antiquitates Medica Selectæ, p. 55. 3 Historia Naturalis, Lib. xiii., tom ii., p. 37. Dr Adam's edition of Paulus Aegineta, vol. iii. p. 592. 4 Historia Naturalis, Vol. III., Lib. xxxv., page 423. See the same oleum Melinum described by Dioscorides, i. 55, p. 31. stamps. But again, the same objection holds,—namely, that in none of the collyria Melina of Galen was alum a component ingredient. In his observations, however, upon the different forms of emplastra (and many of which were named Melina), Galen gives a sufficient explanation of the origin of this term as it was applied to plasters; and the same holds, no doubt, also in reference to its application to collyria. According to his own explanation, it was a term significant merely of the colour of the resulting medicament, like the green, &c., plasters and collyria, named chloron, cirrhon, &c. &c. Gesner, Cooper, and other philologists, lay down Melinum as an adjective, meaning yellow; and perhaps the term was originally derived from mel (e), honey, honey-coloured. The yellowish tint of the emplastra melina was, as Galen tells us, generally, but not always, derived from their containing verdigris, altered by a moderate boiling with the other component ingredients. The collyria Melina of Galen contain ceruse and calamine in their composition. The Melinum is professed, in Murranus' stamp, to be efficacious for the clearing of the eyesight (ad claritatem). The Melina collyria of Galen are all alleged by him to have effects conducive to this object, viz., the removing of cicatrices and calli, and every weakness of vision (omnem hebetudinem visus). 2. Q. JULII MURRANI STAGIUM (STACTUM) OPOBALSAMATUM AD CAP (CALigines).-The Opobalsamic Stactum, or Opobalsamic Eyedrops, of Q. Julius Murranus, for dimness or blindness. Mr Chishull read Stagium instead of Stactum, the CT of the latter word having been mistaken by him for GI. Mr Forster showed to the London Antiquarian Society,' in 1767, a plaster-cast of what was doubtlessly this same Colchester stamp, and gave the reading correctly in the second inscription as Stactum. The Latin designation Stactum, analogous to the Greek terms Stacton, Enstacton, and derived from the verb oraw (I drop), denoted any liquid collyrium, applied by drops into the eye" collyria stactica, hoc est, instillatitia, appellata." A collyrium, with the appellation Stactum or Staticon, is described by Marcellus, Myrepsus, Paulus Aegineta &c.; and Aetius' gives 1 Quemadmodum viridium emplastrorum plurima propter æruginem præpollentem talia fiunt, presertione quæ sunt ex ipsis coloratiora; ita quoque Melina. Sed viridia æruginem incoctam habent, Melina vero coctam quidem, sed mediocriter; nam si amplius coquas, bicolora emplastra quibusdam appellata, quibusdam gilva, efficies. Solent Medici simpliciter viridia, Melina, et rufa, nominare, &c.-Galen de Compositione Medicamentorum per Ġenera, Cap. VI.-Kuehn's Edit., Vol. XIII., p. 503. 2 See Archæologia, Vol IX., p. 228. 3 Etius' Tetrabilias, Cornarius' Edit., p. 435. 4 De Medicam. Liberi; Principes Artis. Part III., p. 284. De Compos. Med. in Ib. Part III. p. 660. Paulus Aegineta's Work. Dr Adams's Translation, Vol. III. p. 551. 7 Cornarius' Translation, p. 435. NEW SERIES.-NO. XIII. JANUARY 1851. G a chapter of collyria under this designation. In this chapter Aetius describes five collyria Stactica; and, of these, four contain the Opobalsam1 as an ingredient, showing the origin and propriety of the term Opobalsamatum in the inscription on the seal. Chishull read the last three letters of the inscription CAP, and thought that the oil was serviceable for head diseases. But if the inscription is not really CAL, the P has been substituted by an error of the engraver for L (CAL), an abbreviation for Caligines. The same inscription occurs at greater length on an oculist stamp found at Daspich in France; and in it the Stactum Opobalsamatum is professed to remove Calvin And, no doubt, Murranus, of Cakying Colchester, vended, of old, his Opobalsamic Eye-drops for the same alleged purpose. This quality of "visum acuens" is attributed to two out of the four forms of poblegid Eye-drops mentioned by Aetius. The Stadtum is (avers Myrepsus) ad acumen visus mirabile admodum."-P.< In a second and concluiryPart I shall describe other Roman medicine-stamps found in these islands; speak of the uses, &c., to which they were applied; and point out some other relics referring to the former existence of Roman medicine and Roman medical practitioners in Great Britain. Part Second. REVIEWS. The Pharmacopoeia of the King and Queen's College of Physicians in Ireland. 1850. Dublin: Hodges and Smith. "The New Pharmacopoeia of the London College is prepared, but is not yet published."-Pharmaceutical Journal and Transactions, for December 1850. A QUARTER of a century is a long time for science to be allowed to advance in these onward days, without its progress being acknowledged in a National Pharmacopoeia. The second edition of the Dublin Pharmacopoeia appeared in 1826; and twenty-four years have elapsed before its re-appearance in a fresher form,—an interval so long, that it must have ceased in a great measure to be the guide alike of the physician and of the druggist. But the College can scarcely be blamed for this. In Dublin, as everywhere else, an amiable attachment to classical prejudices and ancestral custom, clothed the pharmacopoeia in the dress of a dead language, which 1 Opobalsam, the "succus a plaga" of the Syrian balsam tree. See Pliny. Lib. xii., c. 25.-Dioscorides, in describing its origin, effects, &c., specially recommends it as a detergent application in dimness of sight (quæ pupillis tenebras offundunt, exterget.) Lib. i., cap. xviii., p. 18. 2 The inscription on the Daspich stone is "Q. Valleri Sexti Stactum ad Caligines Opobalsamatum." |