STAMP NO. I.—FOUND AT TRANENT.
The Scottish specimen of Roman medicine-stamp, to which I have adverted
in the preceding page, was discovered some years ago at Tranent in East
Lothian, not far distant from the old, and doubtlessly in former times
extensive, Roman settlement or _Municipium_ at Inveresk.[443] The stamp
now belongs to the Museum of the Society of Scottish Antiquaries.
It was presented to the Museum by the late Mr. Drummond Hay, formerly
one of the Secretaries of the Society. From Mr. Hay’s notes it appears
that it was found amid a quantity of broken tiles, brick, and other
debris of an old (and probably Roman) house, near the church of Tranent.
For many years after being deposited in the Antiquarian Museum its
character remained undiscovered, till the present excellent Secretary of
the Society, my esteemed friend Mr. Daniel Wilson, was led, in reading
the descriptions of other similar stamps, to ascertain its true
character.
The stamp itself is, as usual, formed out of a greenish-coloured
steatite. The stone is of the figure of a parallelogram, nearly two and
a half inches in length, and with inscriptions cut upon two of its
sides. There is a roundish projection at either extremity of the stone,
as seen in the accompanying lithograph (Plate I., No. I., Figs. 1, 2,
3), where the stone and letters of the two inscriptions are, in every
respect, faithfully copied from the original as to form and size. The
letters are, as in all other similar medicine-stamps, cut incuse and
reversed, so as to read from left to right when the inscription was
stamped upon any impressible material. Fig. 2 shows one of the
inscriptions as it appears cut intagliate upon the stone. Fig. 3
presents an accurate copy of this inscription as it is seen when stamped
upon wax. Fig. 1 is an equally faithful copy of the second inscription
placed on the opposite side of the stone. It will be observed that, as
in the original, the size of the lettering varies on the two sides.
The lettering on the two sides (1 and 2) runs thus, as it stands
inscribed upon the stone:—
1. LVALLATINIEVODESADCI
CATRICESETASPRITUDIN
2. LVALLATINIAPALOCRO
CODESADDIATHESIS
The two inscriptions read as follows, when we separate the individual
words composing them from each other:—
1. L VALLATINI EVODES AD CI-
CATRICES ET ASPRITUDIN
2. L VALLATINI APALOCRO-
CODES AD DIATHESIS.
Let us endeavour to interpret each of these inscriptions in detail,
supplying the elisions and contractions which exist in almost all Roman
inscriptions; but which are less in this seal than in most others.
1. L(_ucii?_) VALLATINI EVODES AD CICATRICES ET
ASP_e_RITUDIN_es_.—_Lucius Vallatinus’ Evodes for cicatrices and
granulations._
Several of the collyria derived, as I have already observed, their
designation from some special physical character. The present instance
is an example in point, the appellation _Evodes_ (εὐώδες) being derived
from the pleasant odour (εὐ, well, and ὄζω, I smell) of the composition.
Marcellus, in his work _De Medicamentis_, specially praises the
collyrium known under the name of _Evodes_; and that too in the class of
eye-diseases mentioned on the Tranent seal. For, in his collection of
remedies for removing ulcers, cicatrices, etc., of the eyes and eyelids,
he recommends (to use his own words) “præcipue hoc quod quidam
Diasmyrnon, nonnulli _Evodes_, quia boni odoris est, nominant.” And he
directs the _Evodes_ to be dissolved and diluted in water, and
introduced into the eyes with a probe, or after inverting the eyelid,
when it was used with the view of extenuating recent cicatrices of the
eyes, and removing granulations of the eyelids,—“ex aqua autem ad
cicatrices recentes extenuendas, et palpebrarum asperitudinem tollendam
teri debet, et subjecto specillo aut inversa palpebra, oculis
inseri.”[444]
Scribonius Largus had previously described, in nearly the same words,
the collyrium,—“quod quidam εὐώδες vocant,” and its uses in recent
cicatrices and granulations, etc. Both these authors give the same
recipe for the composition of the _Evodes_,—viz. pompholyx, burnt
copper, saffron, myrrh, hematites, opium, and other ingredients, rubbed
down in Chian wine. Its agreeable odour was probably owing to a
considerable quantity of spikenard being used in its composition.[445]
Galen gives two other collyria, of a different composition, and for
other affections, as known at his time under the same name of
_Evodes_,—the one termed the “_Evodes_ of Zosimus,” the other the
“diasmyrnon _Evodes_ of Syneros.”[446]
2. L. VALLATINI APALOCROCODES AD DIATHESIS.—_L. Vallatinus’ mild
Crocodes for affections of the eyes._
The term diathesis in this inscription is used in a different sense from
that in which we now employ the same word in modern medicine. At the
present day we apply the term diathesis to designate the tendency or
predisposition to some special disease, or class of diseases. In the
times of the Roman physicians, it was often used as synonymous with
disease itself; and in the Latin translations of the Greek texts of
Galen, Aetius, etc., it is hence rendered usually by the general word
“affectus,” “affectio,” etc. The first sentence in Paulus Ægineta’s
chapter on Ophthalmic Diseases, affords an instance in point: “Quum
dolores vehementiores in oculis fiunt, considera ex quanam affectione
(διαθεσει) oculum dolere contingit.”[447] Thus, also, the
_Evodes_ of Zosimus (to which I have before alluded) is entered by Galen
as a remedy simply against “dolores et recentes affectus,” according to
the Latin translation of Kühn,—“προς περιωδυνιας και προσφατους
διαθεσεις,” according to the original Greek text. He uses diathesis, in
fact, as a general term for eye-diseases. Thus, when speaking of
diseases of the eye in general, he observes,—“Scripsi omnia quæ necesse
est Medicum de oculorum affectibus (διαθεσεων) nosse.”[448]
In its last syllable in the inscription on the seal, diathesIS stands
instead of the Roman accusative diathesES, or the Greek accusative
diathesEIS. This usage, however, is not without classical authority.
The collyrium mentioned in the prescription (the _Crocodes_) derives its
designation from its containing the crocus, or saffron, as one of its
principal ingredients.
In describing the therapeutic effects of the crocus, Dioscorides
mentions, as its first special use, its efficacy in “fluxions of the
eyes”—(oculorum fluxiones cohibet).[449]
Pliny, in enumerating the qualities of the crocus, begins by observing
that it has a discutient effect upon all inflammations, but chiefly on
those of the eyes (discutit inflammationes omnes quidem, sed oculorum
maxime); and in speaking of its combinations he tells us that it has
given a name to one collyrium (collyrio uno etiam nomen dedit).[450] But
it entered into the composition of very many of the ancient
eye-medicines, and more than one of these passed under the name of
_Crocodes_, as in the inscription on the seal. Galen, in his list of
eye-remedies, gives the recipe for the composition of a _Crocodes_
collyrium for epiphoræ, pains, and affections (διαθεσεις) from
wounds of the eye.[451] He discusses the composition also of the
aromatic _Crocodes_ of Heraclides, and the oxydercic _Crocodes_ of
Asclepius, etc.[452] When describing, in another part, the remedies for
ulcers of the eyes, he mentions a collyrium containing crocus, and
adds, “habet autem hoc plurimum in se crocum, unde etiam _Croceum_
(κροκωδες) appellatur.”[453]
Celsus,[454] Alexander Trallianus,[455] and Paulus Ægineta[456] give
recipes for eye collyria, under the name of diacrocus (δια κροκος).
I have not yet alluded to the expression APALO, standing before
_Crocodes_. This expression presents the only difficulty in reading the
inscription; and various suggestions might be offered in regard to its
explanation. But it seems most probable that it was used as a qualifying
term to the _Crocodes_. Several of the collyria have the Latin adjective
“lene,” and “leve,” placed before them, in order to certify their mild
nature. Scribonius Largus gives a whole division of collyria, headed
“Collyria composita levia.” Aetius has a chapter, “De Lenibus
Collyriis.” The expression _apalo_, as a part and prefix to _Crocodes_,
would seem to indicate the same quality in the crocodes sold by
Vallatinus, the term being in all likelihood derived from the Greek
adjective απαλος, or the corresponding Latin adjective _apalus_
(mild, soft). Homer frequently uses the word as signifying soft,
delicate, and especially as applied to different parts of the body (see
_Iliad_, book iii. 371; xvii. 123, etc.); and, indeed, both Aetius and
Paulus Ægineta employ the Greek adjective therapeutically in the sense
of mild, and as applied to collyria. In the treatment of acute
inflammatory ulcers of the eye, after inculcating the usual
antiphlogistic treatment, Aetius adds, “collyria vero tenera (απαλα)
ulcerate oculo infundantur.”[457]
When treating of carbuncles and carcinoma of the eye, Paulus Ægineta
observes that the affection may be alleviated “by the injection of
soothing (_tenera_, απαλα) collyria, such as the _Spodiacum_,
_Severianum_, and the like.”[458] And again, when giving his formulæ for
different collyria in another part of his works, he applies the term
απαλον to the collyrium _Diathalium_, or collyrium made from olive
leaves (Διαθαλιον απαλον), upon the same principle, and
evidently with the same signification, as the word is used in the
Tranent stamp, as applied to the collyrium _Crocodes_.[459]
I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. Birch for the impressions of two
unpublished oculist-stamps, contained in the British Museum. Their forms
and inscriptions are represented in Plate I., Nos. II. and III.; and I
shall describe them under these numbers. They are supposed to have
formed part of the collection of Sir Hans Sloane; but no note exists as
to the precise locality in which they were discovered.