STAMP NO. VII.—CONTAINED IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM.
In his paper in the _Archæologia_ (vol. ix.), Mr. Gough published a
sketch and account of a medicine-stamp, inscribed on three of its sides,
and remarkable in one or two respects. The sketch which he has given of
it is copied into Plate II., No. VII. The stamp itself is preserved in
the British Museum. It is thicker, and more rounded at the edges, than
the generality of these flat medicine-stones.
After quoting the three inscriptions on its sides, Mr. Gough gives the
following very brief and unsatisfactory account of the reading of this
stamp. “From the inscriptions,” he observes, “we learn that the owner’s
name was FL., or FLAVIUS SECUNDUS, and that his composition was made of
Opobalsamum and Myrrh, and the white of eggs.”[535]
Mr. Gough pointed out that the third side of the stamp was engraved in
letters of a rude and negligent form, and different in character from
the inscriptions on the two other sides. But he failed in seeing that
the remaining sides are both imperfect; and that the latter half of one
of the inscriptions, and the first half of the other, are deficient, in
consequence of the stone, which was at first much larger, having been
broken or reduced in size, and subsequently again rubbed down and
smoothed on two of its sides before one of these sides was cut with the
rude lettering above alluded to. When these circumstances are attended
to, the inscriptions on the three sides appear to stand as follows:—
1. LJULIVENISD . . . . .
OPOBALSAMTU . . . . .
2. . . . . . . ASMVRNESBIS
. . . . . . MPETUEXOVO
3. FSEKUNDI
ATALBAS.
The name of the proprietor is evidently L. JUL. IVENIS [L(_ucius?_)
_Jul(ius) Ivenis_]; and I may remark in passing, that the cognomen
of IVENIS is one which has been found recurring among the Roman
pottery-stamps found in England.
It is impossible to fill in, with anything like precision and certainty,
the defective words in the two first inscriptions. But judging from the
analogy of other similar and more perfect stamps, these two inscriptions
probably read somewhat as follows when the seal was entire.
1. L. JUL. IVENIS D_iapsoricum_ OPOBALSAM_a_TU_m_ _ad Claritatem_.—_L.
Jul. Ivenis’ Opobalsamic Diapsoricum for clearing of the sight._
The adjective, OPOBALSAMATUM, has hitherto been generally found united
upon medicine-stamps with one of two collyria—viz. with _Stacticum_ (as
in seal No. IV.); or with _Diapsoricum_, as in seals found at Jena and
Lyons. The D preserved in the first line is, in all probability, the
initial letter of the latter collyrium.
The _Psoricum_ was a mixture of cadmia and chalcitis, according to
Dioscorides, Pliny, and Celsus;[536] or of litharge and chalcitis,
according to Galen, Aetius, and Paulus Ægineta.[537] This metallic
compound derived its name of _Psoricum_ from its supposed utility in the
treatment of parts affected with the eruption of scabies or _psora_. The
eyelids, according to the ancient oculists, were the occasional seat of
eruptive or pruriginous inflammation (_psorophthalmia_, _scabrities_,
_prurigo_, etc.) In enumerating the diseases of the lining membrane of
the palpebræ, Galen mentions, among others, _sycosis_, _chalazosis_, and
_psoriasis_.[538] Various collyria employed for the removal of these
affections were termed _Psorica_, and most of them, though not all,
contained the metallic compound alluded to. “Quae scabros in palpebris
affectus persanant, atque ob id _Psorica_ appellantur.”[539] When
speaking of the specific affections of the eyes and their appropriate
local applications, Actuarius, in the same way, remarks, “Quae scabiosis
palpebrarum affectionibus medentur, id circo _Psorica_
appellantur.”[540] He gives (p. 307) formulæ for various forms of the
_Collyrium Psoricum_; as the _Psoricum aridum_, the _Psoricum Aelii_,
etc. Aetius recommends the collyrium _Psoricum_ against “scabros ac
corrosos angulos, et intensos pruritus, milphoses et prurigines.”[541]
Scribonius Largus describes the composition of a collyrium _Psoricum_
made from the metallic compound of the same name (facit hoc collyrium
bene quod _psoricum_ dicitur), and fitted to remove blindness,
granulations, and xero-ophthalmia.[542] Marcellus Empiricus credulously
invests the collyrium _Psoricum_ with signal powers for various
eye-diseases, but particularly for old-standing blindness (antiquam
coecitatem). For if (says he) we may credit the experience of the author
of the remedy, it has, at the end of twenty days, restored sight to a
person who had been blind for twelve years (nam ut auctori hujus remedii
de experimento credamus, duodecim annorum coeco intra dies viginti visum
restituisse se dicit).[543]
On the Jena medicine-stamp the _Diapsoricum Opobalsamatum_ is entered as
efficacious for the clearing of the sight (ad claritatem);[544] and in
the proposed restoration of the reading of the present English stamp, I
have added to it the same therapeutic indication, as one not unlikely to
have originally filled up the part that is now deficient in this line of
the stamp.
2. _L. Jul. Ivenis Di_ASMYRNES BIS _Lippitudinis i_MPETU EX
OVO.—_The myrrh collyrium of L. J. Ivenis, to be used twice a day,
mixed with an egg, at the commencement of Ophthalmy._
Already we have considered the composition, etc., of the Collyrium
_Diasmyrnes_ (see pp. 267, 268.) It is entered, as efficacious in
attacks of Lippitudo, on the medicine-stamps of Jena, Nais, etc. In the
Jena stamp it is, as in the present instance, ordered to be used mixed
with an egg.[545]
The word BIS denotes, in all probability, the frequency with which it
was to be used daily. Occasionally the ancient authors state in the same
way in their works the frequency with which a special collyrium was to
be used. Thus, for example, Paulus Ægineta, after describing the
composition of the brown collyrium (collyrium fuscum), adds that it is
to be applied thrice a day (illinitur _ter_ in die ... ex ovo aut lacte,
etc.)[546] Indeed when speaking of the variety of collyrium mentioned in
the legend on this stamp,—namely, of the “collyria quæ quod ex myrrha
constant διασμυρνα vocantur,” Actuarius expressly states that the
affected eye is to be annointed with the _Diasmyrnes_ “twice a day
(_bis_ in die).”[547]
3. The third side of this medicine-stamp is engraved, as already
observed, by a different and far more inexperienced hand than the other
two sides. The letters are very roughly and rudely formed. The
inscription indicates the name of another oculist,—of one who probably
became the possessor of the stamp after IVENIS. The new proprietor’s
name is F., or probably FL., SECUNDUS, and the inscription reads, F.
SEKUNDI AT ALBAS, _the collyrium_ or _preparation_ of _F. Secundus
against Albugines_.
In reading it, I suppose the AT to be a mis-spelling for AD,—a mistake
of which there are not wanting other examples in the illiterate and
careless engravings sometimes found upon these medicine-stamps.[548] And
I have interpreted the ALBAS as signifying _albas cicatrices_ (white
cicatrices), or, in other words, _albugines_ of the cornea,—a
suggestion for which I am indebted to M. Sichel. Already I have quoted
the expression of Aetius to the effect that all cicatrices of the cornea
are “_Albæ_;” and the nouns by which such eye-cicatrices are designated,
both by the Greek and Roman physicians, namely, λευκωμα and _albugo_,
are words derived from, and intended to signify, the white colour
(λευκος, _albus_) of these lesions.