Note 575 — ANCIENT ROMAN MEDICINE-STAMPS.

I shall quote Galen’s own graphic account of his personal visit and observations:—“At the mine in Cyprus, in the mountains of the Soli, there was a great cave dug in the mountain, at the right side of which, that is to say, on our left hand as we entered, there was a passage into the mine, in which I saw certain specimens of the three substances stretched upon one another like zones, the lowest being that of sori, upon it chalcitis, and then that of misy. In process of time the chalcitis changes into misy by degrees, and the sori can change into chalcitis, but requires a much longer space of time. So that it is no wonder that these three substances should be possessed of homogeneous (similar) powers, as differing from one another in tenuity and density of their parts—the grossest being the sori, and the finest the misy, whereas chalcitis possesses an intermediate power. When burnt, they become more attenuant, but less styptic.”—Adams’ Paulus Ægineta, vol. iii. note, p. 400. (Kühn’s Galen, vol. xii. p. 226.)