Note 536 — ANCIENT ROMAN MEDICINE-STAMPS.

In his chapter on diseases of the eyes, after giving the formula for the Basilicon collyrium of Euelpides—which was composed of poppy tears, cerussa, Asian stone, gum, white pepper, saffron, and psoricum—Celsus adds:—“Now there is no simple which by itself is called Psoricum; but a certain quantity of chalcitis, and a little more than half its quantity of cadmia, are rubbed together with vinegar, and this being put into an earthen vessel, covered over with fig leaves, is deposited under ground for twenty days, and being taken up again it is powdered, and is thus called Psoricum.”—See Greive’s Celsus, p. 343.