Note note 26, p. 538 — BOOK XI. (continued 2)

[Pg 538][26] Pompholyx and spodos were impure zinc oxides (see note 26, p. 394).

The copper flowers were no doubt cupric oxide. They were used by the Ancients for medicinal purposes. Dioscorides (V, 48) says: "Of flowers of copper, which some call the scrapings of old nails, the best is friable; it is gold-coloured when rubbed, is like millet in shape and size, is moderately bright, and somewhat astringent. It should not be mixed with copper filings, with which it is often adulterated. But this deception is easily detected, for when bitten in the teeth the filings are malleable. It (the flowers) is made when the copper fused in a furnace has run into the receptacle through the spout pertaining to it, for then the workmen engaged in this trade cleanse it from dirt and pour clear water over it in order to cool it; from this sudden condensation the copper spits and throws out the aforesaid flowers." Pliny (XXXIV, 24) says: "The flower, too, of copper (æris flos) is used in medicine. This is made by fusing copper, and then removing it to another furnace, where the repeated blast makes the metal separate into small scales like millet, known as flowers. These scales also fall off when the cakes of metal are cooled in water; they become red, too, like the scales of copper known as 'lepis,' by use of which the flowers of copper are adulterated, it being also sold for it. These are made when hammering the nails that are [Pg 539]made from the cakes of copper. All these methods are carried on in the works of Cyprus; the difference between these substances is that the squamae (copper scales) are detached from hammering the cakes, while the flower falls off spontaneously." Agricola (De Nat. Fos., p. 352) notes that "flowers of copper (flos æris) have the same properties as 'roasted copper.'"