Note (21) — BOOK V.

21. Diphryges.) This is not known in medicine at present. Dioscorides says ‘there are three species of it. One of the metallic kind found only in Cyprus, which is first dried in the sun, and then burnt by laying sticks all round it. Whence its name from being twice torrified. A second kind is found at the bottom of the copper furnaces after smelting. The third is the pyrites stone calcined for several days in a furnace, till it have the colour of cinnabar. The taste of diphryges is eruginous, astringent, and vehemently drying upon the tongue.’ Lib. v. cap. 894.