The term diathesis in this inscription is used in a different sense from that in which we now employ the same word in modern medicine. At the present day we apply the term diathesis to designate the tendency or predisposition to some special disease, or class of diseases. In the times of the Roman physicians, it was often used as synonymous with disease itself; and in the Latin translations of the Greek texts of Galen, Aetius, etc., it is hence rendered usually by the general word “affectus,” “affectio,” etc. The first sentence in Paulus Ægineta’s chapter on Ophthalmic Diseases, affords an instance in point: “Quum dolores vehementiores in oculis fiunt, considera ex quanam affectione (διαθεσει) oculum dolere contingit.”[447] Thus, also, the Evodes of Zosimus (to which I have before alluded) is entered by Galen as a remedy simply against “dolores et recentes affectus,” according to the Latin translation of Kühn,—“προς περιωδυνιας και προσφατους διαθεσεις,” according to the original Greek text. He uses diathesis, in fact, as a general term for eye-diseases. Thus, when speaking of diseases of the eye in general, he observes,—“Scripsi omnia quæ necesse est Medicum de oculorum affectibus (διαθεσεων) nosse.”[448] In its last syllable in the inscription on the seal, diathesIS stands instead of the Roman accusative diathesES, or the Greek accusative diathesEIS. This usage, however, is not without classical authority.
The collyrium mentioned in the prescription (the Crocodes) derives its designation from its containing the crocus, or saffron, as one of its principal ingredients.
In describing the therapeutic effects of the crocus, Dioscorides mentions, as its first special use, its efficacy in “fluxions of the eyes”—(oculorum fluxiones cohibet).[449]
Pliny, in enumerating the qualities of the crocus, begins by observing that it has a discutient effect upon all inflammations, but chiefly on those of the eyes (discutit inflammationes omnes quidem, sed oculorum maxime); and in speaking of its combinations he tells us that it has given a name to one collyrium (collyrio uno etiam nomen dedit).[450] But it entered into the composition of very many of the ancient eye-medicines, and more than one of these passed under the name of Crocodes, as in the inscription on the seal. Galen, in his list of eye-remedies, gives the recipe for the composition of a Crocodes collyrium for epiphoræ, pains, and affections (διαθεσεις) from wounds of the eye.[451] He discusses the composition also of the aromatic Crocodes of Heraclides, and the oxydercic Crocodes of Asclepius, etc.[452] When describing, in another part, the remedies for ulcers of the eyes, he mentions a collyrium containing crocus, and adds, “habet autem hoc plurimum in se crocum, unde etiam Croceum (κροκωδες) appellatur.”[453]
Celsus,[454] Alexander Trallianus,[455] and Paulus Ægineta[456] give recipes for eye collyria, under the name of diacrocus (δια κροκος).
I have not yet alluded to the expression APALO, standing before Crocodes. This expression presents the only difficulty in reading the inscription; and various suggestions might be offered in regard to its explanation. But it seems most probable that it was used as a qualifying term to the Crocodes. Several of the collyria have the Latin adjective “lene,” and “leve,” placed before them, in order to certify their mild nature. Scribonius Largus gives a whole division of collyria, headed “Collyria composita levia.” Aetius has a chapter, “De Lenibus Collyriis.” The expression apalo, as a part and prefix to Crocodes, would seem to indicate the same quality in the crocodes sold by Vallatinus, the term being in all likelihood derived from the Greek adjective απαλος, or the corresponding Latin adjective apalus (mild, soft). Homer frequently uses the word as signifying soft, delicate, and especially as applied to different parts of the body (see Iliad, book iii. 371; xvii. 123, etc.); and, indeed, both Aetius and Paulus Ægineta employ the Greek adjective therapeutically in the sense of mild, and as applied to collyria. In the treatment of acute inflammatory ulcers of the eye, after inculcating the usual antiphlogistic treatment, Aetius adds, “collyria vero tenera (απαλα) ulcerate oculo infundantur.”[457]
When treating of carbuncles and carcinoma of the eye, Paulus Ægineta observes that the affection may be alleviated “by the injection of soothing (tenera, απαλα) collyria, such as the Spodiacum, Severianum, and the like.”[458] And again, when giving his formulæ for different collyria in another part of his works, he applies the term απαλον to the collyrium Diathalium, or collyrium made from olive leaves (Διαθαλιον απαλον), upon the same principle, and evidently with the same signification, as the word is used in the Tranent stamp, as applied to the collyrium Crocodes.[459]
I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. Birch for the impressions of two unpublished oculist-stamps, contained in the British Museum. Their forms and inscriptions are represented in Plate I., Nos. II. and III.; and I shall describe them under these numbers. They are supposed to have formed part of the collection of Sir Hans Sloane; but no note exists as to the precise locality in which they were discovered.