SECTION V.
STAMP NO. IV.—FOUND AT COLCHESTER.
The first Roman medicine-stamp discovered in Great Britain was described about a hundred and thirty years ago by Mr. Chishull in the learned “Dissertatio De Nummo ϹΚωΠΙ,” which he addressed to Haym, and which this last-mentioned author has published in the preface to his second volume of the Tesoro Brittanico.
The stamp had been found some years previously at Colchester, a well-known and extensive Roman colonial station. Mr. Chishull believed it to have belonged to some old Roman Iatraliptes, or curer by ointments.[467] The following is a copy of the inscription on this Colchester stamp, as given by Chishull:—
1. QIULMURRANIMELI
NUMADCLARITATEM.
2. QIULMURRANISTAGIU
MOPOBALSAMATADCAP.
And Mr. Chishull interpreted these inscriptions thus:—“Quinti Julii Murranii Melinum, sive ex malis cotoneis oleum, ad claritatem oculorum faciens. Iterumque, Quinti Julii Murranii stagium opobalsamatum, sive myrrhæ oleum opobalsamo permixtum, ad cap. i.e., ad caput medicandum utile.”