The prefix CRSO, in Crsomelinum, admits of more than one interpretation. Galen gives four different formulæ for “collyria Melina.” Three of these contain, as one of their ingredients, the Cerussa, or carbonate of lead; and the prefix CRSO may possibly stand as a contraction for Cerussa, implying the presence of this medicine in the collyrium. And, in relation to this view, it is to be recollected that this preparation of lead was, in these ancient times, held in some esteem as a local application in eye-diseases. Galen recommends it as an anodyne in pains of the eyes, and as a general astringent and sedative application.[491]
Another, and perhaps more probable meaning, has been suggested to me by my friend M. Sichel. He supposes the CRSO to be a contraction for CHRSO, golden (from χρυσος, gold), the prefix marking the golden colour of this melinum, or yellow collyrium. In this way we would have Junianus retailing his “Golden Yellow Collyrium” to the colonists and natives of Bath some sixteen centuries ago. And we all know that “Golden Ointment” for the eyes is an application not by any means unknown to the medical practitioners and pharmacopolists of England in the nineteenth century.
3. T. JUNIANI DIEXUM AD VETeRES CICATRICES.
In the above line I give the reading of the third side of the Bath medicine-seal, such as it stands copied into the manuscript minute-books of the Antiquarian Society for 17th November 1757. By turning back to the inscription, as cited in a previous page from Gough, it will be seen that the three medial letters IEX are in a rude Brittano-Roman character, which allows us only to guess at their true signification. Unfortunately, the plaster cast of this side of the stamp does not happen to be preserved with the others, so as to enable us to ascertain the probability of either reading; and it is more than doubtful whether the inscription thus given by these opposed authorities is correctly copied, either by Gough, or in the Society’s minute-book. And I believe I state the general experience of all who have worked at the deciphering of Roman and other inscriptions, in observing that the perplexities connected with the reading of them have often been produced, much more by grave errors in the published copies of the inscriptions, than by actual difficulties in the interpretation of the original, after a true copy has been once obtained.
In the present instance, by reversing the usual mode of procedure in such investigations, we may perhaps arrive at the probable truth. In other words, if we consider the disease prescribed for, we may possibly arrive at a knowledge of the drug prescribed. Now the affection on this side of the Bath stamp is old cicatrices (VETERES CICATRICES). This disease, or rather result of disease, is mentioned on various Roman medicine-stamps discovered on the continent of Europe, as on examples found at Verona, Lillebonne, Ingweiler, and Saint Cheron,[492] and in one which I shall notice in the sequel, lately detected in Ireland. In all the instances which I have just named, the collyrium indicated on the inscriptions as the remedy (veteres cicatrices), is the collyrium termed DIAMYSOS or DIAMYSUM, which contained, as its principal ingredient, the metallic preparation known under the name of Μισυ, or Mysy, among the ancient medical authors; and Marcellus Empiricus gives a formula for the formation of a collyrium DIAMYSOS from it. Looking to these facts, in relation to other analogous Roman medicine-seals, it seems not an improbable conjecture that the word on this third side of the Bath stamp is the same, perhaps more or less mis-spelt or contracted; and consequently, that the whole inscription is T. JUNIANI DIAMYSUM AD VETERES CICATRICES. The re-discovery of the stamp itself can alone settle this and other difficulties connected with it.
If we judged of the nature of the inscription by the characters of the letters, as given by Gough, the disputed word might perhaps be more correctly read DRYCUM or DRYXUM. And possibly, in this way, it may signify an astringent and detergent collyrium, made from the bark, acorn, or galls of the DRYS (δρυς) or oak—a tree that held a place in the materia medica of Hippocrates, Galen, and the other ancients, and which still maintains its place in our own modern Pharmacopœias. Dioscorides, and the other old pharmaceutical authorities, describe the Drys or Quercus as possessing desiccant, astringent, and other properties; and they attribute especially these powers to the gall excrescences that so often grow upon it, and which they incorrectly deemed the fruit of this tree. According to Oribasius, the gall of the oak—“siccat, repercutit, contrahit, constringit, et particulas infirmas roborat.”[493]
Further, in favour of the present supposition, that the collyrium of the inscription may possibly be named from the DRYS, I may take the present opportunity of mentioning that the ancient Roman oculists seem to have pursued, in regard to old cicatrices of the eye, a treatment which is not followed by their successors in modern times. “All cicatrices on the transparent part of the eye,” says Aetius, “appear white (omnes cicatrices in nigro oculi albæ apparent”);[494] and consequently give, by their presence, a disagreeable and disfiguring effect to the eye.[495] Some of the Roman oculists seem to have used various collyria, for the purpose of dyeing or changing the colour of these white specks or pearly cicatrices, and of thus imparting to them some kind of tint that rendered the appearance of the eye, and the distinction between the transparent cornea and its white opacities, less marked and striking. For this purpose the gall-nuts of the oak or DRYS appear to have been greatly used. Aetius does not approve of the practice of tinting cicatrices; but, in a chapter bearing the heading of “Albuginum Tincturæ,” he describes half-a-dozen applications and collyria that might be employed for the purpose of staining and correcting the colour of old cicatrices of the eyes, lest, he adds, his readers should be ignorant of the means which might effect this (ut ne ignorentur ea quæ hoc facere possunt). In three or four of these collyria the gall-nut forms a leading ingredient,[496] and it seems to have been generally used previously to, or in combination with, blue vitriol (atramentum sutorium). Myrepsus gives a “collyrium tingens crassas albugines et cicatrices,” containing galls with chalcanthus (or copperas), roasted lead, etc.; and a second formed of burnt and washed lead, etc., combined with unripe galls.[497] Paulus Ægineta mentions two dyes for cicatrices, both of them containing galls along with chalcanthus.[498] Alexander Trallianus gives a collyrium for staining cicatrices, which he pronounces “valde generosum.” It consists principally of chalcanthus and galls.[499]
Lastly, let me offer one more conjecture. If the debateable word in this legend be correctly copied as diexum into the Antiquarian Society minute-book, it may probably signify the collyrium DIOXUS or dioxum given by Marcellus, and which he recommends for the removal of granulations of the eyelids. This collyrium was composed of cadmia, burnt copper, hæmatites, myrrh, and gum.[500]
4. T. JUNIANI HOBSUM ADρUECUMO DELICTA A MEDICIS.