CILLENEEXOVO
The name of the oculist, M. JUL. SATYRUS—M(arcus?) Jul(ius) Satyrus—is sufficiently distinct, and occurs with each of the four legends of the stamp. When we analyse further the inscriptions on the four sides of the seal, they severally read as follows:—
1. M(arci) JULii SATYRI DIALEPIDOS AD ASPeRitudines.—Marcus Julius Satyrus’ Dialepidos or Copper collyrium for granulations of the eyelids.
The three first sides of this stamp have the special collyria inscribed upon them, beginning each with the letters DIA, from the Greek preposition δια, “with,” and here signifying “made with.”[505] The three principal ingredients in the three first inscriptions are all given, combined with this initial preposition δια, and under their Greek appellatives,—λεπιδος, σμυρνα and λιβανος—forming instances, among many others, of the anxiety of the ancient Roman oculists to invest their drugs with all the mysterious attraction and formality of a Greek name; just as some modern English physicians foolishly enough consider it still proper to write always the names of the medicines which they now prescribe in the language of the ancient Romans, thus, like their predecessors, attempting, in the exercise of their profession, to act upon that principle in the weakness of human nature which holds “omne ignotum pro mirifico.”
I have already described (see Stamp No. II., p. [245]) the composition of the collyrium termed Dialepidos, and the origin of the name of the inscription from the λεπιδες, or scales of the oxide of copper.
2. M. JUL. SATYRI DIASMIrnES POST IMPETUM LIPPITudinis.—The Diasmyrnes or Myrrh collyrium of M. Jul. Satyrus, after the commencement of ophthalmy.
The principal ingredients in the collyrium Diasmyrnes, namely, myrrh (μῤῥυα or σμυρνα), was a drug to which important therapeutical virtues were formerly ascribed. It was applied in the treatment of various diseases. In reference to affections of the eye, it had the power, according to Dioscorides, of filling up ulcers of the organ, removing cicatrices and scales obstructing the pupil; and besides, it cured eruptions and granulations of the eyelids (oculorum ulcera complet, exteritque albugines, et ea quae pupillis tenebras offundunt; quin et scabritias seu asperitudines expolit).[506]
Various collyria were used by the ancients, bearing the name of Diasmyrnes or Diasmyrnon, from myrrh constituting their leading ingredient. Aetius has one of his long chapters on collyria headed “Collyria Diasmyrna et Chiaca appellata.”[507] Actuarius, in his section “De affectionibus Oculorum,” speaks of the collyria Diasmyrna (quæ ex myrrha constant) in the plural number, and as well known in his time.[508] Paulus Ægineta, in discussing the treatment of hypopion or suppuration in the cornea, speaks of sometimes making the abscess burst; and, if so, then, he adds, “cleanse the ulcer by means of the more potent remedies, such as those called Diasmyrna,”[509] etc. Among his formulæ for individual collyria in his several books, he gives a receipt for the collyria Diasmyrnes. (Aldine edition, p. 118.)
Galen gives several collyria Diasmyrna, as the Diasmyrnum Odorum Synerotis,[510] the Diasmyrnum Glaucidanum, and the Diasmyrnum ex hæmatite.[511] And in his work De Simplicium Medicamentorum Temperamentis ac Facultatibus, he states, “Sed et collyria sunt plurima quæ medeantur suffusionibus, et maxime quod plurimam recipit myrrham, quale est quod a Democrate compositum est, quod vocant Diasmyrnon.”[512]
The term Lippitudo in this legend, and which we will find recurring in the sequel, was, according to Galen, anciently applied to that form of ophthalmy which consists of inflammation of the conjunctival covering of the cornea (lippitudo inflammatio est membranæ, quæ corneæ adnata est.)[513] But the term was also used to designate other forms or varieties of ophthalmic inflammation. The disease described by Celsus under the name of Lippitudo appears (says a high modern authority on eye-diseases) to have been “catarrhal conjunctivitis.”[514] The same oculist speaks of Lippitudo as “an excoriation of the edges of the lids, or bleared eyes;” and he describes obliteration of the Meibomian follicles as the cause of incurable Lippitudo.