3. FSEKUNDI
ATALBAS
The name of the proprietor is evidently L. JUL. IVENIS [L(ucius?) Jul(ius) Ivenis]; and I may remark in passing, that the cognomen of IVENIS is one which has been found recurring among the Roman pottery-stamps found in England.
It is impossible to fill in, with anything like precision and certainty, the defective words in the two first inscriptions. But judging from the analogy of other similar and more perfect stamps, these two inscriptions probably read somewhat as follows when the seal was entire.
1. L. JUL. IVENIS Diapsoricum OPOBALSAMaTUm ad Claritatem.—L. Jul. Ivenis’ Opobalsamic Diapsoricum for clearing of the sight.
The adjective, OPOBALSAMATUM, has hitherto been generally found united upon medicine-stamps with one of two collyria—viz. with Stacticum (as in seal No. IV.); or with Diapsoricum, as in seals found at Jena and Lyons. The D preserved in the first line is, in all probability, the initial letter of the latter collyrium.
The Psoricum was a mixture of cadmia and chalcitis, according to Dioscorides, Pliny, and Celsus;[536] or of litharge and chalcitis, according to Galen, Aetius, and Paulus Ægineta.[537] This metallic compound derived its name of Psoricum from its supposed utility in the treatment of parts affected with the eruption of scabies or psora. The eyelids, according to the ancient oculists, were the occasional seat of eruptive or pruriginous inflammation (psorophthalmia, scabrities, prurigo, etc.) In enumerating the diseases of the lining membrane of the palpebræ, Galen mentions, among others, sycosis, chalazosis, and psoriasis.[538] Various collyria employed for the removal of these affections were termed Psorica, and most of them, though not all, contained the metallic compound alluded to. “Quae scabros in palpebris affectus persanant, atque ob id Psorica appellantur.”[539] When speaking of the specific affections of the eyes and their appropriate local applications, Actuarius, in the same way, remarks, “Quae scabiosis palpebrarum affectionibus medentur, id circo Psorica appellantur.”[540] He gives (p. 307) formulæ for various forms of the Collyrium Psoricum; as the Psoricum aridum, the Psoricum Aelii, etc. Aetius recommends the collyrium Psoricum against “scabros ac corrosos angulos, et intensos pruritus, milphoses et prurigines.”[541] Scribonius Largus describes the composition of a collyrium Psoricum made from the metallic compound of the same name (facit hoc collyrium bene quod psoricum dicitur), and fitted to remove blindness, granulations, and xero-ophthalmia.[542] Marcellus Empiricus credulously invests the collyrium Psoricum with signal powers for various eye-diseases, but particularly for old-standing blindness (antiquam coecitatem). For if (says he) we may credit the experience of the author of the remedy, it has, at the end of twenty days, restored sight to a person who had been blind for twelve years (nam ut auctori hujus remedii de experimento credamus, duodecim annorum coeco intra dies viginti visum restituisse se dicit).[543]
On the Jena medicine-stamp the Diapsoricum Opobalsamatum is entered as efficacious for the clearing of the sight (ad claritatem);[544] and in the proposed restoration of the reading of the present English stamp, I have added to it the same therapeutic indication, as one not unlikely to have originally filled up the part that is now deficient in this line of the stamp.
2. L. Jul. Ivenis DiASMYRNES BIS Lippitudinis iMPETU EX OVO.—The myrrh collyrium of L. J. Ivenis, to be used twice a day, mixed with an egg, at the commencement of Ophthalmy.