Plate III., No. XII., shows the figure of this Irish medicine-stamp. It is engraved only on one side, and the inscription runs as follows:—
M IUVEN TUTIANI
DIAMYSUS AD VET CIC
M(arci?) JUVENtii TUTIANI DIAMYSUS AD VETeres CICatrices.—The Diamysus of Marcus Juventius Tutianus, for old cicatrices.
At the end of the first line there is a small cut in the inscription (see Plate), which, in all probability, is not a letter, but a mark or ornament intended to fill up that space. If a letter, it is most likely C, standing perhaps for collyrium.
In speaking of the Bath stone, I have already taken occasion to state that this same inscription of Diamysus ad veteres cicatrices has now been found on various Roman medicine-stamps discovered in different parts of France.
The collyrium DIAMISYOS or DIAMYSOS derived its designation from containing as its principal ingredient the Misy, a metallic vitriolic preparation, used to a considerable extent as a stimulant and escharotic among the ancients; and it was retained even to a comparatively late period in the London Pharmacopœia.[573] It appears to be still used medicinally in the East.[574]
The chemical nature, however, of Misy has given rise to some considerable doubt and discussion. It was usually found, and generally described, along with two other cognate fossils, Sori and Chalcitis. And Galen, who enters into an elaborate description of them, visited the copper mines of Cyprus, with a view of determining the precise nature of these three mineral substances.[575]
Dr. Adams,[576] who has examined this question with all his well-known great learning and care, believes that these three minerals were merely varieties of chalcanthum or copperas. In his opinion the Chalcitis was probably a kind of pure sulphate of copper which had contracted an efflorescence from age; the Sori was sulphate of copper combined with zinc or other impurities; and the Misy was a combination of sulphate of copper with sulphate of iron, the predominance of the chalybeate salt giving to the fossil its peculiar colour. For the Misy, says Dioscorides, is “of a golden appearance, hard, shining like gold when broken, and glancing like stars.”