In his remarks on the Misy, Dioscorides speaks of the analogy of its caustic power with those of Chalcitis; but the only diseases that he referred to as having the Misy used in their treatment, are the diseases of the eye. And he does so in telling us that the Egyptian kind of Misy is quite inferior to the Cyprian in forming eye-medicines (ocularia medicamenta).[577]
In speaking of its medical powers, Galen,[578] Oribasius,[579] and Paulus Ægineta,[580] describe the Misy as escharotic, and astringent. In giving his list of eye-medicines, Galen places the Misy, Sori, etc., amongst those local applications which have a detergent effect.[581] Paulus Ægineta enters the Misy in his list of “detergents of foul ulcers” of the eye (vol. iii. p. 548). Pliny, in describing the properties of Misy, states that “extenuat scabrities oculorum.”[582] Celsus in his work repeatedly alludes to the Misy and its effects.[583] One of the collyria which he describes when treating of granular ophthalmia, contains the Misy (see page 294). And he adds, that with the exception of those affections which require mild applications, this special collyrium is adapted to every kind of disorder of the eye (adversus omne genus oculorum valetudinis idoneum est). Galen (vol. xii. p. 736), Oribasius (lib. iv. p. 51), and Paulus Ægineta (vol. iii. 556), all give formulæ for the collyrium Panchrestos of Erasistratus, which contained Misy as its leading ingredient. “It has,” says Paulus, “wonderful efficacy in diseases of the eyes.” Oribasius enters it as a “compositio admirabilis.” The Misy, as a reputed “valedissimum medicamentum,” enters as an ingredient into several of the collyria described by Actuarius.[584]
In a previous page I have already taken occasion to state that Marcellus Empiricus gives a formula for a collyrium under the name inscribed upon the stone of the collyrium DIAMISYOS; and he describes it as calculated “ad aspritudines oculorum tollendas et ad lachrymas substringendas.”
The collyrium Diamisyos of Marcellus Empiricus consists of Misy burnt till it becomes red, and then combined with spikenard, saffron, cadmia, calcined copper, opium, myrrh, Cyprian scales, and gum, with all which it was to be rubbed down in the best wine, shaken and filtered. But he gives also the alternative of adding to the Diamysos another ingredient, which was long an article in the materia medica—viz. vipers. For some (he observes) add to the collyrium Diamisyos “a viper, dried and baked well in the sun, as if it were salted” (quidam adjiciunt huic collyrio viperam siccam et arefactam bene in sole tanquam si sit salita). He goes on, however, still further to explain that prayers and incantations must be used in making this addition to the Diamisyos. For (he observes) if you thus wish to add the dried viper, you must first extract its bones, roll it up in linen, and then pour over it the wine of the collyrium, previously charming the viper (sed prius eam praecantabis) as follows, lest it cause tears and produce harm, saying, “As thou dost not see, even so may thy juice, when tasted, hurt no one, but I pray that with the purpose for which thou hast been added, thou mayest[585] further the cure (quomodo tu non vides, sic et tuus succus gustatus nulli noceat, sed ob rem propter quam adjecta es proficias bene curationi, precor).”[586]
ANTIQUARIAN NOTICES OF SYPHILIS IN SCOTLAND.
PART I.
Medical men are, for the most part, agreed upon two points in relation to the history of syphilis—viz. that it is a species of disease which was unknown to the Greek, Roman, and Arabian physicians; and that it first began to prevail in Europe in the later years of the fifteenth century.
The non-existence of syphilis in ancient times, and the circumstance of its original appearance in Europe about the date alluded to, are opinions strongly borne out by two sets of facts. For, first, no definite account of this marked and extraordinary species of disease is to be found in the writings of any one of the ancient Greek or Roman physicians, historians, or poets; and, secondly, of the numerous authors whose works exist in the learned collections of Luisinus,[587] Astruc,[588] and Girtanner,[589] and who saw and described the malady in the later years of the fifteenth or commencement of the sixteenth century, almost all comment upon it as (to use their own general expressions) morbus novus, morbus ignotus, ægritudo inaudita, ægritudo nova, malum novum, novus et nostro orbe incognitus morbus, etc. etc.[590]