A mixture of gold and silver, which was called electrum, was much used for coinage, and I have met with one or two ligulae of this metal. It was found mixed naturally in the mountain districts of Tmolus and Sipylus in Lydia, and it was also artificially produced by alloying the two metals.
Horn.
Hippocrates (iii. 331) speaks of a pessary of horn inserted into the rectum. It would seem that the tube of various syringes was often made of horn, as both Greek and Latin writers speak of the ‘horn’ of the syringe.
Scribonius Largus (Compositiones, vii) says:
Per nares ergo purgatur caput his rebus infusis per cornu, quod rhinenchytes vocatur (cf. Galen, xi. 125).
Wood.
Galen speaks of sounds or directors of wood, and ointment spatulae of wood are very frequently mentioned in the therapeutic works, as are also boxes for storing ointments in.
Bone and Ivory.
Numbers of bone ligulae were found in a Roman hospital lately excavated at Baden.