Samian stone[2738] comes from the same island which produces the earth in praise of which we have spoken already.[2739] It is useful for giving a polish to gold, and it is employed medicinally for the treatment of ulcerations of the eyes, combined with milk in manner already[2740] described. It is good, too, for watery discharges of a chronic nature, from the eyes. Taken internally, it is useful for affections of the stomach, and it has the effect of dispelling vertigo and restoring the spirits when depressed. Some writers are of opinion that this stone may be administered with advantage for epilepsy and strangury; and it is employed as an ingredient in the restoratives known as “acopa.”[2741] The test of its purity is its weight and its whiteness. Some persons will have it that, worn as an amulet, it acts as a preventive of abortion.
CHAP. 41.—ARABIAN STONE; SIX REMEDIES.
Arabian[2742] stone resembles ivory in appearance; and in a calcined state it is employed as a dentifrice.[2743] It is particularly useful for the cure of hæmorrhoidal swellings, applied either in lint or by the aid of linen pledgets.
CHAP. 42.—PUMICE; NINE REMEDIES.
And here, too, I must not omit to give some account of pumice.[2744] This name is very generally given, it is true, to those porous pieces of stone, which we see suspended in the erections known as “musæa,”[2745] with the view of artificially giving them all the appearance of caverns. But the genuine pumice-stones, that are in use for imparting smoothness to the skin of females, and not females only, but men as well, and, as Catullus[2746] says, for polishing books, are found of the finest quality in the islands of Melos and Nisyros[2747] and in the Æolian Isles. To be good, they should be white, as light as possible, porous and dry in the extreme, friable, and free from sand when rubbed.
Considered medicinally, pumice is of a resolvent and desiccative nature; for which purpose it is submitted to calcination, no less than three times, on a fire of pure charcoal, it being quenched as often in white wine. It is then washed, like cadmia,[2748] and, after being dried, is put by for keeping, in a place as free from damp as possible. In a powdered state, pumice is used in ophthalmic preparations more particularly, and acts as a lenitive detergent upon ulcerations of the eyes. It also makes new flesh upon cicatrizations of those organs, and removes all traces of the marks. Some prefer, after the third calcination, leaving the pumice to cool, and then triturating it in wine. It is employed also as an ingredient in emollient poultices, being extremely useful for ulcerations on the head and generative organs; dentifrices, too, are prepared from it. According to Theophrastus,[2749] persons when drinking for a wager are in the habit[2750] of taking powdered pumice first; but they run great risk, he says, if they fail to swallow the whole draught of wine at once; it being of so refrigerative a nature that grape-juice[2751] will absolutely cease to boil if pumice is put into it.
CHAP. 43. (22.)—STONES FOR MORTARS USED FOR MEDICINAL AND OTHER PURPOSES. ETESIAN STONE. THEBAIC STONE. CHALAZIAN STONE.
Authors, too, have paid some attention to the stones in use for mortars, not only those employed for the trituration of drugs and pigments, but for other purposes as well. In this respect they have given the preference to Etesian[2752] stone before all others, and, next to that, to Thebaic stone, already mentioned[2753] as being called “pyrrhopœcilon,” and known as “psaranus” by some. The third rank has been assigned to chrysites,[2754] a stone nearly allied to Chalazian[2755] stone. For medicinal purposes, however, basanites[2756] has been preferred, this being a stone that remits no particles from its surface.[2757]
Those stones which yield a liquid, are generally looked upon as good for the trituration of ophthalmic preparations; and hence it is, that the Æthiopian stone is so much in request for the purpose. Tænarian stone, they say, Phœnician stone, and hæmatites, are good for the preparation of those medicinal compositions in which saffron forms an ingredient; but they also speak of another Tænarian stone, of a dark colour, which, like Parian[2758] stone, is not so well adapted for medicinal purposes. We learn from them, too, that Egyptian alabastrites,[2759] or white ophites,[2760] from the virtues inherent in them, are considered still better adapted for these purposes than the kinds last mentioned. It is this kind of ophites, too, from which vessels, and casks even, are made.