De Medicina

Celsus, Aulus Cornelius

Celsus, Aulus Cornelius. De Medicina. Spencer, Walter George, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University; London, England: W. Heinemann Ltd, 1935-1938.

6 The following are erodents: alum brine, especially when made from round alum, verdigris, copper

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ore, antimony sulphide, copper scales, especially from red copper, calcined copper, sandarach, minium from Sinope; oak-galls, balsam, myrrh, frankincense, frankincense bark, galbanum, liquid turpentine, pepper of both kinds but especially the round, cardamon; orpiment, lime, soda and its scum; parsley seed, narcissus root, omphacium, coral, oil of bitter almonds, garlic, uncooked honey, wine, mastich, iron scales, ox-bile, scammony, black bryony berries, cinnamon, storax, hemlock seed, omphacium, parsley seed, resin, narcissus seed, bitter almonds and their oil, blacking, chrysocolla, hellebore, ash.

7 The following are exedents: acacia juice, ebony, verdigris, copper scales, chrysocolla, ash, cyprus ash, soda, cadmia, litharge, hypocistis, slag, salt, orpiment, sulphur, hemlock, sandarach, salamander-ash, coral, flowers of copper, copper ore, blacking, ochre, lime, vinegar, oak-gall, alum, milk of the wild fig, or of sea spurge which the Greeks call tithymallos, coral, bile, frankincense, spode, lentil, honey, olive leaves, horehound, haematite stone, Phrygian, Assian and ironschist, antimony sulphide, wine, vinegar.

8 The following are caustics: orpiment, blacking, copper ore, antimony sulphide, verdigris, lime, burnt papyrus-ash, salt, copper scales, burnt wine-lees, myrrh, dung of lizard and pigeon and wood pigeon and swallow, pepper, Cnidian berry, garlic, slag, both the milks mentioned in the previous chapter, hellebore both white and black, cantharides, coral, pyrethrum, frankincense, salamander-ash, rocket, sandarach, black bryony berries, chrysocolla, ochre, split alum, sheep's dung, vine-flower buds.

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9 The foregoing generally induce scabs on ulcerations almost as when burnt by a cautery, but most of all copper ore — especially after being heated — copper flowers, verdigris, orpiment, antimony sulphide, and that also more after being heated.

10 But such scabs are loosened by wheat flour with rue or leek or lentils, to which some honey has been added.