De Medicina

3 The following mature abscessions and promote suppuration: nard, myrrh, costmary, balsam, galbanum, propolis, storax, frankincense, both the soot and the bark, bitumen, pitch, sulphur, resin, suet, fat, oil.

4 The following open, as it were, mouths in our bodies, called in Greek stomou=n: cinnamon, balsam, all-heal; rush-root, pennyroyal, white violet flowers, bdellium, galbanum, turpentine and pine-resin, propolis, old olive-oil; pepper, pyrethrum, ground pine thistle, black bryony berries, sulphur, alum, rue seed.

5 The following have a cleaning effect: verdigris, orpiment, called by the Greeks arsenicon now this has the same property as sandarach, but copper scales are stronger, pumice; orris root, balsam, storax, frankincense, frankincense bark, pine-resin and liquid turpentine, vine-flowers; lizard dung, blood of pigeon and wood pigeon and swallow; ammoniacum, bdellium which has the same virtue as ammoniacum, but southernwood is more powerful, dry fig, Cnidian berry, powdered ivory, omphacium, radish; rennet, especially of the hare which has the same faculty as other rennet but is far more active, ox-bile, uncooked yolk of e.g., burnt stagshorn, ox-glue, raw honey, antimony sulphide, copper ore; saffron, black bryony berries, southernwood, litharge, oak-gall, haematite, minium, costmary, sulphur, crude pitch, suet, fat, oil, rue, leek, lentil, bitter vetch.

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

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.

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.