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.

11 The following, again, are most powerful to disperse whatever has collected in any part of the cody: southernwood, elecampane, marjoram, white violet, honey, lily, Cyprian marjoram, milk, melilot, thyme, oil of cypress, cedar-oil, iris, purple violet, narcissus, rose, saffron, raisin wine, angular rush, nard, cinnamon, casia, ammoniacum, wax, resin, black bryony berries, litharge, storax, dry fig, goat's marjoram, linseed, narcissus seed, bitumen, sordes from the gymnasium, pyrites or millstone, raw yolk of egg, bitter almonds, sulphur.

12 The following are epispastics: ladanum, round alum, ebony, linseed, omphacium, ox-bile, copper ore, bdellium, turpentine and pine resin, propolis, dried fig cooked, pigeons' dung, pumice, darnel meal, unripe figs cooked in water, elaterium, laurel berries, soda, salt.

13 The following relieve any irritated part: oxide of zinc, ebony, gum, white of egg, milk, tragacanth.

14 The following make the flesh grow, and fill in ulcerations: pine-resin, ochre from Attica or Scyros, wax, butter.

15 The following are emollients: calcined copper, Eretrian earth, soda, poppy-tears, ammoniacum, bdellium, wax, suet, soft fat, oil, dried fig, sesamum,

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melilot, narcissus root and seed, rose-leaves, curd, raw yolk of egg, bitter almonds, marrow of any kind, antimony sulphide, pitch, snails boiled, hemlock seed, lead-slag which the Greeks call skwri/a molu/bdou, all-heal, cardamon, galbanum, resin, black bryony berries, storax, iris, balsam, gymnasium sordes, sulphur, butter, rue.

16 The following cleanses the skin: honey, but better if mixed with galls or bitter vetch or lentil or horehound or iris or rue or soda or verdigris.