[438] Some of the ancient collyria were gravely averred to possess properties that were optical, rather than medical. Thus Alexander Trallianus gives a receipt for a very complex collyrium, which, when anointed upon the eyes, enabled those who used it to gaze upon the sun even without harm (Possis etiam solem citra noxam intueri).—_De Arte Medica_, lib. ii. p. 174. [439] “Etiam Asclepiades plurimam et optimam tum aridorum tum liquidorum collyriorum conscripsit silvam.” See Kühn’s edit. of _Galen_, vol. xii. p. 226. Asclepiades, who enjoyed during his life high professional popularity at Rome, seems to have flourished in the century preceding the commencement of the Christian era; and the expression of Galen (_sylva collyriorum_) consequently shows us the great number and extent of the collyria known and used even at that early period. For notices of the time and character of Asclepiades, see Pliny’s _Historia Naturalis_, lib. xxv. cap. 7; Grumpert’s _Asclepiades Bithyni Fragmenta_, Vinar. 1794; Burdach’s _Scriptorum de Asclepiade Index_, Leipzig, 1800. [440] In the following passage Galen tersely enumerates the very varied general ingredients, and general therapeutic effects, of the numerous collyria used by the Roman practitioners of his day:—“Nam et liquores, et succi, et semina, et fructus, et plantarum particulæ, ocularibus compositionibus induntur, veluti etiam non pauca ex iis, quæ metallica appellantur; aliqua quidem extreme austera, et acerba, atque aeria; aliqua vero his moderatiora et tamen fortia; quemadmodum item aliqua omnia mordacitatis expertia, ac lenissima per lotionem reddita.”—_De Compositione Medicam. secundum Locos_, cap. i.; Kühn’s edition, vol. xii. p. 699. [441] Celsus, in the same way, enumerates and describes the collyria of Philon, of Dionysius, of Cleon, of Theodotius, of Euelpides (_qui ætate nostra maximus fuit ocularius medicus_), of Nileus, of Hermon, etc. See his _Medicinæ Libri_, lib. vi. [442] Appellantur talia a medicis collyria _libiana_ et _cygni_, ob colorem quidem album.—Galen, _de Compos. Med. secundum Locos_, cap. i. Kühn’s edition, vol. xii. p. 708. [443] See Stuart’s _Caledonia Romana_, p. 154; _New Statistical Account of Edinburghshire_, p. 254, etc., for descriptions of the Roman remains at Inveresk. [444] _Medicæ Artis Principes: De Medicamentis Liber_, p. 273. [445] _Medicæ Artis Principes: De Compositione Medicamentorum Liber Comp._ xxvi. p. 198. [446] Kühn’s Edit. of _Galen_, vol. xii. pp. 753 and 774. [447] Cornarius’ Latin Translation in _Medicæ Artis Principes_, p. 432. [448] Kühn’s Edit. of _Galen_, vol. xii. p. 699. [449] _P. Dioscoridis Opera quæ extant Omnia._ (Edit. Saraceni, 1698) p. 21, lib. i. cap. xxv. [450] _Naturalis Historia._ Leyden edit. of 1635, vol. ii. p. 474. [451] Kühn’s Edit. of _Galen_, vol. xii. p. 770. [452] _Ibid._ pp. 785 and 773.