Nymphodorus[1605] recommends that the most heavy and dense pieces of mineral cadmia that can be procured, should be burnt upon hot coals and quenched in Chian wine; after which, it must be pounded and then sifted through a linen cloth. It is then pulverized in a mortar and macerated in rain water, the sediment being again pounded until it is reduced to the consistency of ceruse, and presents no grittiness to the teeth. Iollas[1606] recommends the same process; except that he selects the purest specimens of native cadmia. CHAP. 23.—FIFTEEN REMEDIES DERIVED FROM CADMIA. TEN MEDICINAL EFFECTS OF CALCINED COPPER. Cadmia[1607] acts as a desiccative, heals wounds, arrests discharges, acts detergently upon webs and foul incrustations of the eyes, removes eruptions, and produces, in fact, all the good effects which we shall have occasion to mention when speaking of lead. Copper too, itself, when calcined, is employed for all these purposes; in addition to which it is used for white spots and cicatrizations upon the eyes. Mixed with milk, it is curative also of ulcers upon the eyes; for which purpose, the people in Egypt make a kind of eye-salve by grinding it upon whet stones. Taken with honey, it acts as an emetic. For these purposes, Cyprian copper is calcined in unbaked earthen pots, with an equal quantity of sulphur; the apertures of the vessel being well luted, and it being left in the furnace until the vessel itself has become completely hardened. Some persons add salt, and others substitute alum[1608] for sulphur; others, again, add nothing, but merely sprinkle the copper with vinegar. When calcined, it is pounded in a mortar of Thebaic stone,[1609] after which it is washed with rain water, and then pounded with a large quantity of water, and left to settle. This process is repeated until the deposit has gained the appearance of minium;[1610] after which it is dried in the sun, and put by for keeping in a box made of copper. CHAP. 24. (11.)—THE SCORIA OF COPPER. The scoria, too, of copper is washed in the same manner; but the action of it is less efficacious than that of copper itself. The flower, too, of copper[1611] is also used in medicine; a substance which is procured by fusing copper, and then removing it into another furnace, where the repeated action of the bellows makes the metal separate into small scales, like the husks of millet, and known as “flower of copper.” These scales are also separated, when the cakes of metal are plunged into water: they become red, too, like the scales of copper known as “lepis,”[1612] by means of which the genuine flower of copper is adulterated, it being also sold under that name. This last is made by hammering nails that are forged from the cakes of metal. All these processes are principally carried on in the furnaces of Cyprus; the great difference between these substances being, that this lepis is detached from the cakes by hammering, whereas the flower falls off spontaneously.