Samian stone[2738] comes from the same island which produces the earth in praise of which we have spoken already.[2739] It is useful for giving a polish to gold, and it is employed medicinally for the treatment of ulcerations of the eyes, combined with milk in manner already[2740] described. It is good, too, for watery discharges of a chronic nature, from the eyes. Taken internally, it is useful for affections of the stomach, and it has the effect of dispelling vertigo and restoring the spirits when depressed. Some writers are of opinion that this stone may be administered with advantage for epilepsy and strangury; and it is employed as an ingredient in the restoratives known as “acopa.”[2741] The test of its purity is its weight and its whiteness. Some persons will have it that, worn as an amulet, it acts as a preventive of abortion. CHAP. 41.—ARABIAN STONE; SIX REMEDIES. Arabian[2742] stone resembles ivory in appearance; and in a calcined state it is employed as a dentifrice.[2743] It is particularly useful for the cure of hæmorrhoidal swellings, applied either in lint or by the aid of linen pledgets. CHAP. 42.—PUMICE; NINE REMEDIES. And here, too, I must not omit to give some account of pumice.[2744] This name is very generally given, it is true, to those porous pieces of stone, which we see suspended in the erections known as “musæa,”[2745] with the view of artificially giving them all the appearance of caverns. But the genuine pumice-stones, that are in use for imparting smoothness to the skin of females, and not females only, but men as well, and, as Catullus[2746] says, for polishing books, are found of the finest quality in the islands of Melos and Nisyros[2747] and in the Æolian Isles. To be good, they should be white, as light as possible, porous and dry in the extreme, friable, and free from sand when rubbed.