Читать книгу Pharmacologia онлайн

67 страница из 211

The question however is unimportant, for this Stibium was never used but as an external Astringent, especially for the purpose of contracting the eye-lids, and thereby of making the eyes appear very large, which has been considered from the most remote antiquity, as a feature of great beauty; thus the epithet βοῶπὶς is constantly applied by Homer to Juno. This practice appears also to have been followed by the Jews, for Jezebel is said to have painted her eye-brows to make the eyes appear big;^[104] the expression also shews that the drug employed was the Stimmi. Εστὶμμὶσατο τους οφθαλμους ἁυτης.

To Basil Valentine we are moreover indebted for the discovery of the Volatile Alkali, and of its preparation from Sal Ammoniac; he also first used mineral acids as solvents, and noticed the production of Ether from Alcohol; he seems also to have understood the virtues of sulphate of iron, for he says, when internally administered, it is tonic and comforting to a weak stomach, and that externally applied, it is astringent and styptic: he moreover recommended a fixed alkali made from vine twigs cut in the beginning of March, for the cure of gout and gravel.