[Notices of ancient Roman medicine-stamps, etc., found in Great Britain].

  • Simpson, James Young, 1811-1870.
Date:
[1851]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: [Notices of ancient Roman medicine-stamps, etc., found in Great Britain]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    Article VIT.—Notices of Ancient Roman Medicine-Stamps, fc., found in Great Britain. By J. Y. Simpson, MJD., Professor of Midwifery in the University of Edinburgh. Many years ago Schmidt, in his work on the Antiquities of Nimi- guen,1 published an account of two small, thin, greenish-coloured, square-shaped stones, both of them engraved with intagliate inscrip- tions on their four sides or edges; but he failed in making out the nature of the inscriptions, or interpreting the object and uses of the stones. Subsequently, Spoil,2 Chishull,3 Cavlus,4 Saxe,5 6 and Walche,® published accounts of other stones exactly similar in their character to the two found at Nimiguen; and it came to be generally ad- mitted, that the nature of the inscriptions upon them, the incuse and retrograde form of these inscriptions, and the localities in which they were found, all proved the stones to be medicine-stamps, employed for the purpose of marking their drugs, by the Roman doctors, who (some fifteen or sixteen centuries ago), practised at the various stations throughout Europe, that were in these olden times occupied by the colonists and soldiers of Rome. Latterly, various additional exam- ples of these Roman medicine-stamps have been discovered, at dif- ferent old Roman towns and stations in France, Germany, &c\, and described by Tochon,7 Sichel,8 Duchalais,9 and others. These medicine-stamps all agree in their general characters. They usually consist of small quadrilateral or oblong pieces of a greenish schist or steatite, engraved on one or more of their edges or borders. The in- scriptions are in small capital Roman letters, cut intagliate (like the letters on modern seals and stamps), and consequently reading on the stone itself from right to left, but making an impression (when stamped upon wax or any other similar plastic material), which reads from left to right. The inscriptions themselves generally contain, and that engraved on each side, first, the name of the medical practitioner to whom the stamp pertained ; then the name of some special medicine, or medical formula ; and lastly, the disease or diseases for which that 1 Antiquitates Neomagenses, p/98. 2 Miscellanea Eruditse Antiquitatis, p. 286. 3 Hayms Tesoro-Brittanico (1720), vol. ii. Letter in Preface. 4 Recueil d’Antiquites, tom. i., p. 224, and tom. vii., p. 261. 6 Christophori Saxii Epistola de Veteris Medici Ocularii Gemma Sphragide, prope Trajectum ad Mosam eruta. 1774. 6 Antiquitates Mediae Select ae. Jena, 1772. 7 Dissertation sur l’lnscription Grecque iaconoc aykion. Paris, 1826. 8 Cinq Cachets Inedits de Medecins-Oculistes Romains. Paris, 1845. To my friend, M. Sichel, one of the most learned of living physicians, I am much indebted for various valuable suggestions in collecting the materials for the present essay. 9 Observations sur les Cachets des Medecins-Oculistes Anciens, a-propos de Cinq Pierres Sigillaires inedits. Paris, 1846.