NOTES 339

write the poem "'as a doctor'; he could not give in verse a formal
prescription with the quantities called for, as he does here.

ïïo0 The 'depurative salivation' provoked by mercury was con—
sidered salutary, and must not be checked, since it was believed
that thus, by an effort of nature, the virus of the malady was ex—
pelled.  Some doctors excited salivation by repeated inunctions, thus
causing: "*ces stomatites effroyables qui gangr6naient les gencives, qui
d6chaussaient, €branlaient les dents et souvent en döterminaient
la chute, qui parfois möme allaient jusqu'A& carier, & nöcroser une
portion des maxillaires. . . . Inutile et dösastreuse pratique qui
n'a pas peu contribu6« a semer dans le peuple 1 horreur d'un salutaire
remode'?. Fournier, Note to Vigo, p. 57.

ï;4: A decoction of mulberry, violet and plantain is prescribed
by Vigo among various mouth—washes for local irritation, and to
attenuate the action of the morbid humors mingled with the saliva'.

ï12 Djoscurides V. 94 «»»4jæ&pt Says that cinnabar is not to be
confused with 4«(»or, minium (now red oxide of lead), but in
the poem SyphiJis Fracastorius gives miniwum rubens as an ingre—
dient in mercurial ointment and means cinnabar. 'The latter is a&
word of Oriental origin, and according to Pliny XXXIII. 115 was
applied to two separate substances; i. e. dragon's blood, and what
the Greeks eall mGrncum. 'The terms are confused by most writers.
But true cinnabar, says Dioscurides, comes from Africa and has
the same properties as hematite stone; it is styptic and used for
exanthemata etc. 'This native cinnabar is red mercuric sulphide.
For the use of cinnabar by the Empirics, see p. 289.

:ï73 Sphacelus was at this time used of gangrene, in general, and
also for gangrene of the bones, hence the modern use of the word
for dead bone.

:ï714 For & useful discussion of the baths of Abano (Albano) near
Padua, see Klebs, Balneology in ihe Middle Ages, in Trans. of the
American Clymatological and Clinical Ass. 1916.  'They are mentioned
by Suetonius (160 A. p.) and by the poet Martial. Klebs says that
we are particularly well informed about the Italian spas that are
near the great centres of learning, such as Abano and Porretta (S.
W. of Bologna) whose sulphur springs and baths are still much
visited. Burton says that "the Aquae Porrectanae are recommend—
ed for black bile because they contain brass, iron and alum'. See
p. 267, where Fracastorius says that, in the early period of the epi—
demic of syphilis, baths were tried but did no good.

ï$$ Salsum phlegma, salt phlegm, of the hands and feet is men—
tioned by Vigo as a symptom of syphilis; it was a sore which dis—
charged much foul matter. See Fournier, Vigo, p. 38. For 'salt
pituita' see p. 183.

:ï35 Klebs (see note 174) describes a treatise (to be found in the
collection of writers on balneology, made by Thomas Giunta, called
De Balneis ommia quae extant, Venice, Giunta, 1553) in which is
*a, delightful confabulatio which gives an account of &a three—days'
visit of inspection to the baths of Caldariani by what we might call