Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 7.djvu/493

 USED BY A ROMAN OCULIST OR EMPIRIC. 359 " amuletal seal," with letters incised upon a circiilai- piece of jade, seven-eighths of an inch in diam, and a quai'ter thick. " It has hitherto (he observes) baffled the endcavoui's of those who have attempted to explain it." The accom- panying w^ood-ciit is taken from the representation in the " Gentleman's Magazine." Dialibaniis, supposed to have been a compound of frankin- cense, is one of the medicaments named upon the stamp, for- merly in Mr. Deuce's possession ; it probably was identical with the coUyrium dialepidos, mentioned by JMarccllus Empiricus. and occurring on a stamp found in Normandy.^ The con- cluding letters on the Wroxeter stamp obviously indicate the compound ea^ ow, as on the example from Cirencester ; on Mr. Deuce's — lene{mentum) ea? ovo ; and on that produced by Gough. Amongst the antiquities in the British Museum three of these remarkable stamps are preserved. It is believed that they formed part of the Sloane Collection. No record of the place of discovery can be ascertained. They are all formed of a similar substance, a greenish-coloured schist : one of them is the identical specimen exhibited by Gough to the Society of Antiquaries, and figured in the Archa^ologia, vol. ix. p. 227. On another is to be seen a single inscription, — COLLYK. p. CL. oc. The third bears three inscriptions ; the name of the Empiric is Seddus Julius Scdatus, the remedies being three varieties of Crocodes, namely, — dtai.epidos — ADDIATHES and PACCIANI. It may be hoped that all these, with other unexplained examples, and one found at Tranent, in North Britain, will be illustrated by the researches of Pro- fessor Simpson, of Edinburgh, who is engaged in preparing a dissertation upon the subject. The latest discovery of this nature has been described by Mr. C. Roach Smith, in an interesting Memoir " on a Boman mecUcine Stamp, &c . found at Kenchester" (Journal of the British ArcluTol. Assoc, vol. iv., p. 280). It was communicated by Mr. R. Johnston, of Hereford. Mr. Smith appears to have been ac(]uaintcd with two other examples only, authenticated as found in England. He cites the curious Dssertation by M. Dufour, who remai-ks, that of fifty-three stamps hitherto described by writers on antiquity, all, with a single exception, have been found in France, Germany, or England ; seeming to indicate that 7 Gough, from the Mcrcurc rran9ois, in ArcliDool., vol. ix., p. '233. VOL. VII. '•''> »