Book I

, 114.

Ἀρσενίκον,

_Arsenic_, is possessed of caustic powers. It is used also for depilatories, but if the application be allowed to remain long it affects the skin itself. When burnt its particles become attenuated.

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COMMENTARY. There can be no hesitation in deciding that this is the yellow sulphuret of arsenic, commonly called orpiment, the latter term being a corruption of auripigmentum, the Latin name of it. See Celsus (v, 5.) The ancients used this mineral very freely as an external application, and internally by the mouth, in clysters, and in fumigations. Avicenna recommends arsenic with the gum of pine, in the form of a pill, for asthma. He also speaks highly of a potion containing arsenic and honeyed water. He particularly commends arsenic as an application to herpes esthiomenos of the nose. (ii, 2, 48.) Cælius Aurelianus recommends an injection containing arsenic for ascarides. (Tard. Pass. iv, 7). It was freely used in injections for the cure of chronic dysentery. (See