A History of Inventions, Discoveries, and Origins, Volume II (of 2). Johann Beckmann. Читать онлайн. Newlib. NEWLIB.NET

Автор: Johann Beckmann
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228

Miscellanea Berolin. 1710, vol. i. p. 97. The fluor-spar earth, or phosphoric earth, as it is called, which in later times has been found in marble quarries, and which some at present consider as an earth saturated with phosphoric acid, is mentioned by the Swede Hierne, in Prodromus Hist. Nat. Sueciæ. Henkel had never seen it.

229

Watson’s Chemical Essays, ii. p. 277.

230

Descriptive Catalogue of Tassie’s Engraved Gems, Lond. 1791, 2 vols. 4to, i. p. 51.

231

Plin. xviii. 12, sect. 51, p. 475.

232

It is beyond all doubt that the words sapo and σάπων were derived from the German sepe, which has been retained in the Low German, the oldest and original dialect of our language. In the High German this derivation has been rendered a little more undistinguishable by the p being changed into the harder f. Such changes are common, as schap, schaf; schip, schiff, &c.

233

De Simplicibus Medicaminibus, p. 90, G.

234

According to Aretæus De Diuturnis Morbis, ii. 13, p. 98, soap appears to have been formed into balls.

235

Mart. xiv. 27. This soap acquired the epithet of Mattiacum from the name of a place which was in Hesse.

236

Caustica Teutonicos accendit spuma capillos,

Captivis poteris cultior esse comis. – Mart. xiv. 26.

These lines are generally explained in this manner: – “Dye thy hair with soap, and it will become more beautiful than that of the Germans.” But in this case all the wit of the advice is lost; and the expression, “eris cultior quam comæ captivæ,” seems to me to be very improper. I should rather translate them as follows: – “Let the Germans dye their hair with pomade; as they are now subdued, thou mayst ornament thyself better with a peruke made of the hair of these captives.” This was a piece of delicate flattery to Domitian and the Roman pride. That prince thought he had conquered the Germans; and the most beautiful German hair, that which was not dyed, could be procured, therefore, at Rome, much easier than before. If the title of this epigram was written by Martial himself, it contains the first mention of the word sapo.

237

Fortior et tortos servat vesica capillos,

Et mutat Latias spuma Batava comas. – Mart. viii. 23, 19.

The first line of the above proves that people then covered their heads, in the night-time, with a bladder to keep their hair, after it was dressed, from being deranged; and a bladder was undoubtedly as fit for that use as the nets and cauls employed for the like purpose at present.

238

Femina canitiem Germanis inficit herbis.

Ovidius De Arte Amandi, iii. 163.

239

Valer. Max. i. 5, p. 135: Capillos cinere rutilarunt.

Ad rutilam speciem nigros flavescere crines,

Unguento cineris prædixit Plinius auctor.

Q. Serenus, De Medic. iv. 56.

Serenus seems to allude to a passage of Pliny, xxiii. 2, p. 306, where he speaks of an ointment made from the burnt lees of vinegar and oleum lentiscinum. The same thing is mentioned in Dioscorides, v. 132, p. 379. Servius, Æn. iv. quotes the following words from Cato: “Mulieres nostræ cinere capillum ungitabant, ut rutilus esset crinis.” Alex. Trallianus, 1, 3, gives directions how to make an ointment for gray hair from soap and the ashes of the white flowers of the Verbascum. The Cinerarii, however, of Tertullian, lib. ii. ad uxor. 8, p. 641, seem to have been only hair-dressers, who were so called because they warmed their curling-irons among the hot ashes.

240

Pliny says that spots of the skin may be removed by ox-gall.

241

Odyss. vi. 91.

242

Iliad, ix. 14, and xvi. 4.

243

Geopon. vii. 6. – Plin. xiv. cap. 21. – Columella, xii. 50. 14.

244

Arnobius, vii. p. 237.

245

The word λίτρον in Pollux ought not to have been translated sapo.

246

Cicer. Ep. Fam. viii. 14. – Pollucis Onom. viii. 9, 39; x. 135. – Ovid. De Medicam. Faciei, ver. 73 et 85. – Phavorini Dictionar. p. 527. Gynesius calls clothes washed with nitrum, νιτρούμενα, nitro perfricata.

247

Lib. xi. p. 801.

248

De Mirabil. Auscult. c. 54.

249

Hist. Mirab. c. 162, p. 216.

250

Lib. xxxi. 10, p. 564.

251

J. D. Michaelis Commentationes, 4to, p. 151. I must mention also C. Schoettgenii Antiquitates Fulloniæ, Traj. 1727, 8vo. My readers will do me a pleasure if they compare the above work with this article. No one will accuse me of vanity when I pretend to understand the theory of washing better than the learned Schöttgen; but if I have explained the passages which he quotes in a more satisfactory manner, and turned them to more advantage, I must ascribe this superiority to my knowledge of that art. I shall here take occasion to remark, that there is no subject, however trifling, which may not be rendered useful, or at least agreeable, by being treated in a scientific manner; and to turn such into ridicule, instead of displaying wit, would betray a want of judgment.

252

Plin. xxviii. 6; xxviii. 8. – Martial. vi. ep. 93. – Athenæus, xi. p. 484. Macrobius, ii. 12, speaking of drunken people, “Dum eunt, nulla est in angiporto amphora, quam non impleant, quippe qui vesicam plenam vini habeant.” This passage is quoted also in Joh. Sarisberg. Polior. viii. 7, p. 479.

253

Sueton. in Vita Vespas. viii. 23.

254

Porner’s Anleitung zur Farbekunst, p. 31.

255

Those numbered 3, 4, 5, 6.

256

This plant was sent by Imperati to Casp. Bauhin, under the name of lanaria veterum; and the latter made it first known in his Pinax Plant. iv. p. 206. The former described it himself, and gave a bad engraving of it, in Hist. Nat. p. 871. Löffling found this plant on the Spanish mountains, as well as in the neighbourhood of Aranjuez; and he relates, that in the province of La Mancha the people boil clothes that are to be washed with the root of this plant instead of soap. Linnæus did not hesitate to declare the struthium of the ancients and the struthium of his system to be the same plant; and he gave his countrymen reason to hope that their Gypsophila fastigiata, which has a great resemblance to it, might be employed in the like manner. – Amœnitat. Academ. v. p. 329.

257

Salmas. ad Solin. p. 818. a.

258

De Alimentor. Facultate, i. cap. 19. in Op. vol. iv. p. 315.

259

Lib. xvii. 18.

260

Pollux. – Plin.

261

Dioscor.

262

This terra Lemnia is entirely different from sealing-earth. See Galen. De Simplic. Med.

263

Plin.

264

Plin. The Sarda was cheap, and purchased by measure; the Umbria was dearer, and sold by weight.

265

Theophrast. Dioscor.

266

I here mean that it got its name from being employed to clean that piece of armour, formerly used, which covered only the breast and the back, and which was called a koller. The Swedes also call yellow iron-ochre kiöllerfärg or kyllerfarg.

267

See