The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 3 (of 6)

Chapter 188: CHAP. 3.—DIAPASMA, MAGMA; THE MODE OF TESTING UNGUENTS.

Open in WeRead

Explore more books like this:

About This Book

The work assembles systematic observations on animals, insects, and trees, combining natural history with practical notes. It surveys insect forms and habits, including bees, silk‑producing worms, spiders, and parasitic species, and discusses reproduction, classification, diseases, and useful products like honey and silk. It then examines animal anatomy in detail, limb by limb and organ by organ, comparing organs, vital functions, and bodily peculiarities across species. Later sections catalogue trees and exotic plants, describing aromatic gums, spices, frankincense, myrrh, and methods for producing and testing unguents and perfumes, and noting their uses and regions of origin.

CHAP. 3.—DIAPASMA, MAGMA; THE MODE OF TESTING UNGUENTS.

Those unguents which are known by the name of “diapasma,”753 are composed of dried perfumes. The lees 754 of unguents are known by the name of “magma.755” In all these preparations the most powerful perfume is the one that is added the last of all. Unguents keep best in boxes of alabaster,756 and perfumes 757 when mixed with oil, which conduces all the more to their durability the thicker it is, such as the oil of almonds, for instance. Unguents, too, improve with age; but the sun is apt to spoil them, for which reason they are usually stowed away in a shady place in vessels of lead. When their goodness is being tested, they are placed on the back of the hand, lest the heat of the palm, which is more fleshy, should have a bad effect upon them.