CHAP. 53.—MOLYBDÆNA: FIFTEEN REMEDIES.
Molybdæna,1739 which in another place I have called “galena,”1740 is a mineral compounded of silver and lead. It is considered better in quality the nearer it approaches to a golden colour and the less lead it contains; it is also friable, and of moderate weight. When it is melted with oil, it acquires the colour of liver. It is found adhering also to the furnaces in which gold and silver have been smelted; and in this case it is called “metallic.” The most esteemed kind is that prepared at Zephyrium.1741 Those kinds, too, are considered the best that are the least earthy and the least stony. It is used in preparing liparæ,1742 as also for soothing or cooling ulcers, and as an ingredient in plasters, which are applied without ligatures, but are used only as a liniment for producing cicatrization on the bodies of delicate persons and the more tender parts. The composition is made of three pounds of molybdæna, one pound of wax, and three heminæ of oil; to which are added lees of olives, in the case of aged persons. Combined with scum of silver1743 and scoria of lead, it is employed warm in fomentations for dysentery and tenesmus.