particular earth may not be dug by any one on any other day of the year except that formally set apart for the operation. According to Dioscorides the earth was made up into a paste in his time with goats' blood, but when Galen visited the place 150 years later he could find no evidence of this addition.
Lemnian earth was, and I presume still is, a monopoly of the Sultan of Turkey. Most of the produce of the day's digging was sent to Constantinople and was made up into round tablets of about half an ounce in weight, which were stamped with designs similar to those shown in the accompanying sketches. At one time it is said the figure of Artemis (Diana) or the goat, which was one of her symbols appeared on the tablets, and it may be from this that the story of the goat's blood originated.
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Many other sealed earths were also more or less used
in medicine, and were credited with similar virtues.
The Terra Mellitea came from Malta and was alleged to
have a special power against the bites of serpents,
Malta, vipers, and St. Paul thus associating themselves
in the public mind. These cakes bore the effigy of St.
Paul, and a popular legend attributed their efficacy to a
blessing on the earth of the island when the apostle
landed there. There were besides Terra Samia, from
the Isle of Samos; Terra Sicula or Fossil Bezoar from
Sicily; Terra Portugallica, stamped with the figure of a
rose, from Portugal; Terra Strigensis or Germanica from
