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hind. VVhen they have thus wafted it as clean as they can, by turning and Stirring it often in the running Stream, they remove the bigger parts both of the lead and calamine and put the fmaller parts, that none of their ore may be loft, into fieves with bottoms made of ftrong wire ; this they dip and Shake up and down in a great tub of water, by which Shaking of the fieves, the parts of lead, being heavier!, fink or pitch down to the bottom, the parts of the calamine in the middle, and the other parts rife to the top ; which laft being fkim'd off and thrown away, they then take off the calamine, and after that the lead. The calamine is next fpread on a board in order to pick out with the hand what trafh there Still remains among it.
When the calamine is fufficiently prepared by warning and picking, they carry it to the oven, which refembles that of a baker's in form, but is much bigger, and has a hearth on one fide which is feparated from the reft by a hem or partition made open at the top, whereby the flame pafles over and bakes the calamine. They let it lie in the oven for four or five hours, during which time they turn it feveral times with long iron rakes ; when it is fufficiently burnt, baked and dried, they beat it to a powder with long iron hammers like mallets, up- on a thick plank, picking out what ftones they find amongft it ; fo that at laft the calamine is reduced to dull: to be ufed in diftemperaturcs of the eyes. Vid. Phil. Tranf. N° 198. Glaubi-r holds it of an aluminous, others of a ferruginous nature. It is aftringent and deterfive, abforbs acids and hu- midities, and thence becomes of ufe in the cure of ulcers, and takes off films from the eyes of horfes : ignited and ex- tinguished in ophthalmic waters, it is applauded as a collyri- um a . Crato's great arcanum for the eyes was the ftone ground fine and mixed up with the marrow of calves Shanks, or May butter b . Paracelfus alfo gave the lapis cahmiinaris internally c : — [*> Lilav. Alchym. Pharm. c. io, b River. Prax. Med. !. 2. c. 8. p. 162. <= Caff. Lex. Med. p. 121. Boyle, Phil. Works, Abr. T. 2. p. 327. Vat. Phyf. Exper. p. 449, feq. Grew, Difc. of Mixt. 1. ?. c. 1. §. 9. J
Some of the modern writers have been fond of deriving the word calamine,' from the Indian calaem, which with the, people of that nation is the name of the zink, or tuienag ; I and had the great alliance which there really is between the ■ calamine and zitik been known at the time when this name ! was given, it would fecm a probable opinion enough ; but as 1 it is certain, that this is but a very modern difcovery, and there is not the leaft refemblance in appearance between thefe two fubftances ; it is not probable that the one Should have been named from the other. The word calamine is much more naturally deduced from the general origin of thefe fort of modern names in the materia medica, that is, the Arabic. Avifenna, Serapio and the other Arabian phyficians call this fubftance clhnia, and fometimes this word is written ca'imia. The modern Greeks write it cellmia, and the word calamia is So very little different from this, that there need be no far- ther Search after its origin or etymology. CALAMINT, Calamintha, in botany, the name of a ge- nus of plants, the characters of which are thefe : The flower confifts of one leaf, and is of the labiated kind ; the upper lip is roundifh, erect and bifid ; the lower is divided in- to three fegments. The piftil arifes from the cup, and is fixea in the manner of a nail to the hinder part of the flower, and is furrounded by four embryos, which afterwards become fo many roundifh feeds to which the cup of the flower ferves as a capfule. To thefe marks it may be added, that the flowers of all the calamints grow in the alse of the leaves, and Stand on ramofe pedicles.
The fpecies of calamint enumerated by Mr. Tournefort, are thefe; 1. The common calpmint, or mountzin-cala?mnt, with a large Slower. 2. The large flowered taller calamint. 3. The calamint, with the fmell of penny-royal. 4. The very tall mountain-tWtfw/j/f, with the fmell of penny-royal, with dentated leaves and pale blue flowers on long and branched pedicles. 5. The great leaved and large flowered calamint. 6. The white large flowered large leaved calamint 7. The fmall flowered calamint. 8. The low round-leaved calamint "commonly known under the name of ground-ivy, 9. The purple-flowered groimd-lvy. 10. The fmaller elegant roun- diSh-leaved ground-ivy. H. The hoary bafil-leaved calamint. 12. The Shrubby calamint, with the leaves, appearance, and fmell of winter -favory. 1 3. The marum-leaved Shrubby Spa- nish calamint. 14. The long and narrow-leaved cretic cala- mint. 15. The annual thyme-leaved calamint. Tourn. Inft.
, P-73-
Calamist is an officinal plant, whofe leaves ared reputed warm, aperient, and diaphoretic, and enter feveral alexiphar- mic compositions.
There are three forts of calamint in ufe, viz. the jylvejlrh ; the vulgaris, or montana; and palujlris, oxaquatica; of which the firft ought to be the officinal fort, tho' the fcarcity of it among us ufually brings the fecond to market in its ftead ; the third is taken into the college difpenfatory, but rarely ufed. In the college difpenfatory, we find a compound powder de- nominated from calamint. Pharmac. Coll. Med. Lond. p. 1 19. $ninc. Pharmac. P. 2. feci. 6. n. 41c. Gerr. Med. Defin.
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p. 205. Vac. SSs^S.. Ray, Synopf. Stirp. Brit, n r,f Junth. Confp. TKerap. p; 313. ■* '
CALAMKTRUM, in natural hiftory, a name by which I in- nyus and fome authors have called a'fmall pl.nt, known anions us by the name of pcppir-grafi, from its having graffy leaves* and round globules at their inl'crtions refembling pepper-corns. Mr. Vaillant has more properly nam'd it pilu aria. Lima) Gen. Phut. See Pilulari/1. CALAMITA, or Calamitis, {Cycl.) is ufed to denote the magnet or loadiione. Trcv. Diet. Univ. T. j. p. 13,0 Menag. Orig. Fr. p. ,49. See Magnet, Cycl. and SUppl. Calamitis is alfo ufed for a fpeties of artificial cadmia, found adhering to the flicks, ladles, and other utenfds wherewith they ftir the copper when in fufion in the furnace. It is denominated ca'amith, from the Latin cadmus, a reed, on account of its refemblance to the figure of a reed cloven in the middle. Schrid. Pharm. 1. 3. c. 19. Call. Lex. Med p. I2i. Savar. Difl. Conim. T. 1. p. 525. Agricola alfo gives the denomination calkmtis to a kind of ftone-plant growing in the fea, bearing fome refemblance to the figure of a reed. Agric. Foffil, 1. 4. in fin. Call Lex Med. p. 121. J
Calamita Alba, iri natural hiftory, the name of an earth dug in Spain and Italy, of a hard texture, a white colour, and fiyptic tafl-e ; they pretend that this attrafts nefll in the fame manner as the magnet does iron, and thence call it mag- na earneus. See the article Macnes Caracas CALAMITA Styrax. See Styrax.
CALAMITES, in natural hiftory, a name given by fome to the ofteocolla, which when in fmall pieces, fometimes pretty exadly refembles the barrel of a quill ; others have called fome of the foffile coral/oidcs by this name, there bein» fre- quently in them the refemblance of feveral quills cemented together in ftone. CALAMUS, Ka^ oc , in phyfiology, the fame with amnio, a reed, rufh, cane, or Bag. Plin. Hift. Nat. 1. 16 c \i Gin: Med. Defin. p. 205. voc. K*x*p>"t. '
CALAMUS aromaticus, in the materia medica, a drug verv erroneoufly confounded with the acorus by mod writere, and ufually called by the fame name as a fynohym. The acorus- foot, which is too often improperly called by the name of this drug, is well known to be a root; whereas this is the ftalk of a fmall reed : the true calamus aromaticus is of the thicknefs of a goofe quill, full of joints, and three or four foot high. It ihould be chofen large, frefh, clean, without leaves or roots among it ; of a brownifh red without, and white arid full of a fpungy pith within. This pith alfo fhould be of a fair white, for when the drug is old it always be- comes yellow, and falls into dull as if the worms had eaten it ; it ought eafily to break into fmall fplinters, and to be of a very bitter tafte, and very agreeable fmell. Poinds Hift. of Drugs, p. 62.
It is the ftalk of an arundinaccoiis plant, common in E»ypt, and called by Profper Alpinus, co/Jdbell darrira. It is an ingredient in the Venice treacle, and is faid to be good againft difeafes of the head and nerves. Calamus indicia petrcfadus, in the natural hiftory of the ahti- ents, a name given to a fubftance found often in the foffile world; ufually of about three inches long, half an inch broad, and one third of an inch thick, and covered all over its furface with large round figures, in fofm of radiated ftars within. This very much refembled in external appearance the root of our common calamus aromaticus of the (hops turn'd into ftone, and ferns to have been vulgarly fuppofed to be that fubftance petrified. The more accurate among the earlier writers how- ever have by no nieans countenanced fo wild a conjecture, and Theophraftus though he records the fubftance under that name, as it had no other in his time, yet joins it to the corals which, he fays, grow in the fea, arid are vegetables, and adds, that thofe, and this fubftance, are properly the fubjedts of an- other treatife, not of a hiftory of ftones. Sec Tab. of Foffils Clafs 7.
This author's placing it among the corals is perfectly right, fulce the fpeciiriens of it now found are plainly no other than corals of the ftellated kinds, which have been long buried in the earth. HiWs ' I 'heophr. p. 99. Calamus odoratus, in the materia medica, the name ofa reed of the Eaft Indies ofa very fweet fmell. Oiir calamus aromaticus which is the root of a water plant is a very different fubftance. Cornell. Syllab. p. 22. See Calamus aromaticus, Supr. CAtAMUSJcriptorins, properly denotes a reed, or rufh to write with, anl'wering the ufe of the indent ftylus and modern pen. Molitfauc. Palaeogn Gr. 1. I.e. 3. p. 21. Pliiji. Lex". Ant. T. I. p. 31 Sj, feq.
The antient .rEgvptian calamus was a fort of arundo aauatica growing plentifully about Memphis, and on the banks of the Nile ; whence it was alfo called calamus Mcmpliticm, Nilolicus
Calamus, in the antient poets, denotes a fimple kind of pipe, or fiftula the muflcal mftrument of the fhepherds and herdf- men ; ufually made either of an oaten ftalk, or a reed Salmaf. Exerc.ad Sohn. p 117. PitiJc.Ux. Ant. T. 1. p 3,8 Hc- der. Schul, Lex. p. 636.
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