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An Assyrian Chemist's Vade-mecum
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
Extract
I Append some suggested explanations for some of the receipts in an Assyrian text, of which several recensions exist, which may be considered as a vade-mecum for chemists.
These recensions are:—
A. K. 274 + 5986 (CT.. xiv, 42, cols, iii–iv) + 4163 (ib., cols, i–ii–iii, a new join) + 8764 (col. iv, copied afresh, a new join); the lower part of this tablet is K. 4140, B (ib., 42–3, cols, i–ii) + 14077 (ib., 33, joining col. iii, a new join).
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- Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1934
References
page 771 note 1 The following abbreviations are used: AH., my Assyrian Herbal; AM., my Assyrian Medical Texts; CT., Cuneiform Texts; Deimel, Sumerisches Lexikon; E., Ebeling, Archiv f. Gesch. d. Medizin; IB., Ibn Beithar, Leclerc, Notices des Manuscrits, xxiii, xxv, xxvi; KAR., Ebeling, Keils. aus Assur; Khory, Bombay Materia Medica; M., Meek's copies, RA., 1920; Mat., Matouš, Lexihal. Taf.; NH., Natural History; OTC, my On the Chemistry; P., Squire, Comp. to Brit. Pharmacopœia, 18th ed.; PRSM., Proc. of the Royal Soc. of Medicine; PSBA., Proc. Soc. Bibl. Arch.; RA., Revue d'Assyr.; Rawson, Dict, of Dyes; SM., Budge, Syriac Book of Medicines. I am greatly indebted to Sir Herbert Jackson for his courtesy in allowing me to discuss certain points in this article with him.
page 776 note 1 v. [uTIN].TIR.ŠAR.
page 778 note 1 Amoreux in his Recherches (15) in Hoffmann's, G. F.Mém. sur l'utilité des Lichens, 1787Google Scholar, includes, among the trees on which lichens are found, oaks, pines, willows, sloes, mulberries, elms, chestnuts, figs, junipers, olives (etc.), but I cannot find a definite instance of tamarisk here or in Hoffmann's, Enumeratio Lichenum, 1784Google Scholar.
page 778 note 2 I have to thank Mr. W. R. Day, of the Department of Forestry, Oxford University, for a most enlightening conversation on lichens.
page 779 note 1 There is an obvious mistake a-gur-ru in K. 4218, A, and Mat., corrected by gur- . . . on K. 4140, A, and the sign on K. 14062, URUDU.[TIBIRA], II R. 51, 45, a: Deimel, 560, 6 = gurgurru.
page 781 note 1 I am indebted to a copy of a tablet made by Herr Pick and given by him to Professor Langdon, who has generously lent it to me, as he knew that I was interested in plant-texts. I am also indebted to Professor Ehelohlf for permission, through Professor Langdon, to use this quotation.
page 781 note 2 This, as will be seen, restores my copy in CT. xiv, 40, 82–5, 22, 576; AH. 23 and 115, but adds these two new equivalences. uNamul iṣṣuri is, however, turmeric (CT. xiv, 27, K. 4621, 2 + 32, K. 10024, 2); uḫazasinu, a difficult form, is unknown to me.
page 782 note 1 Here I must offer a warning that Brockelmann (Lexikon, 380) has misread accidentally the sequence of lines in ZDMG. 39, 258, 5, making by error 
isatis tinctoria “woad” instead of hippomarathrum.
page 782 note 2 The Whole Art of Dying (sic), pub. by the Tapestry Studio, 30, 87; Les Plantes qui Quérissent, 557 (and also sage).
page 783 note 1 Presuming that this is not kazallu iṣṣuri, very improbable. It is going too far into the realms of fantasy to see in kaniluḫu a garbling of the Syr. ḳ-n-kûlâ, conchylium, murex, but there is a bye-form ḳókalión for conchylium, which suggests that ḳ-n-kûlâ may have a distinct origin of its own.
page 783 note 2 Democritus gives the following as pourpre (ib., ii, 44): (1) l'algue qu'on appelle fausse pourpre, (2) le coccus (sorte de cochenille), (3) la couleur marine (orseille), (4) l'orcanette (anchusa) de Laodicée, (5) le cremnos, matiere inconnue, (6) la garance d'ltalie, le phyllanthion d'Occident (ou des plongeurs ?), le ver á pourpre, tiré de …, le rose d'ltalie; and those giving no fixed colours (pourpre): Cochenille de Galatie, la couleur d'Achaie qu'on appelle laccha, celle de Syrie qu'on appelle rhizion, le coquillage et le double coquillage de Libye, la coquille d'Égypte de la région maritime qu'on appelle pinna, la plante appelée isatis, et la couleur de la Syrie supérieure que l'on appelle murex.