Medicinal tablets

Medicinal tablets are nothing new. Doctors have been [dispensing:advising] pills for thousands of years. And now archaeologists have turned up some of those ancient medicines, which were preserved in a shipwreck for close to two millennia.The 2nd-century Pozzino wreck was discovered in 1974 off the coast of Italy. Its cargo included medical [equipment:facilities] like a cupping vessel, iron probe, and tin boxes of supplies. And in one of those [boxes:tables] , researchers recovered five grey tablets. Now, they've analyzed the antique medication. The work is in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.The pills primarily contained zinc compounds, probably the active medicinal [ingredients:components] . But researchers also detected starch, pollen, charcoal, fats and linen fibres. Those fibers helped the tablets hold their round, loaf-like shape, which may be the key to the medication's use: the Greek word meaning "small round loaves" also inspired the word collyrium, or eye-wash. The pills were probably either [dissolved:grounded] in liquid or ground into a powder and used to treat eye conditions. Who knows, maybe Hippocrates used them on his pupils.