From the book
A Chymical Dictionary
Gerhard Dorn and John French · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordA name shared by a burning instrument and a medicine credited with a similar effect.
- A place to readThe historical definition below, 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 14; facsimile PDF page 342.
Historical definition
Cauterium is a surgical instrument that opens the skin by burning. It is also a medicine said to produce the same effect without pain.
Meaning
The definition explicitly offers two kinds of agent: an instrument and a medicinal preparation. Their common point is the opening of the skin, but their described means differ. A reader must identify which kind the passage concerns before deciding what object or material is intended.
The painless effect attributed to the medicine is a claim of the historical entry, not a verified promise. The dictionary gives no formula or method for it. Preserving the two senses makes the passage clearer without turning an old gloss into an instruction for present-day treatment.
Places to read
Source note
Historical source. 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 14; facsimile PDF page 342 — Facsimile
Sources. A Chymicall Dictionary (1650), s.v. Cauterium ; compare Escara