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Medicinal tablets are nothing new. Doctors have been dispensing 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.
药片并不是新鲜的玩意。医生们为病人分发药丸已经有数千年的历史了。现在考古学家找到了一些古时候的药物，它们被保存在遇难船只里近两千年了。
The 2nd-century Pozzino wreck was discovered in 1974 off the coast of Italy. It's cargo included medical equipment like a cupping vessel, iron probe, and tin boxes of supplies. And in one of those boxes, researchers recovered five gray tablets. Now, they've analyzed the antique medication. The work is in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
1974年，意大利近海发现了一艘公元二世纪的 Pozzino 沉船。船上装有像拔火罐、铁探针、还有锡盒这样的医疗设备。研究人员在其中一个盒子里找到五颗灰色药丸。目前，他们正在分析这些古董药丸。研究结果发表在《美国国家科学院院刊》上。
The pills primarily contained zinc compounds, probably the active medicinal ingredients. But researchers also detected starch, pollen, charcoal, fats and linen fibers. 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 in liquid or ground into a powder and used to treat eye conditions. Who knows, maybe Hippocrates used them on his pupils.
这些药丸主要成分是锌化合物，这大概是药物的活性成分。但研究人员也检测到淀粉、花粉、木炭、脂肪和亚麻纤维。里面的纤维能使药丸保持圆圆的、类似面包的形状，这可能是用药的关键：用来表示“小圆面包”的希腊单词同时也有洗眼液的含义。使用时可能将其溶于液体，或研磨成粉末，用来治疗眼疾。谁知道呢，也许希波克拉底（希腊的名医）也曾给他的孩子们用过此药。
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