美国科学60秒 SSS 2013-01-16（在线收听）

 　　Medicinal tablets are nothing new. Doctors have been dispensing pills for thousands of years. Now, archaeologists have turned up some of those ancient medicines which were preserved in a shipwreck for close to two millennia. The 2nd centry Pozzino wreck was discovered in 1974 off the Coast of Italy. Its 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. The pills primarily contain zinc compounds, probably the active medicinal ingredients. 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 inspire the word colyrium or eye wash. The pills were probably either desolved in liquid or groundded into a powder and used to treat eye conditions. Who knows? Maybe Hippokerties used them on his pupils.