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80
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PRECIOUS STONES.
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of
my possession for less than fifteen thousand pounds," said the wary
tradesman. " Bring me a pen and ink "— was the only answer given by the
doting husband ; and he at once drew a cheque for that amount upon the
Bank in the Strand. Then with much delight the worthy old gentleman
placed the Jewel upon the fair bosom of the lady:—
" Upon her breast a sparkling cross she wore, Which Jews might kiss, and infidels adore ! "
Within
recent times the Diamond has been triturated to a fine powder, and
administered therapeutically, in varying doses. It is the " Adamas " of
the " Pharmacopoeia Homoeopathica Polyglotta." Likewise the Emerald
(Smaragdus) has been similarly triturated (together with sugar of milk)
for medicinal uses, in America. One of our leading practical chemists
says he should be more inclined to attribute whatever curative results
follow the exhibition of these finely triturated stones " to the Carbon
liberated by thermo-chemical action on the sugar of milk, than to
inherent virtues of the precious stones themselves, as developed by
such minute subdivision." " The friction of the harder on the softer
substance is enormous ; and thus we have seen triturations of glass
made together with sugar of milk, and still in our possession, which
show the carbonising effects of this vitreous substance on the
milk-sugar, in a very marked manner." It is a fact well known to
Frenchmen that white sugar, when pounded in a mortar with a pestle,
gives quite a different taste to "eau sucrSe" made therewith, than loaf sugar does when used in lumps for the same purpose.
Nevertheless it is quite allowable to suppose that the aggregate of such beneficent qualities, as tropical
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