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THE JASPER. 175
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Jasper is highly prized in China ; the seal of the Emperor being made from it.
"
The Jasper,"—Jaspis—quoth Isidorus (1612), "signifieth green ; and such
a green as doth illustriously shine forth with a very supreme viridity,
or greenness of glory." Cujus in argento vis fortior esse putatur, saith
Marbodus. Galen, always grave of thought, said, " the Green Jasper
benefits a man's chest, and the mouth of his stomach, if tied over it."
" Of this gem," quoth he, " I have had ample experience, having made a
necklace of such stones, and hung it round the neck, descending so low
that the stones might touch the mouth of the stomach ; and they proved
to be of no less service than if they had been engraved in the manner
prescribed by King Nechepsos." De Boot likewise has testified that that
in his own practice he has observed effects scarcely credible, from the
application of the Green Jasper in cases of hemorrhage ; and he makes
mention of the Jasper in general, " that a Gren Jasper engraved with
the figure of a scorpion, when the sun was entering that sign, was a
sure preservative against the formation of the stone in the bladder."
Galen
is said to have always carried about with him one particular Jasper
Stone, set in a Sigil. The figures represented thereon were a man with
a bundle of herbs on his neck ; this stone giving the power of
distinguishing diseases, and stopping the flow of blood from any part.
Jasper
(which is actually a coloured mixture of silica, and clay) owes its
characteristic tints to peroxide of iron, being of a blood-red hue
throughout the whole body of the stone. The brown Jasper is made so by
the same oxide hydrated.
De Boot, the Judicious, tells thus concerning the
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