magnesium,
sulphate, and carbonate of magnesia, and sulphate of lime. The
putrefaction to which rain-water is subject if kept stagnant shows that
some organic matter is also present. It is not unreasonable to suppose
that sea-bathing with marine water from the open ocean proves
beneficial, and curative in a like manner, because certainly
containing, as chemists now assure us, a measurable amount of dissolved
gold. In 1872 Mr. Soustadt actually measured the quantity of gold in
sea-water, and found that in the water of Ramsay Bay there was nearly a
grain of the gold in a ton of the sea-water. A grain of gold is worth
about twopence ; and as there are about sixty thousand billion tons of
water in the ocean, any one who could recover it all would have a nice
little fortune of over five thousand million tons of gold. Pliny
relates that the sun could be viewed in a Bloodstone as in a mirror;
and that solar eclipses became visible therein. Marbodus, (or Marbceuf,
Bishop of Rennes), who wrote a Latin poem The Lapidarium (1067-1081),
somewhat humorous in its tissue of marvels, charms, and talismans,
connected with Precious Stones, has spoken of the Blood-stone under
this its title, " Heliotrope " :—
"
Ex re nomen habens est Heliotropia gemma, Quae Solis radiis in aqua
subjecta baoillo Sanguine reddit nmtato lumine Solem, Eclipsemque
novarn terris effundere eogit."
" The Stone Heliotropium, green, like a Jasper, or Emerald, beset with red specks," saith Magus (or The Celestial Intelligencer, 1801),
" makes the wearer constant, renowned, and famous, conducing to long
life ; there is likewise another wonderful property in this stone,
which is, that it so dazzles the eyes of men, that
