anything
had been apply'd to her, till a pretty while after the blood was
stanched." " The virtues of (such) opaceous gems, and medicinal stones,
may be accounted for in our hypothesis (which is this, that the main
ingredients, whereof many such opaceous stones consist, were complete
mineral bodies before they became stones ; some of these having been
medicinal bodies ; or the like earths, abounding with metalline, or
mineral juices." One such earth (as described by M. Pomet, History of Druggs, 1712)
was the Hsematitis, closely allied to the Bloodstone; each containing
red iron intermixed with their substance ; only this metal showing
itself as red specks in the Bloodstone, but as fine " striae " or
needles, in the Hsematitis earth. " :Tis said," tells M.
Pomet, " this mineral has a sovereign virtue to stop blood ; from which
fact it derives its name." " The virtue of the Heliotrope
(Bloodstone)," tells Leonardus, " is to procure safety, and long life
to the possessor of it."
To quote relatively on this subject,—concerning Blood,—from our Animal Simples, 1890
: " Nowadays chemists prepare from the blood of healthy animals a '
residuum rubrum,' or ' dried residue ' : which contains all its active
principles still in their integrity. This is given beneficially in
those disorders which require blood-salts, in their organic
combination, as existing in fresh, sound, animal blood. A desiccated
blood-powder is made, which gives to water a magnificent red colour. It
has been well tried at the Children's Hospital, in Paris, and has
proved highly efficacious in cases where reconstituents were needed,
such as iron, raw meat, and the animal phosphates. Monsieur le Bon
reduced fresh bullock's blood by simple
