and
Bethesda, it forms a much larger percentage ; the former spring
containing 0.016000 parts in a thousand. And these waters can boast a
great reputation in their own country for giving curative results
against cancer, tumours, diabetes, and passage of albumin from the
kidneys.
Flint
is employed by many persons as a test for ascertaining the purity of
silver coins. This is done by rubbing them on the flint, when, if the
mark which they leave be not perfectly white, they are rejected as
spurious.
It
will not be out of place to make some mention here of a kindred
mineral, the Jade, which, by its names, and its character, bears an
implied medicinal, and remedial significance. This Jade is of a mineral
species known as " Nephrite," from the Greek word nephros—the
kidney ; being so named from its reputed efficacy in disorders of the
kidneys. It is a compact variety of hornblende, consisting of a
silicate of magnesium, and calcium, having been known formerly as the "
kidney-stone."
In
past times the conquerors of Mexico and Peru were acquainted with the
character of this mineral substance, Jade; which they named, in
Spanish, Aspiedrade Hijada, or " Stone of the loins."
Jade
is but seldom employed for jewelry in this country; but throughout the
whole of Asia it is a favourite stone. The colour varies from a creamy
white to a dark green. It cannot be actually'polished, because " the
superficies always sweats with fat, as if anointed with oil." Mysius
said, " It expels the stone and the gravel, being tied to the arm."
Schroder likewise has commended it against the stone, and to
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