|
320 PRECIOUS STONES.
|
||
|
|
||
|
in
its turn exercise certain influences, for good, or ill, on any person
wearing it, or otherwise being within its sphere of radiating activity.
M. Pomet, Compleat History of Druggs, 1768,
gives it as his opinion that the Loadstone, which can make the filings
of iron move upon a plate by only passing the stone along underneath,
without touching it, may very well serve for any medicinal purpose, and
for the Emplastrum divinum, which is its chief use therein." Thus, "
they make the Loadstone an ingredient in the composition of plaisters
applicable to wounds that are made with a sword, where they think that
some pieces may be left behind ; for they believe that the Loadstone
which is in the plaister, attracts, and draws the iron out of the wound
; tho' all the virtue in the Loadstone could never produce this effect;
for, first of all, being powder'd finely, as it ought to be, it loses
all its force of attraction ; and, secondly, being mix'd in the
plaister, tho' its virtue should remain, it would not have power to
act, being confin'd by the viscidity of the gums, and rosins." " All
Loadstones are astringent, and stop blood, outwardly apply'd."
Magnetic iron is supposed to have been originally
found near the town of Magnesia, in Lydia :—
" Quern Magneta vooant, patrio de nomine Graii,
Magnetum quia fit patriis in finibus ortus."
Plato
says that most persons called it in his day the " Heraclean Stone." The
early Greeks, and Romans, knew not only that the Loadstone will attract
iron ; but also that it endues iron, if in contact with itself, with
its own peculiar property. They also had an idea that, under certain
circumstances, this magnetic attraction might be replaced by magnetic
repulsion.
|
||
|
|
||