miracle-working
ring which was given by a saintly pilgrim to Edward the Confessor, and
which was kept in Westminster Abbey. Similarly it was believed during
the first half of the nineteenth century that in various maladies the
application of metallic plates to the soles of the feet brought about
curative results, as also to carry metallic balls within the palms of
the hands. Gold was reputed to increase the vitality ; Silver to clear
the brain; (and Sulphur to cure rheumatism).
As
regards certain further facts about Gold— medicinally considered—than
those which have come under our notice thus far in the present
treatise, a repeated reference may be now permitted to several
pertinent particulars which have been detailed previously in our Animal Simples. This
metal was used curatively by the Chinese two thousand years before
Christ. As a " good medicine to be employed by one that is in a
consumption," there was ordered of old, 1650, " to be presently drunk
with a cake, or two, of Manus Ghristi, made of Gold, (or Pearls),—asses' milk, concocted with rose-water, and hen eggs."
Plato
declared, " The peelings of Gold taken in food, or drink, do preserve,
and hinder breeding of leperhood ; or this hideth it, and maketh it
unknown."
In the Rich Storehouse of Medicines, 1650,
is given, as a sovereign drink for any infected person : " Take a piece
of fine Gold, or the leaves of pure beaten Gold, and put it into the
juyce of lemmons, and let it lye therein for the space of twenty-four
hours ; then take the same juyce, and put to it powder of Angelica
root; and then mingle them with white wine ; and let the patient drink
a good draught thereof. This is a most pretious drink ; and it is
greatly to be wondered at
