these
ill conditions will yield successfully to the wearing of small platinum
plates applied immediately next the skin of the forearms for a week, or
longer; as likewise to taking a very finely reduced measure of the
metal (rubbed up for this purpose, with dry inert sugar of milk), in
small doses, regularly repeated twice, or three times daily, as long as
needed.
COPPER.
Copper can
scarcely be termed a " noble" metal ; nevertheless it exercises
important medicinal effects of a curative sort, and therefore it merits
discussion at our hands in the present treatise. Its name, Copper, is
derived from the Isle of Cyprus, where " it was first gotten in great
plenty," as " Ms Cyprium, the Brass of Cyprus." This metal was
named " Venus " of old by the Alchemist, not on account of any
remarkable metallic attractiveness, but in consequence, says Webster,
who wrote a History of Metals, of its easy union with other
metals, and the change which ensues in its nature. Thus, bronze is a
mixture of Copper, tin, and zinc.
" Ms, sive Cuprum, sive Venus, that
is, Copper," saith Lemery, 1712, " done into English," "is a beautiful
metal, shining of a reddish colour, easie to rust, aboundÂing in
Vitriol. When the same Copper has been twice, or thrice melted it
becomes more pure and ductile, and you have a red Copper more beautiful
than the common. It is a metal of good use in physick, and is said to
strengthen the generative functions in men, and women. Thin plates of
Copper infus'd all night in lime-water only, make the same an admirable
collyrium for to wash the eyes with, against mists, clouds, films,
pearls, suffusions, etc." "This metal," tells Dr. Rowland, 1669, (who
