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452 METALS—THE NOBLER.
about
the neck of a nursing mother, cork was believed to possess the power of
arresting the secretion of breast-milk. The dog-doctors of to-day have
great faith in burnt cork, mixed with lard, as an unguent for healing
mange, and other such canine skin-eruptions.
Red
Lead, to be used for painting, is made by a tedious process, from
Massicot. It is sometimes employed in medicine externally for abating
inflammations, also for cleansing, and healing ulcers. Litharge is
another kind of oxide of Lead. The Litharge plaster (or Diachylon
plaster) is prepared by boiling two pints of olive oil with one pound
of Litharge, adding water, and constantly stirring the mixture until
these ingredients are sufficiently, and properly incorporated.
Acid
liquors, if kept in leaden vessels, corrode the metal and become
poisonous. The dire complaint known as Devonshire colic arose from
keeping cyder in cisterns of Lead.
TIN.
" Tinn "—according
to Dr. John Schroder—1660—" is a soft, white metal, of a shining blue ;
it is called by chymists Jupiter ; because it sympathizeth with Jupiter
in the Macrocosm, and so with Jupiter in the Microcosm, which is the
liver. By immersion in (usually) spirit of vinegar, thence comes ' Salt
of Tin.' This is an excellent, and a certain remedy against the
suffocation of the mother, which it cures as by a miracle ; it is good
outwardly for all foul sores, and putrid ulcers."
"
The greatest part of the Tin which gains use in France (wrote M. Pomet)
came thither from England ; and especially from the County of Cornwall.
The Britannick Islands abounded so much with this Metal
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