It
is remarkable that in Cornwall the veins of tin and copper run in a
direction nearly East and West: other dykes, or veins, run North and
South.
The
wearing of a flat plate of best Tin over the front chest and lungs by a
consumptive patient has seemed to prove undoubtedly beneficial. This
plate is to be ,worn next the skin, whilst having its sharp, hard edges
well protected by a flannel binding sewn on as for a bordering along
each metallic edge. The consumptive cases thus benefited have been
characterised by a profuse expectoration of phlegm, greenish, and with
a sweetish taste, attended also with night-sweats, and rapid wasting of
the body. Similarly in minor cases of neuralgic headache, particularly
in front over the eyes, it has been found speedily useful to bind on
across the forehead a flat piece of pure tin next the skin, guarding
this carefully as to its edges with a soft kerchief.
According
to Bartholomew Anglicus (a Franciscan, who wrote, about 1250, a popular
Encyclopaedia, which even at that date passed through ten editions),
all the metals were formerly considered to be composed of sulphur and
mercury; sulphur represented their combustible aspect; whilst mercury
gave them their weight, and powers of becoming fluid. Native sulphur
generally occurs in the neighbourhood of volcanoes. Most of what is
required in commerce is brought in this native state from Sicily.
Medicinally the common brimstone is employed.
The
list of seven Metals is that of the most ancient times : Gold,
Electrum, Silver, Copper, Tin, Lead, Iron ; but it has been clearly
ascertained that the said Electrum was an alloy of Go.d and Silver. A
consideration of the composition of the metals shows that Tin is
