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Sucoinum, Amber

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SUCC1NUM.                                 309
Ne tibi regnli placeas, Cleopatra, sepulero Vipera si tumulo nobiliore jacct."—(iv. 59.)
" Dum Phaëthontea formica vagatur in umbra Implicuit tenuem succina gutta feram ; Sic modo quse fuerat vita contempta manente Funeribus facta est nunc prctiosa suis."—(vi. 15.)
" Et latet et lucet Phae'thontide condita gutta Ut vidcatur apis nectare clausa suo, Dignum tantorum pretium tulit illa laborum Credibile est ipsam sie voluissc mori."—(iv. 32.)
Gesner figures as the frontispiece to his book, ' De Natura Fossilium,' a ring carved out of one piece of insectiferous Amber, so ingeniously managed that the insect (a beetle) contained therein, forms the centre and ornament of the shield, as if enchased under a crystal. Mineralogists have at last been forced to revert to the theory of the first dis­coverers and to allow that Amber is the fossilised resin of an extinct pinus, the debris of which compose the lignite beds, its present locale. And chemistry has even mimicked successfully the operations of nature, and produced a true amber by boiling together by a graduated heat equal parts of rectified spirits of asphatium and of turpentine, until the compound becomes inspissated.
Its medical virtues amongst the Romans were not much more extensive than those it is at present popularly believed to possess. It was -worn as an amulet by children, but Callistratus laid down that it was of service in every period of life against insanity or stranguries, either taken inter­nall}- in powder or worn round the neck. This physician gave the name of Chryselectrum to the sort of a clear golden colour, supposed to be of so fiery a quality as to ignite if even brought near a flame. This kind, worn round the neck, cured the ague ; * ground up with honey and
* That the wearing an amber-necklace will keep off the attacks of erysipelas in a person subject to them, has been proved by repeated
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