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Ch. 11: Therapeutic Medical Use Gemstones

Ch. 10: Planetary Influences of Gemstones Page of 467 Ch. 11: Therapeutic Medical Use Gemstones Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
HE medicinal use of precious stones may be traced . back to very ancient times. It has been conjectured that their employment for such purposes was introduced to Europe from India, whence many of the stones were derived. Nevertheless, the earliest evidence we have rather points to Egypt as the source, and, indeed, it ap­pears that in early Egyptian times the chemical constit­uents of the stones were much more rationally considered than at a later period in Europe. The Ebers Papyrus, for instance, recommends the use of certain astringent substances, such as lapis-lazuli, as ingredients of eye-salves, and hematite, an iron oxide, was used for checking hemorrhages and for reducing inflammations. Little by little, however, superstition associated certain special virtues with the color and quality of precious stones, and their virtues were thought to be greatly enhanced by engraving on them the image of some god, or of some object symbolizing certain of the activities of nature. Later still, the science of astrology, most highly devel­oped in Assyria and Babylonia, was brought into combi­nation with the various superstitions above indicated, so that the image was believed to have much greater efficacy if the engraving were executed when the sun was in a certain constellation or when the moon or some^one of the planets was in the ascendant at the time.
If we exclude certain fragmentary notices in Egyp-
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Ch. 10: Planetary Influences of Gemstones Page of 467 Ch. 11: Therapeutic Medical Use Gemstones
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