372 CURIOUS LORE OF PRECIOUS STONES
The
European writers on the medical properties of precious stones were
influenced by quite different considerations ; their chief aim was to
represent each stone, regarded simply as a mineral substance, as being
the abode of the greatest possible number of curative properties.
Indeed, many of the most highly recommended electuaries contained all
kinds of stones, as though the effect to be produced did not depend
upon the qualities of any single stone, or class of stones, but rather
upon the quantity used. In Arnobio's "Tesoro delle Gioie,"1 we
have a receipt for the composition of "the most noble electuary of
jacinth." This contains jacinth, emerald, sapphire, topaz, garnet,
pearl, ruby, white and red coral, and amber, as well as many animal and
Vegetable substances, in all, thirty-four ingredients. It would indeed
seem that a good dose èf such a mixture should have provided a
cure for "all (the ills that flesh is heir to," by the simple and
effective means of removing the unhappy patient to a better world.
Treating
of the metallic affinities of precious stones, Paracelsus (1493-1541)
affirmed that the emerald was a copper stone; the carbuncle and the
jasper were golden stones ; the ruby and the chalcedony, silver stones.
The "white sapphire" (corundum) was a stone of Jupiter, while the
jacinth was a mercurial stone. Powdered jacinth mixed with an equal
quantity of laudanum was recommended as a «remedy for fevers resulting
from "putrefaction of the air or water." This illustrates the custom of
combining an inefficacious material, such as the powder of a precious
stone, with another possessing genuine remedial virtue, the name of
the stone appealing to the popular superstitions regarding its thera-
1 Venice, 1602, p. 254.
