ON THERAPEUTIC USES OF STONES 385
As
jade was and still is the most favored stone in China, although never
found within the boundaries of China proper, it was very naturally
accorded wonderful medical virtues. An old Chinese encyclopedia, the
work of Li She Chan, and presented by him to the emperor Wan Lih of the
Ming dynasty, in 1596, contains many interesting notices of jade. When
reduced to a powder of the size of (rice grains it strengthened the
lungs, the heart, and the vocal organs, and prolonged life, more
especially if gold and silver were added to the jade powder. Another,
and certainly a pleasanter way of absorbing tins precious mineral, was
to drink what was enthusiastically called the "divine liquor of jade."
To concoct this elixir equal parts of jade, rice, and dew-water were
put into a copper pot and boiled, the resultant liquid being carefully
filtered. This mixture was said to strengthen the muscles and make them
supple, to harden the bones, to calm the mind, to enrich the flesh, and
to purify the blood. Whoever took it for a long space of time ceased to
suffer from either heat or cold and no longer felt either hunger or
thirst.
Galen (b. ca. 130 a.d.) wrote thus of the green jasper :30
Some
have testified to a virtue in certain stones, and this is true of the
green jasper, that is to say, this stone aids the stomach and navel by
contact. And some, therefore, set the stone in rings and engrave on it
a dragon surrounded by rays, according to what King Neebepsos has
transmitted to posterity in the fourteenth book (of his works). Indeed,
I myself have thoroughly tested this stone, for I hung a necklace
composed of them about my neck so that they touched the navel, and I
received not less benefit from them than I would had they borne the
engraving of which Nechepsos wrote.
30
Claudii Galeni, " De simplie. medicament., etc.," lib. ix, cap. 19.
"Opera Omnia," ed. C. G. Kühn, Lipsiae, 1826, vol. xii, p. 207. See
also Duffield Osborne, "Engraved Gems," New York, 1912, pp. 138,139. 25
