MYSTICAL AND MEDICINAL PROPERTIES 311
tiful
woman. A more recent use for these Placuna pearls is as an ingredient
in a proprietary face powder and enamel, which is marketed in Europe.
It
is not alone the Orientals that have found medicinal virtues in pearls.
Even in Europe they have occupied a prominent place in materia medica,
especially during the Middle Ages when a knowledge of the occult
properties of gems was an important branch of learning. Indeed, they
could scarcely have been overlooked by people who at one time or
another swallowed pretty much everything, from dried snake's eyes to
the filings of a murderer's irons, in their quest for the unusual and
costly with which to relieve and comfort themselves. During the Middle
Ages in Europe, writers who gave attention to pearls, as well as to
other gems, treated almost exclusively of their reputed efficacy in
magic and in medicine; and most of the accounts from the ninth to the
fourteenth century seem wholly without scientific value, and at times
reach the climax of extravagance and absurdity in their claims for the
wonderful potency of the gem.
Albertus
Magnus, the Dominican scholar born in Germany in the twelfth century,
wrote that pearls were used in mental diseases, in affections of the
heart, in hemorrhages, and dysentery.1
The "Lapidario" of Alfonso X of Castile (1221-1284), called "The Wise," the father of the Spanish language, states :
The
pearl is most excellent in the medicinal art, for it is of great help
in palpitation of the heart, and for those who are sad or timid, and in
every sickness which is caused by melancholia, because it purifies the
blood, clears it and removes all its impurities. Therefore, the
physicians put them in their medicine and lectuaries, with which they
cure these infirmities, and give them to be swallowed. They also make
powders of them, which are applied to the eyes ; because they clear the
sight wonderfully, strengthen the nerves and dry up the moisture which
enters the eyes.2
Anselmus
de Boot, physician to Emperor Rudolph II, and one of the great
authorities at the beginning of the seventeenth century, gave the
following directions for making "aqua perlata, which is most
excellent for restoring the strength and almost for resuscitating the
dead. Dissolve the pearls in strong vinegar, or better in lemon juice,
or in spirits of vitriol or sulphur, until they become liquified; fresh
juice is then added and the first decanted. Then, to the milky and
turbid solution, add enough sugar to sweeten it. If there be four
ounces of this solution, add an ounce each of rose-water, of tincture
of strawberries, of borage flowers and of balm and two ounces of
cinnamon water. When you wish to give the medicine, shake the mixture
so that the sediment
1 "Alberti Magni Opera omnia," éd. Au- * "Lapidario del Rey D. Alfonso X," Codice
gusti Borgnet, Paris, 1890, Vol. V, p. 41. original, Madrid, 1881, p. 4.
