|
Their medicinal qualities. 65
|
||
|
|
||
|
and
as preservatives of virtue, the marvellous properties and talismanic
virtues with which the Pearl was supposed to be endowed, have no doubt
contributed in no small degree, to intensify that love and admiration
which a magnificent Pearl cannot fail to excite.
The medicinal qualities of Pearls.
In
India, China, and other Oriental countries, Pearls have for ages been
supposed to possess valuable medicinal properties. Even in our
own.country, down to a period not very remote, they found a place in
the Materia Medica, and are mentioned in many of the
pharmaceutical works of the last century. Thus, in Lewis' "
Experimental History of the Materia Medica" (4th ed., 1791), we read
that— " The coarse rough Pearls and the very small ones which are unfit
for ornamental uses, called rag Pearl and seed Pearl, are
those generally employed in medicine." Pearls were prescribed as
astringents and antacids, a use which would be naturally suggested by
their chemical composition—carbonate of lime. Their therapeutic value
however, must have been but slight ; while their cost would preclude
them from being universally adopted.
Oriental potentates are said to have burned Pearls and chewed the lime so produced, with
E
|
||
|
|
||