warm, and that not without many blows, and then also it will break the best anvils and hammers of iron. And answerable hereto is the assertion of Isidore and Solinus. By which account, a diamond steeped in goat's blood rather increaseth in hardness, than acquireth any softness by the infusion, for the best we have are comminuible without it, and are so far from breaking hammers, that they submit unto pistillation, and resist not an ordinary pestle.8

Upon this conceit arose, perhaps, the discovery of another -that the blood of a goat was sovereign for the stone; as it stands commended by many good writers, and brings up the composition in the powder of Nicolaus,* and the electuary of the queen of Colein. Or rather, because it was found an excellent medicine for the stone, and its ability commended by some to dissolve the hardest thereof, it might be conceived by amplifying apprehensions to be able to break a diamond; and so it came to be ordered that the goat should be fed with saxifragous herbs, and such as are conceived of power to break the stone. However it were, as the effect is false in the one, so is it, surely, very doubtful in the other. For, although inwardly received, it may be very diuretic, and expulse the stone in the kidneys, yet how it should dissolve or break that in the bladder, will require a further dispute; and, perhaps, would be more reasonably tried by a warm injection thereof, than as it is commonly used. Wherein, notwithstanding, we should rather rely upon the urine in a castling's bladder, a resolution of crabs' eyes, or the second distillation of urine, as Helmont hath commended; or rather (if any such might be found) a chylifactory menstruum or digestive preparation, drawn from species or individuals whose stomachs peculiarly dissolve lapideous bodies.

2. That glass is poison, according unto common conceit, I know not how to grant. Not only from the innocency of

* Pulvis Lithontripticus.

81. And first, &c.] Nothing can put Ross out of conceit with "the ancients." Though he admits the fact that diamonds are mastered by hammers, and not, as asserted by the ancients, softened by goat's blood; yet doth he not a whit the less believe this assertion as applied to adamant, of which, he says, there were divers kinds.-Arcana, p. 196.

its ingredients, that is, fine sand, and the ashes of glass-wort or fern, which in themselves are harmless and useful, or because I find it by many commended for the stone, but also from experience, as having given unto dogs above a dram thereof, subtilely powdered in butter and paste, without any visible disturbance.9

The conceit is surely grounded upon the visible mischief of glass grossly or coarsely powdered, for that indeed is mortally noxious, and effectually used by some to destroy mice and rats; for, by reason of its acuteness and angularity, it commonly excoriates the parts through which it passeth, and solicits them unto a continual expulsion. Whereupon there ensue fearful symptoms, not much unlike those which attend the action of poison. From whence. notwithstanding, we cannot with propriety impose upon it that name, either by occult or elementary quality, which he that concedeth will much enlarge the catalogues or lists of poisons. For many things neither deleterious by substance or quality, are yet destructive by figure, or some occasional activity. So are leeches destructive, and by some accounted poison; not properly, that is, by temperamental contrariety, occult form, or so much as elemental repugnancy; but because, being inwardly taken, they fasten upon the veins and occasion an effusion of blood, which cannot be easily staunched. So a sponge is mischievous, not in itself, for in its powder it is harmless; but because, being received into the stomach it swelleth, and occasioning a continual distention, induceth a strangulation. So pins, needles, ears of rye or barley may be poison.2 So Daniel destroyed the

9 without any visible disturbance.] Edit. 1646 adds, "And the trial thereof we the rather did make in that animal, because Grevinus, in his Treatise of Poisons, affirmeth that dogs are inevitably destroyed thereby."--p. 84.

1 So a sponge is mischievous, &c.] As to a dog, soakt in butter or grease.-Wr.

ears of rye or barley, &c.] A very remarkable and affecting proof of the truth of this observation occurred a few years ago in the family of the present Earl of Morley. His lordship's eldest son, Lord Boringdon, then in the twelfth year of his age, in the course of an evening walk with his father and brother, on the 17th of July, 1817, put an ear of rye into his mouth; and it appears that within a few seconds afterwards, it had become out of the power of man to save his life.

dragon by a composition of three things, whereof none was poison alone, nor properly altogether; that is, pitch, fat, and hair, according as is expressed in the history. "Then Daniel took pitch, and fat, and hair, and did seethe them together, and made lumps thereof; these he put in the dragon's mouth, and so he burst asunder."3 That is, the fat and pitch being cleaving bodies, and the hair continually ex

The lower part of the ear first entered the windpipe, and after the first fit of coughing, which lasted about five or six minutes, no more inconvenience was felt. He was about half a mile from home when the accident happened; he walked gently home. Dr. Heath, who immediately saw him, gave him some bread, which he swallowed without difficulty. It was hoped that he had, in the field, unknowingly coughed up the corn, or that it had passed into the stomach. It appears that the ear of rye passed gently through the whole of the lungs without producing any great effect. It was at the very bottom of the lungs, where it ultimately lodged, that on the fourth day from the accident, it injured a vessel, and occasioned a hæmorrhage. In this situation it caused an abscess in the lower part of the lungs and liver, which terminated fatally on the 1st of November.

It will readily be supposed that nothing which medical skill could devise was omitted. Dr. Spurzheim and Dr. Roberton of Paris, Dr. Young and other distinguished medical men, assisted Dr. Heath. Not only the extreme rarity of the case, but the amiable character and high rank of the patient secured to him all that human ingenuity could effect. And it was a consolation to the family to ascertain, by subsequent investigation, that had the exact nature of the injury been known at the very first, no materially different treatment could have been adopted.

This account has been sketched from a highly interesting and very detailed narrative in MS. in the possession of the family, with which I have been favoured through the kind intervention of a friend.

3 Then Daniel took, &c.] Ctesias makes mention of a horse-pismire (i. e. the bigger kind of them in hollow trees) which was fed by the magi till hee grew to such a vast bulke as to devour two pound of flesh a daye. This story might possibly relate to Daniel's dragon, which was before his time at least one hundred and ninety years. For hee wrote in the 94th Olympiade, whereas the captivitye was in the 43rd.-Wr.

The gravity of Sir Thomas's burlesque explanation of this apochryphal story (for he cannot for a moment be considered as speaking seriously) is happily imitated in the preceding note by the dean, whose delectable quotation from Ctesias (supported by a grave chronological computation) supplies the only point omitted by our author; viz., a conjecture as to the species of the creature who is said to have received, with so good a grace, the boluses of the prophet. Who will hesitate to admit the probability of the dean's suggestion, that the dragon of Daniel was no other than the horse-pismire of Ctesias?

timulating the parts, by the action of the one nature was provoked to expel, but by the tenacity of the other forced to retain; so that, there being left no passage in or out, the dragon brake in pieces. It must, therefore, be taken of grossly-powdered glass, what is delivered by Grevinus and from the same must that mortal dysentery proceed which is related by Sanctorius. And in the same sense only shall we allow a diamond to be poison; and whereby, as some relate, Paracelsus himself was poisoned. So, even the precious fragments and cordial gems, which are of frequent use in physic, and in themselves confessed of useful faculties, received in gross and angular powders, may so offend the bowels, as to procure desperate languors, or cause most dangerous fluxes.

That glass may be rendered malleable and pliable unto the hammer many conceive, and some make little doubt, when they read in Dio, Pliny, and Petronius, that one unhappily effected it for Tiberius ;3 which, notwithstanding, must needs seem strange unto such as consider that bodies are ductile from a tenacious humidity, which so holdeth the parts together, that, though they dilate or extend, they part not from each other;-that bodies run into glass when the volatile parts are exhaled, and the continuating humour separated, the salt and earth (that is, the fixed parts) remaining;and therefore vitrification maketh bodies brittle, as destroying the viscous humours which hinder the disruption of parts. Which may be verified even in the bodies of metals; for glass of lead or tin is fragile, when that glutinous sulphur hath been fired out which made their bodies ductile.

He that would most probably attempt it, must experiment. upon gold, whose fixed and flying parts are so conjoined, whose sulphur and continuating principle is so united unto the salt, that some may be hoped to remain to hinder fragility after vitrification. But how to proceed, though after frequent corrosion, as that upon the agency of fire it should

3

one unhappily effected it, &c.] Unhappily, because Tiberius put the artist to death for his performance. No explanation, however, is , given by Dion Cassius of the mode in which he was said to have rendered whole a glass which he had broken.

not revive into its proper body before it comes to vitrify, will prove no easy discovery.4

6

3. That gold inwardly taken, either in substance, infusion, decoction, or extinction,5 is a cordial of great efficacy, in sundry medical uses, although a practice much used, is also much questioned, and by no man determined beyond dispute. There are, hereof, I perceive, two extreme opinions; some excessively magnifying it, and probably beyond its deserts; others extremely vilifying it, and perhaps below its demerits. Some affirming it a powerful medicine in many diseases; others averring that so used, it is effectual in none: and in this number are very eminent physicians, Erastus, Duretus, Rondeletius, Brassavolus, and many other; who, beside the strigments? and sudorous adhesions from men's hands, acknowledge that nothing proceedeth from gold in the usual decoction thereof. Now the capital reason that led men unto this opinion, was their observation of the inse

4 no easy discovery.] The two preceding paragraphs were added in the 2nd edition.

5

extinction.] He refers probably to taking a liquid in which gold heated red hot has been extinguished.

• That gold, &c.] The whole of this examination of the question, how far gold is available as a medicine, is conducted with our author's usual acuteness and caution; and is remarkable as much for the candour with which he confesses his want of data whereby to determine the question, as for the extensive acquaintance he displays with what had been said by others. With all the advantages of subsequent experiment during nearly two centuries, it does not appear that this most precious metal has taken a prominent place among the medicines of the present day. Dr. Block, of Berlin, informs us, in his Medicinische Bemerkungen, that he has given, in obstinate constipations of the bowels, when unattended with pains or inflammation, not only pills of lead, but also of gold, with the best success, after every usual method has been resorted to in vain; whence it appeared to him that such remedies acted merely by their specific gravity. An eminent medical friend, of whom I have recently enquired, whether the chloride of gold is used in France, has favoured me with the following reply: "The chloride of gold has for several years past been used as a medicine in Paris, and its virtues much vaunted of by individuals for the cure of venereal and many other diseases; but it has not received corresponding support from French practitioners generally, and in this country I do not remember that it has been extensively tried in practice." The chloride of gold is the red tincture of gold, which was originally prepared by Glauber.

7 strigments.] Scrapings. Here again is a coinage of the author's, for which he is his own sole authority.