SILVER. 



6! 



drugs, the resulting prepai-ation being called Ohandrodaya makara- 

 dhvaja. Thus take of Makaradhuaja, one part, camphor, nutmegs, 

 black pepper, and cloves, each four parts, musk one-sixteenth 

 part, mix together and make into pills about ten grains each. 



These pills are enclosed or wrapped in betle leaves and chewed. 

 Along with this medicine a generous diet consisting of meat, ghee, 

 milk, pulses, etc., should be taken. It is used in nervous debility, 

 impotence, premature old age etc.* A preparation similar in 

 appearance to MaJcaradhvaja and called AsJitavaJctra rasa, is 

 sublimed from a mixture of mercury, sulphur, gold, silver, lead, 

 copper, zinc and tin in equal parts. It is used as a nervine tonic 

 in general debility. 



SILVER. 



Sans, w, Bupya. <rrc, Tdra. 



Pure silver, according to Sanskrit writers, should be soft, 

 white, brilliant and ductile. It should not be discoloured by fire. 

 Impure silver, that is, silver mixed with other metals, is dis- 

 coloured by fire, of a reddish or yellowish colour, and not ductile. 

 Silver is purified in the same way as gold. It is converted into a 

 black oxide by thin silver leaves being mixed with twice their 

 weight of cinnabar, and heated in the subliming apparatus, called 

 Tj rddhapdtana y antra. This process is repeated fourteen time?. 

 The resulting compound is a fine greyish black powder with 

 minute shining white particles intermixed with it. On chemical 

 analysis it is found to consist of the black oxide of silver. Th 

 properties of silver thus prepared are said to be allied to those of 

 gold but somewhat inferior. It is generally used in combination 

 with other metals, such as gold, iron, etc. Dose, grains one to two. 



Makaradhvaja is regarded as a preparation of gold, which is supposed to 

 be the active principle of the medicine. The gold used in its preparation how. 

 ever remains below, and the mercury and sulphur only are sublimed in the 

 form of red sulphide, as in the preparation of mercury called Rasasindura. 

 Properly speaking, therefore, it is but a preparation of mercury, although 

 the gold may possibly exercise some catalytic influence during the process of 

 sublimation. Some physioians use the preparation called Sadgunabalijarita 

 rasasindura (see page 36) under the name of Makaradhvaja, 



