1892.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 155 



and expect from it; for I finde not that those I have yet met with 

 deliver these strange things upon particular experiments duly made, 

 but partly upon the authority of chymicall books, mau}^ of which 

 were never written by those whose name they bear." He then 

 proceeds to blame physicians for using expensive medicines, and 

 says " 't were a good woi'k to substitute cheap ones for the poorer 

 sort of patients." 



The change of opinion as respects the therapeutic value of gold, 

 foreshadowed in the quotation from the astute Boyle, is well shown 

 by comparing the passages on the subject in two different editions of 

 L^mery's " Cours de chymie," one published in 1680 and one in 

 1730. In the earlier edition of Ldmery's very successful work we 

 read : — 



"Gold is a good remedy for those that have taken too much mer- 

 cury, for these two metals do easily unite together, and by this union 

 or amalgamation the mercury fixes and its motion is interrupted, 

 (p. 25) ... . Aurum fulminans causes sweat and drives out 

 ill humors by transpiration. It may be given in the small pox 

 two to six grains in a lozenge or electuary. Its stops vomiting and 

 is also good to moderate the active motion of mercury." (Harris's 

 translation, London, 1680, p. 9.) 



And in the later edition, the eleventh of the series, L^mery, or his 

 editor, makes a very different statement. 



"Potable gold, so much praised by the alchemists and sold so 

 dear by them, is commonly only a vegetable or mineral tincture 

 of a color resembling gold, and as they make this tincture with a 

 spirituous menstruum it sometimes excites perspiration^ This effect 

 they ascribe to the gold, although the metal has rarely anything to 

 do with it." (17300 



In the works of Dr. Caspar Neumann a passage occurs that ex- 

 presses so clearly the present views of many, that it is hard to realize 

 it was written nearly one hundred and fifty years ago. Neumann 

 writes : — 



" Gold has been imagined to be possessed of extraordinary medic- 

 inal virtues, and many preparations, diginified with the name of 

 this precious metal, have been imposed upon the public. But the 

 virtues ascribed to gold have apparently no other foundation than 

 credulity and superstition, and most of the golden medicines have 

 no gold in them. Even when gold has been employed in the prepa- 

 ration there is seldom any of it retained in the product. We may 

 say with Ludovici : ' It is better to make gold out of medicines than 

 medicines out of gold.'" (Lewis's transl., London, 1759, p. 38.) 



An abstract of the report of the Joy Memorial Committee was 

 read by Prof. Martin ; the full report will be presented in October. 



Dr. Bolton announced the death of Prof. A. W. von Hoffman, 

 the distinguished chemist, an Honorary Member of the Academy. 



Prof. Rees announced the death of Dr. L. M. Rutherfurd, the 



