EARLY TRADE IN BLACK AND RED CORAL 243 



of the chief values attributed to coral have become discredited 

 by educated people. Red coral was widely used down to 

 the end of the eighteenth century not only in the form of 

 necklace beads and ornaments but also as a medicine. It 

 was used in the form of a powder and taken in wine or in 

 water for various disorders. John Parkinson, in his Theatre 

 of the Plants published in 1640, gives a long list of diseases 

 for which it is commended, such as consumption, the falling 

 sickness, gonorrhoea, sore gums, and ulcers in the mouth. 

 It is also said to cause an easy delivery at birth, and it is 

 much commended " agamst melancholly and sadnesse and 

 to refreshen and comfort the fainting spirits." 



There are many prescriptions to be found in the pharma- 

 copoeias of the eighteenth century in which red coral is used 

 as an ingredient. The following example of such prescrip- 

 tions, taken from A Complete English Dispensatory by John 

 Ouincey, M.D., published in 1739, may be quoted : 



It is called Piilvis purptireus and is described as a pretty 

 medicine for fevers in children, the measles, and smallpox. 



"Take burnt hartshorn, white amber, red coral of each an 

 ounce ; crabs' eyes and claws of each two ounces ; saffron half 

 a scruple ; cochineal two scruples ; make them all into a paste, 

 after they are finely levigated with jelly of hartshorn, and form 

 it into little balls which dry and use." 



Many other examples could be given to prove the value 

 attributed to red coral for medical purposes in the eighteenth 

 century, but white and black coral were also used although 

 they were not so highly esteemed as the red. 



It is quite impossible to say exactly what genera or 

 species of white and of black coral are referred to, but it 

 is certain that the common little alga of our rock pools, 

 Corallina officinalis, was used for such purposes (p. 197). 



Moliere made fun of the practice of giving precious 

 stones as drugs when in Le Medecin malgre lui he makes 

 Sganarelle prescribe for a patient " un fromage prepare, ou 

 il entre de I'or, du corail et des perles et quantite d'autres 

 choses precieuses." But it was not ridicule that killed the 

 use of coral in medicine, but the spread of knowledge of 

 chemistry and therapeutics. When it was realised that 



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