Chap. 26.] CHRTSOCOLLA. 107 



carried over the head, in the case of chickens and lambs more 

 particularly. The proper remedy in such case is to wash the 

 gold, and to sprinkle the water upon the objects which it is 

 wished to preserve. Gold, too, is melted with twice its weight 

 of salt, and three times its weight of misy ;'^ after which it is 

 again melted with two parts of salt and one of the stone called 

 ** schistos."''^ Employed in this manner, it withdraws the 

 natural acridity from the substances torrefied with it in the 

 crucible, while at the same time it remains pure and incorrupt ; 

 the residue forming an ash which is preserved in an earthen 

 vessel, and is applied with water for the cure of lichens on the 

 face : the best method of washing it off is with bean-meal. 

 These ashes have the property also of curing fistulas and the 

 discharges known as "haemorrhoides :" with the addition, too, of 

 powdered pumice, they are a cure for putrid ulcers and sores 

 which emit an offensive smell. 



Gold, boiled in honey with melanthium " and applied as a 

 liniment to the navel, acts as a gentle purgative upon the 

 bowels. M. Yarro assures us that gold is a cure for warts.''* 



CHAP. 26. (5.) — CHETSOCOLLA. 



Chrysocolla '* is a liquid which is found in the shafts already 

 mentioned,''^ flowing through the veins of gold; a kind of 

 slime which becomes indurated by the cold of winter till it 

 has attained the hardness even of pumice. The most esteemed 

 kind of it, it has been ascertained, is found in copper-mines, 

 the next best being the produce of silver-mines : it is found 

 also in lead- mines, but that found in combination with gold 

 ore is much inferior. 



In all these mines, too, an artificial chrysocolla is manu- 



70 See B. xxxiv. c. 29. 



'1 See B. xxix. c. 38. and B. xxxvi. cc. 87, 38. 



72 Or gith. See B. xx.c. 71. 



'3 Similar to the notion still prevalent, that the application of pure gold 

 will remove styes on the eyelids. 



7* It has heen supposed by some, that the " Chrysocolla" of the ancients, 

 as well as the " Cseruleum," mentioned in c. 57 of this Book, were the pro- 

 duce of cobalt ; but the more generally received opinion is that " chryso- 

 colla " (gold-solder) was green verditer, or mountain-green, carbonate and 

 hydrocarbonate of copper, green and blue, substances which are sometimes 

 found in gold mines, but in copper mines more particularly. It must not 

 be confounded with the modern chrysocolla or Boras. 



75 In Chapter 21 of this Book. 



