( >°? ) 
Holland in the Year 1710. This Preparation was 
then ibid by Tierre Rottermond , Apothecary at the 
Hague in Holland. 
The Recipe for his Medicinal Ball I have tranflated, 
and is as follows : 
Take four Pounds of the Filings of Steel, and eight 
Pounds of Tartar, well powdered; mix theie well 
together, and put them in a new Earthen Pot, and 
pour thereupon as much French Brandy as will make 
it into a Poultefs. Let this Band fermenting in a Cel- 
lar for four Days, and ftir it between whiles. Then 
put it in Bain- Mar , and diftili it S. A . with a mode- 
rate Fire, to draw off the Brandy. When you find 
that nothing but the Phlegm comes over, then take 
it from the Fire, and take out the Mais, (lamp it very 
fine, that not the leaft Lump may remain ; then mix 
it again as before with a fufficient Quantity of Bran- 
dy, and put it in the Cellar to ferment, as before, and 
then diftili it a fecond Time. This Operation may 
be reiterated feven or eight times* but the laft Time 
mix your. Mafs well upon a Marble, and form it into 
two Ounce-Balls. One of thefe Balls is deeped in a 
Pint of good French Brandy, a little warmed, and 
hung only in it by a Wire, till the Brandy has received 
the Colour of the Ball. But if you are in hafte, then 
grate a lufticient Quantity of the Ball in lome Brandy, . 
ftir it well, and you may ule it that very Inftant. 
No doubt but the Author thought by often grind- 
ing, fermenting, and diddling this Mafs, to commi-- 
nute and lubtilize its Particles,, lb as to make it more 
fit to contradt the Fibres and Vcfiels of a Wound, , 
and to prevent Stagnations of the Fluids, both within 
and without, upon Contufions ; but the Succeis d d 
did not anfvver, and therefore it was laid afide. Nei- 
ther did Helvetius ever recommend it as an Univerfal 
Styptick,, 
