ine powder by a file; the powder is
steeped in the sharpest vinegar, and dried in the sun, and again soused in
vinegar, and dried; afterwards it is washed in spring water or other
suitable water, and dried; then for the second time it is pulverized and
reduced on porphyry, passed through a very fine sieve, and put back for
use. It is given chiefly in cases of laxity and over-humidity of the liver,
in enlargement of the spleen, after due evacuations; for which reason it
restores young girls when pallid, sickly, and lacking colour, to health and
beauty; since it is very siccative, and is astringent without harm. But
some who in every internal malady always talk of obstruction {34} of the
liver and spleen, think it beneficial in those cases because it removes
obstructions, mainly trusting to the opinions of certain Arabians[94]:
wherefore they administer it to the dropsical and to those suffering from
tumour of the liver or from chronic jaundice, and to persons troubled with
hypochondrical melancholia or any stomachic disorder, or add it to
electuaries, without doubt to the grievous injury of many of their
patients. Fallopius commends it prepared in his own way for tumours of the
spleen, but is much mistaken; for loadstone is pre-eminently good for
spleens relaxed with humour, and swollen; but it is so far from curing
spleens thickened into a tumour that it mightily confirms the malady. For
those drugs which are strong siccatives and absorb humour force the viscera
when hardened into a tumour more completely into a quasi-stony body. There
are some who roast iron in a closed oven with fierce firing, and burn it
strongly, until it turns red, and they call this Saffron of Mars; which is
a powerful siccative, and more quickly penetrates the intestines. Moreover
they order violent exercise, that the drug may enter the viscera while
heated and so reach the place affected; wherefore also it is reduced to a
very fine flour; otherwise it only sticks in the stomach and in the chyle
and does not penetrate to the intestines. As a dry and earthy medicament,
then, it is shown by the most certain experiments to be, after proper
evacuations, a remedy for diseases arising from humour (when the viscera
are charged and overflowing with watery rheum). Prepared steel is a
medicament proper for enlarged spleen. Iron waters too are effectual in
reducing the spleen, although as a rule iron is of a frigid and astringent
efficiency, not a laxative; bu