Pearls strengthen and confirme the heart; they cherish the spirits and principall parts of the body; being put into collyries, they cleanse weafts of the eyes, and dry up the water thereof, help their filth, and strengthen the nerves by which moisture floweth into them; they are very good against melancholick griefes; they helpe those that are subject to cardiack passions; they defend against pestilent diseases, and are mixed with cordiall remedies; they are good against the lienterie, that is, the flux of the belly, proceeding from the sliperiness of the intestines, insomuch that they cannot retaine the meat, but let it passe undigested; they are good against swounings; they help the trembling of the heart and giddinesse of the head; they are mixed with the _Manus Christi_ against fainting (called _Manus Christi perlata_ in the London _Pharmacopaea_); they are put into antidotes or corroborating powders; they help the flux of bloud; they stop the terms, and cleanse the teeth; they are put into antidotes for the bowels, and increase their vertue, make the bloud more thin, and clarify that which is more thick and feculent; they help feavers. The _oile of Pearles_ or unions helpeth the resolution of the nerves, convulsion, decay of old age, phrensie, keepeth the body sound, and recovereth it when out of order, it rectifieth womens milk, and increaseth it, corrects the vices of the natural parts and seed. It cureth absesses, eating ulcers, the cancer and hemorrhoides.... The best are an excellent cordial, by which the oppressed balsame of life and decayed strength are recreated and strengthened, therefore they resist poyson, the plague, and putrefaction, and exhilarate, and therefore they are used as the last remedie in sick persons.[364] [Illustration: RUSSIAN EIKON OF THE MADONNA Ornamented with pearls ] So powerful and mysterious were their alleged virtues, that in some instances it was necessary only that the pearls be worn to make effective their prophylaxis against disease. This belief was by no means confined to the ignorant and inexperienced, for we are told that even Pope Adrian was never without his amulet made of the extraordinary combination of oriental pearls, a dried toad, etc.[365] Leonardo, in the fifteenth century, wrote that pearls render true and virtuous all who wear them.[366] Although we wonder at what we call the superstitions of the Middle Ages, perchance future generations will smile at many of our mistaken follies. A prominent historical instance of administering pearls medicinally was in the treatment of Charles VI of France (1368–1422), to whom pearl powder mixed with distilled water was given for the cure of insanity.