One great difficulty which besets any one who is trying to find a clue to guide him through the labyrinth of the medical affinities of gems is the fact that there was, from an early period, a tendency to attribute the virtues of one gem to another, probably owing to the commercial instinct which urged the dealer to praise his wares in every possible way, so that no part of his stock should fail to find a purchaser. This tendency is especially marked in the old Hindu Lapidaries, wherein it is almost impossible to find any differentiation of the stones in respect to their curative or talismanic virtues. Only the condition and perfection of the gems are made the criterion of their worth. Any given stone, if perfect, was a source of all blessings to the wearer and possessed all remedial powers, while a defective stone, or one lacking the proper lustre or color, was destined to be a source of untold misfortune to the owner. The European writers on the medical properties of precious stones were influenced by quite different considerations; their chief aim was to represent each stone, regarded simply as a mineral substance, as being the abode of the greatest possible number of curative properties. Indeed, many of the most highly recommended electuaries contained all kinds of stones, as though the effect to be produced did not depend upon the qualities of any single stone, or class of stones, but rather upon the quantity used. In Arnobio’s “Tesoro delle Gioie,”[464] we have a receipt for the composition of “the most noble electuary of jacinth.” This contains jacinth, emerald, sapphire, topaz, garnet, pearl, ruby, white and red coral, and amber, as well as many animal and vegetable substances, in all, thirty-four ingredients. It would indeed seem that a good dose of such a mixture should have provided a cure for “all the ills that flesh is heir to,” by the simple and effective means of removing the unhappy patient to a better world. Treating of the metallic affinities of precious stones, Paracelsus (1493-1541) affirmed that the emerald was a copper stone; the carbuncle and the jasper were golden stones; the ruby and the chalcedony, silver stones. The “white sapphire” (corundum) was a stone of Jupiter, while the jacinth was a mercurial stone. Powdered jacinth mixed with an equal quantity of laudanum was recommended as a remedy for fevers resulting from “putrefaction of the air or water.” This illustrates the custom of combining an inefficacious material, such as the powder of a precious stone, with another possessing genuine remedial virtue, the name of the stone appealing to the popular superstitions regarding its therapeutic powers, and thus rendering the preparation more acceptable.[465]