That precious stones not only appealed to the eye by their beautiful colors, but also possessed a fragrant odor, was one of the many fanciful ideas regarding them. If we could believe the following circumstantial account, this was once experimentally proved:[471] When precious stones are to be used in medicine, they must be pulverized until they are reduced to a powder so fine that it will not grate under the teeth, or, in the words of Galen, this powder must be as impalpable “as that which is blown into the eyes.” Since this trituration is not usually operated with sufficient care by the apothecaries, I begged a medical student, who was lodging with me, to pass an entire month in grinding some of these stones. I gave him emeralds, jacinths, sapphires, rubies, and pearls, an ounce of each kind. As these stones were rough and whole, he first crushed them a little in a well-polished iron mortar, using a pestle of the same metal; afterward he employed a pestle and mortar of glass, devoting several hours each day to this work. At the end of about three weeks, his room, which was rather large, became redolent with a perfume, agreeable both from its variety and sweetness. This odor, which much resembled that of March violets, lingered in the room for more than three days. There was nothing in the room to produce it, so that it certainly proceeded from the powder of precious stones. Diamond Of the many medicinal virtues attributed to the diamond, one of the most noteworthy is that of an antidote for poisons. Strangely enough, the belief in its efficacy in this respect was coupled with the idea that the stone in itself was a deadly poison. The origin of this latter fancy must be sought in the tradition that the place wherein the diamonds were generated—“in the land where it is six months day and six months night”—was guarded by venomous creatures who, in passing over the stones, were wounded by the sharp points of the crystals, and thus embued the stones with some of their venom.[472] The attribution of curative properties in case of poisoning arose from association of ideas. The Lapidario of Alfonso X recommends the diamond for diseases of the bladder; it adds, however, that this stone should be used only in desperate cases. [Illustration: INITIALS FROM THE LAPIDARIO DE ALFONSO X (XIII CENTURY). Codice Original (fol. 6), published in Madrid, 1881. That on the left figures “the stone found in the sea when the planet Mars rises”; that on the right, “the stone that attracts glass.” Author’s library.] [Illustration: INITIALS FROM THE LAPIDARIO DE ALFONSO X. Codice Original (fol. 4), published in Madrid, 1881. On the left, “the stone that recoils from milk”; on the right, pearl-fishers.]