The precious stones

Pharmacognosy & Toxicology

Constituents

• corundum ChEMBLaluminium oxide, in ruby and sapphire
• berylberyllium aluminium silicate, in emerald
• zirconzirconium silicate, in hyacinth
• garnet

Mechanism

The “fragments” of the cordial powders are among the hardest and least soluble substances known: they pass the gut unchanged and deliver nothing to the heart. The beryllium of emerald is toxic only as a dust in the lungs, which a confection does not reach.

Toxic dose

Inert.

Standing

The electuaries that held them, like the confection of hyacinth, were the most expensive placebos of the pharmacy.

• Kunz, G. F. (1913). The Curious Lore of Precious Stones. Lippincott. Verified against its record · doi:10.5479/sla.97375.39088015763006
• Duffin, C. J. (2013). “Lithotherapeutical research sources from antiquity to the mid-eighteenth century,” in A History of Geology and Medicine. Geological Society. Verified against its record · doi:10.1144/sp375.25

The abstract of each source, beneath its citation. For Club members. About the Club or sign in.

Constituent names open the compound’s record at PubChem, and “ChEMBL” beside a name opens its record at ChEMBL, the European Bioinformatics Institute’s database of bioactive molecules. Where a mechanism line was checked against ChEMBL (ChEMBL 37, read 1 October 2026), the check is shown with the measured value and its source paper, or says plainly that nothing has been measured. Doses are as the references give them, for description only; this is not medical advice. Each source carries the result of its check against Crossref, PubMed, or the authority’s page: see Verification.