gems, jade, nephrite, medicinal use, Fischer-Other

A systematic account of medicinal substances by the English botanist and apothecary John Hill, covering materials derived from the vegetable, animal and mineral kingdoms. Hill describes individual substances, their sources, physical characteristics, preparation and supposed medicinal properties and uses. Of gemological interest is the section on mineral substances, which includes precious stones and other minerals employed medicinally, reflecting the persistence in eighteenth-century European pharmacology of therapeutic uses traditionally attributed to gems. The work is useful for tracing the transition from older lapidary and pharmacological traditions toward increasingly empirical descriptions of natural substances.