gems, jade, Fischer, jade in medicine, nephrite, amphibole

Methodus medendi brevissima is a 17th-century medical and pharmacological work associated with Johannes Walaeus and Georg Hieronymus Welsch, presenting a concise system for the treatment of diseases and the preparation and application of remedies. The work reflects contemporary European medicine, in which substances of mineral, animal, and vegetable origin were employed therapeutically. Of particular interest to gemologists are medicinal preparations involving minerals, precious stones, and related substances, illustrating the persistence of the pharmaceutical use of gems in early modern European medicine. The work provides evidence for the medical properties then attributed to such materials and for their place within 17th-century pharmacology and materia medica. Contains an early mention of nephrite used in medicine.