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Whether the somewhat mysterious illness and death of the popes Leo IV and Paul II could have been caused by the great quantity of pearls and precious stones they were in the habit of wearing was a question seriously discussed by Johann Wolff, the supposed lethal effect being attributed to the coldness of such objects. Indeed, the frigidity of precious stones was adduced by certain writers as one of the chief reasons for their remedial use in fevers.
Not only to King Frederick III of Denmark himself, to whom on his death-bed in 1670, a dose of pulverized bezoar was administered, but to his queen and their children such remedies were given, there being record that on September 19, 1663, a prescription containing red coral and pearl powder was compounded by the Court Pharmacy for the queen, while a few years earlier the inevitable bezoar and also a tonic pearl-milk were administered to some of the royal offspring. |
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Precious Stones Guide Vol 8
>> All About Medicinal Use of Pearls in History
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