Page:A History of Hindu Chemistry Vol 1.djvu/212

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"Take a thin leaf of Nepalese copper and embed it in powdered sulphur. The substances are to be placed inside a saucer-shaped earthen-ware vessel and covered with another. The rims are luted with sugar or powdered rice-paste. The apparatus is heated in a sand-bath for three hours. The copper thus prepared is pounded and administered with other drugs."

"I shall now describe the science of iron as promulgated by the sage Nāgārjuna." [A tedious process given with wearisome minutiæ of which the substance only is reproduced below.]

A bar of iron is to be rubbed with the levigated powder of the following vegetable products among others: the belleric myrobalans, clitoria ternatea, vitis quadrangularis, boharhaavia diffusa and verbesina calend. It is then strongly heated to the fusion point and plunged into the decoction of the myrobalans. The iron is then powdered by being beaten with an iron hammer. The powder