49. Aurum: i.e. gold; it is because it is so temperate that it has not been allotted a degree as compared with other metals; it serves well for the heart to wear it and to see it; cadmia, i.e. the spume of gold, is the same; gold serves well against elephantiasis; it comforts the stomach, and fainting and heartburn, if given twice a week; if gold itself, or its spume, be rubbed in, it is good in food or in drink; it helps with skin disease; if ground gold be made into powder and put on the eyes, it will dissolve their cataracts and their exudations. Gold has a number of different powers, i.e. for one thing it increases and comforts the spirits, it soothes the digestion, by its own power it constrains every flux, it is good against coldness and hotness, it expels every superfluity that weakens one's nature, and it cleans out the contaminated humours.