was described in the works attributed to Basil Valentine, and later
by Oswald Crollius. It is sometimes termed Volatile Gold. Valentine
explains very clearly the process of making it, that is, by dissolving
gold leaf in aqua regia and precipitating the fulminating gold by
salt of tartar. By treatment with vinegar or sulphur its explosive
properties were to be reduced. It was supposed to possess the medicinal
value of gold in a special degree, and was particularly recommended
as a diaphoretic. It appears from reports that it occasioned violent
diarrhœas, and was, no doubt, often fatal. The so-called Mosaic Gold,
which was given as a remedy for convulsions in children, was an amalgam
of mercury with tin, ground with sulphur and sal ammoniac.
Hahnemann insisted that gold had great curative powers, and several
homœopathic physicians of our time have highly extolled it. Dr. J. C.
Burnett, in “Gold as a Remedy,” recommended triturations of gold leaf,
one in a million, as a marvellous heart tonic, especially in cases of
difficult breathing in old age.