Inaugural Physico-Medical Dissertation on the Magnetism of the Macrocosm and Microcosm

the same is acknowledged with ♂ Mars/Iron, namely a ⊖ Sulfurous aerial juice mixed with cruder terrestrial particles, becoming stony.

§. 9. It remains to briefly deduce the value of this Stone and the various lapses or diseases of its efficacy to which it is subject. It deserves special esteem, not for its preciousness—since it is disputed among the precious and the base—but by reason of its utility, on account of the various uses it affords man, both in safely and surely conducting nautical affairs (so that you may rightly and deservedly call it, with Pomarius, the eye of navigators; see Kircher and others) and in safeguarding health (see, besides those already praised, Rolfincius in his Chemical Dissertations). Here, however, we should remove from the borders of truer physics the ridiculous, superstitious, and indeed impious uses which are recited in a long catalog by Albertus Magnus (Book 2 on the Virtues of Stones) and Rueus (Book 2 on Gems), as they are disapproved and rejected in rational practice.

§. 10. That it often suffers from the most serious lapses of its virtue and various defects, the testimonies of many, besides experience, evince. You will find a nearly complete Magnetic Pathology study of magnetic diseases, and in it, even deadly illnesses, described at length in Sylvester Rattray in his Approach to Sympathy and Antipathy, as well as in Libavius, Gilbert, Kircher, and Digby. Among these, however, Kircher has performed well regarding the magnet; while he opened a very rich store of remedies for curing and preserving against the various diseases by which the Magnet is afflicted. Let these things be said about the defined object; whoever desires more should unroll the aforementioned and below-named Magnetographers. We must now hasten to consider the description itself more attentively; since, however, magnetic action or magnetism—which constitutes the other primary moment on this page—accounts for the greatest part of it, we immediately undertake the same, as the saying goes, killing two birds with one stone.

§. 11. But before we define the action of the magnet, we premise that it is not without cause that it is distinguished from Magnetism in general, since, just as between genus and species, in like manner...