Page:A History of Hindu Chemistry Vol 1.djvu/99

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lxxxi

life-time (see above p. lxxvi).[1]

Earliest historical evidence of the internal use of mercury.We have already had occasion to draw attention to the non-mention of metallic preparations, notably of those of mercury, in the writings of Vána and I'Tsing (p. li). But this is another apt illustration of the dangers of the argumentum ex silentio. In the Vrihatsamhitá of Varáhamihira (d. 587 A. D.) there is mention of iron and mercury among the aphrodisiacs and tonics;[2] and this his-
  1. A recent examination of the Sanskrit Mss. in the Durbar Library of Nepal has brought to light important old Tantric works. One, the Lamkávatára, a Hindu Tantric work on medicine, written in a later Gupta hand (908 A. D.); another, "the composition of which must go back to the early centuries of the Christian era." This discovery upsets all established theories as to the age of the Tantras, a full discussion of which must be reserved for the second volume Vide.—Rep. on the Search of Sans. Mss. (1895-1900) by M. H. P. Sástri.
  2. रक्तोऽधिके स्त्री पुरुषस्तु शुक्रे नपुंसकं शोणितशुक्रसाम्ये ।
    यस्मादतः शुक्रविवृद्धिदानि निषेवितव्यानि रसायनानि ॥१॥
    माक्षीकधातुमधुपारदलोहचूर्ण-
    पथ्याशिलाजतुविडङ्गघृतानि योऽद्यात् ।
    सैकानि विंशतिरहानि जरान्वितोऽपि
    सोऽशीतिकोऽपि रमयत्यबलां युवेव ॥२॥