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Seventeenth-century treasure found in Royal Society archives: the Ludus
helmontii and the stone disease
#MMPMID25254277
Alfonso-Goldfarb AM
; Ferraz MH
; Rattansi PM
Notes Rec R Soc Lond
2014[Sep]; 68
(3
): 227-43
PMID25254277
show ga
Our archival researches at the Royal Society reveal that a small envelope
attached to a 1675 letter from an Antwerp apothecary, A. Boutens, contained a
sample of the 'Ludus' prepared as a remedy for the 'stone disease' then sweeping
through Europe, which was first announced in J. B. van Helmont's De lithiasi
(1644). After examining the fascination with the medical use of the Ludus (which
required the 'alkahest' for its preparation) and the tenacious efforts to procure
it, we trace the fortunae of two other ludi in England, brought to and offered by
Francis Mercurius van Helmont during his English sojourn. Both eventually found
their way to the geologist John Woodward, one of them through Sir Isaac Newton.
Finally we show how the allure of the Ludus helmontii vanished, with
transformations in mineral analysis and reclassifications from Woodward to John
Hill.
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