A lapidary, or, The history of pretious [sic] stones with cautions for the undeceiving of all those that deal with pretious [sic] stones / by Thomas Nicols ...

Its nature and properties.

The Corall is cold and dry, and astringent. It is re∣ported

of it, that it will be of greater beauty if a man wear it, then if a woman; and that it will contract ungratefull spots, if the possessour of it be dange∣rously sick. By the change of its colour it is said to foreshew ensuing diseases. If it be worn in the man∣ner of an amulet, it is said to drive away fears, and to keep men from inchantments, from poysoning, from epilepsies, and from the insultings of devills, from thunder, from tempests, and from all manner of perills: for this cause idolaters were wont to dedi∣cate this stone to Jupiter and to Phoebus. This stone hath been thought of power to hinder the delusions of the devil, and to secure men from Incubus and Suc∣cubus. So Ansel. Boetius, & Dioscorides. Arnoldus de villa nova, adviseth to give to new-born children as soon as they are come into the world, before they have tasted any thing, ten grains of the powder of Corall in the mothers milk; by which means he saith they shall be preserved all the dayes of their life from the epilepsie. The same remedie Camillus Leonar∣dus Medic. Pisauriensis, saith that he hath often experienced. There is a composition made of it, which is called Diaccrallium, which is said to be very effectuall against vomiting, and to cure all fluxes of the belly. The description is this: