Georgii Agricolae medici Bermannus, sive de re metallica

For since many things concerning the nature and properties contained in such things have been written most diligently by the ancients, especially the Greeks—things which it is established were discovered through long experience and confirmed by reason—would it not be possible for us to draw all these things much more purely from the sources themselves? This would be possible if only the ancient and incorrupt names were not hidden from us, or if, once these were known, the things signified by them were not unknown to us.

And so that I may not stray too far from what I have intended: who, I ask, does not know of what great use metallica things related to metals have been in medicine, especially in that part of it which heals by hand? (For we truly call those things metallica which are either the metals themselves, or are found near metals, or are created while those are being smelted in furnaces, or consist of them through some other preparation.) No one, certainly, who has only inspected the books of that supreme physician Galen and Dioscorides. But who today can point out to us Molybdæna lead ore/galena, Pyrites firestone, Chalcites a copper-bearing mineral, Mysi, Sory, Pompholyga zinc oxide/tutty, Spodium metallic soot/ash, Diphryga dross of copper, and certain other drosses of metals, and many other things? For besides Stibium antimony, Lithargyrum litharge/lead monoxide, Arsenicum arsenic, and Cerusa white lead, and a few other things—