Mosaic gold

Mosaic gold, or stannic sulfide, SnS2, is obtained as a yellow scaly crystalline powder, and used as a pigment in bronzing and gilding wood and metal work. It was called by the alchemists aurum musivum, or aurum mosaicum. It is also called bronze powder.^[1]

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Alchemists prepared this by combining mercury, tin, sal ammoniac, and flowers of sulfur, grinding, mixing, then setting them for three hours in a sand heat. The dirty sublimate being taken off, aurum mosaicum was found at the bottom of the matrass. It was recommended in most chronical and nervous cases, and particularly convulsions of children ^[2]; however, it is no longer recommended for any medical uses.

Mosaic Gold is used in Indian Ayurvedic medicine under the Sanskrit/Indian name Suvarnavanga. It is used in complaints of the reproductive organs. It is indicated as a rejuvenator and a tonic of high potency which induces health, vigor, improves appetite, increases memory, generates semen of high quality, cures gonorrhea, spermatorrhea, and leukorrhea.

Suvarnavanga has been used as an aphrodisiac, brain tonic, antiemetic and in skin diseases, night sweats, diseases caused by the derangement of ‘vata’ and ‘kapha’. It improves the complexion. It also has anthelmintic property in addition to the above mentioned uses. It is an important ingredient in ayurvedic medicine against impotency.

References

1. ^{^} 1913 Webster's Revised Dictionary
2. ^{^} This article incorporates content from the 1728 Cyclopaedia, a publication in the public domain. [1]