JEW BTJSH, Pedilanthus Why maloides, a plant of the order Euphor biacem. It grows in the West Indies, and is used in decoction as an antisyphili tic, and in cases of suppression of the menses. It is also called milk plant.
jEWELRY, a collective name for articles intended for personal decora tion, made of precious metals, which may be enriched with stones or enamels. Popularly, there is much confusion be tween the terms gem and jewel; the former belongs especially to engraved stones.
Before the use of metals was known, jewelry, if it can be so termed, consisted of carved beads and fragments of such bright substances as were at the com mand of prehistoric man. Gold is the first metal of which there is any men tion in literature, and there is no doubt that, being always found native, it was the first to be used by mankind. Among the numerous finds of gold jewelry of prehistoric times there are many speci mens which show that the early arti ficers possessed considerable command over their material in the way of ham mering out plates to uniform thickness, drawing or beating the metal into wire, and plaiting and twisting it into torques, armillm, rings, and other forms of orna ment. In these earliest gold ornaments
there is no attempt at decorative treat ment other than that what could be pro duced by the hammer; and it is only by degrees that simple efforts at chasing, engraving, and embossing make their appearance.
The distinction between jewelry of the present day and that of earlier times is found in the fundamental fact that the old work is the creation of the crafts man, while the modern jewel is the prod uct of a manufacturer who adopts all labor - saving machines and appliances for the economical finishing of his wares.