Bell metal, as used in medicine, is an alloy of copper and tin. Brass, is an alloy of copper and zinc. They are sometimes used in combination with other metals, and are regarded as tonic and alterative. They are purified and reduced to powder in the same way as copper. The following is an example of a preparation containing bell metal.

Nityananda rasa.3 Take of mercury, prepared copper, iron, bell-metal and tin, purified orpiment, sulphate of copper and calcined conch-shell and couries, sulphur, ginger, long pepper and black pepper, the three myrobalans, haberung seeds, the five salts, namely, rock, sun-dried sea, black, sonchάl and Sambar Lake salts, Chavica officinarum(chavika), long pepper root, havusa (an aromatic substance), Acorus Calamus (vacha), Curcuma zedoaria (sati), Stephania hernandifolia (pathd), Pinus deodara, cardamoms, seeds of Argyreia speciosa (vridhya daraka) each two tolas, rub together with the juice or decoction of chebulic myrobalans and make into ten-grain pills. They are given in hydrocele and elephantiasis of the scrotum. The remark that, when a disease has. a long list of drugs for curing it, one may take it for an incurable one, is well exemplified in this medicine for elephantiasis of the scrotum.