influenced by quite different considerations; their chief aim was to
represent each stone, regarded simply as a mineral substance, as being
the abode of the greatest possible number of curative properties.
Indeed, many of the most highly recommended electuaries contained all
kinds of stones, as though the effect to be produced did not depend
upon the qualities of any single stone, or class of stones, but rather
upon the quantity used. In Arnobio’s “Tesoro delle Gioie,”[464] we have
a receipt for the composition of “the most noble electuary of jacinth.”
This contains jacinth, emerald, sapphire, topaz, garnet, pearl, ruby,
white and red coral, and amber, as well as many animal and vegetable
substances, in all, thirty-four ingredients. It would indeed seem that
a good dose of such a mixture should have provided a cure for “all
the ills that flesh is heir to,” by the simple and effective means of
removing the unhappy patient to a better world.
Treating of the metallic affinities of precious stones, Paracelsus
(1493-1541) affirmed that the emerald was a copper stone; the carbuncle
and the jasper were golden stones; the ruby and the chalcedony, silver
stones. The “white sapphire” (corundum) was a stone of Jupiter, while
the jacinth was a mercurial stone. Powdered jacinth mixed with an equal
quantity of laudanum was recommended as a remedy for fevers resulting
from “putrefaction of the air or water.” This illustrates the custom of
combining an inefficacious material, such as the powder of a precious
stone, with another possessing genuine remedial virtue, the name of the
stone appealing to the popular superstitions regarding its therapeutic
powers, and thus rendering the preparation more acceptable.[465]
It is related by Plutarch that when Pericles was dying of the plague,
he showed to one of his friends, who was visiting him, an amulet
suspended from his neck. This had been given to Pericles by the women
of his household, and Plutarch cites the instance as a proof that even
the strongest minds will at certain times yield to the influence of
superstition.[466]
There were sceptics in ancient times who put no faith in the popular
superstitions as to the curative powers of precious stones. Eusebius
(ca. 264-ca. 349), in his oration on the Emperor Constantine the Great
(272-337), says:[467]
He held that the varieties of stones so greatly admired were useless
and ineffective things. They possessed no other qualities than their
natural ones, and hence no efficacy to hold evils aloof; for what
power can such things have either to cure disease or to avert death?
Nevertheless, although he well knew this, he was in no wise opposed to
their use simply as ornaments by his subjects.
The Middle High German didactic poem on precious stones, composed
by Volmar, or Volamar, about 1250, appears to have been written as
a rejoinder to a satirical poem, the work of a writer called the
“Stricker” (rascal). What chiefly aroused Volmar’s wrath was the fact
that this irreverent personage dared to assert that a piece of colored
glass set in a ring looked just as well and possessed the same virtues
as a genuine precious stone of the same color. Volmar does not mince
matters, and roundly declares that whoever should kill the man who
wrote thus would do no sinful act. While we can scarcely recommend such
drastic action, we must admit that we feel a little sympathy with the
medieval champion of genuine stones against imitations.
A most interesting item recording one phase of a great tyrant’s
character is reported by Sir Jerome Horsey, who was entrusted with
messages to and from Elizabeth of England and Ivan the Terrible of
Russia. He gives, in his “Travels,” a graphic recital of an interview
with Ivan just before the latter’s death in 1584. We retain the archaic
spelling as it is reproduced in the Hakluyt publication from the
original manuscript. Writing of Ivan, Horsey says:[468]
Carried every daye in his chair into his treasure. One daye the prince
beckoned me to follow. I strode emonge the rest venturously, and
heard him call for som precious stones and jewells. Told the prince
and nobles present before and aboute him the virtue of such and such,
which I observed, and do pray I may a littell degress to declare for
my own memorie sake.
[Illustration: Facsimile page of Italian vellum manuscript treatise of
the virtues of gems. Italian MS. of the Fourteenth Century in author’s
library.
Treating of Topaz, Turquoise, Jacinth, Garnet, Chalcedony,
Rock-crystal, Coral.]
“The load-stone you all know hath great and hidden vertue, without
which the seas that compas the world ar not navigable, nor the bounds
nor circles of the earth cannot be knowen. Mahomett, the Percians
proffit, his tombe of steell hangs in their Repatta at Darbent most
miraculously”—Caused the waiters to bringe a chaine of nedells
towched by his load-stone, hanged all one by the other.—“This faire
currell (coral) and this faire turcas you see; take in your hand;
of his natur arr orient coullers; put them on my hand and arm. I am
poisoned with disease: you see they shewe their virtue by the chainge
of their pure culler into pall: declares my death. Reach owt my
staff roiall; an unicorns horn garnished with verie fare diomondes,
rubies, saphiers, emeralls and other precious stones that ar rich
in vallew; cost 70 thousand marckes sterlinge of David Gower from
the fowlkers of Ousborghe.[469] Seek owt for som spiders.” Caused
his phiziccians, Johannes Lloff, to scrape a circle thereof upon the
tabell; putt within it one spider and so one other and died, and some
other without that ran alive apace from it.—“It is too late, it
will not preserve me. Behold these precious stones. This diomond is
the orients richest and most precious of all other. I never affected
it; yt restreyns furie and luxurie and abstinacie and chasticie;
the least parcell of it in powder will poysen a horse geaven to
drinck, much more a man.” Poynts at the ruby. “Oh! this is most
comfortable to the hart, braine, vigar and memorie of man, clarifies
congelled and corrupt bloud.”—Then at the emerald.—“The natur of
the reyn-bowe; this precious stone is an enemye to uncleanness. The
saphier I greatlie delight in; yt preserves and increaseth courage,
joies the hart, pleasinge to all the vitall sensis, precious and verie
soveraigne for the eys, clears the sight, takes awaye bloudshott and
streingthens the mussells and strings thereof.”—Then takes the onex
in hand.—“All these are Gods wonderfull guifts, secreats in natur,
and yet revells [reveals] them to mans use and contemplacion, as
frendes to grace and vertue and enymies to vice. I fainte, carie me
awaye till an other tyme.”
Some believed that when precious stones were worn to relieve or prevent
disease, it was important that the different stones should be worn on
different parts of the body. According to one authority, the jacinth
should be worn on the neck; the diamond, on the left arm; the sapphire,
on the ring-finger; the emerald, or the jacinth, on the index-finger;
and the ruby or turquoise, on either the index-finger or the little
finger.[470] There is, however, little reason to assume that these
rules were generally known and observed.
That precious stones not only appealed to the eye by their beautiful
colors, but also possessed a fragrant odor, was one of the many
fanciful ideas regarding them. If we could believe the following
circumstantial account, this was once experimentally proved:[471]
When precious stones are to be used in medicine, they must be
pulverized until they are reduced to a powder so fine that it will
not grate under the teeth, or, in the words of Galen, this powder
must be as impalpable “as that which is blown into the eyes.” Since
this trituration is not usually operated with sufficient care by the
apothecaries, I begged a medical student, who was lodging with me,
to pass an entire month in grinding some of these stones. I gave him
emeralds, jacinths, sapphires, rubies, and pearls, an ounce of each
kind. As these stones were rough and whole, he first crushed them a
little in a well-polished iron mortar, using a pestle of the same
metal; afterward he employed a pestle and mortar of glass, devoting
several hours each day to this work. At the end of about three weeks,
his room, which was rather large, became redolent with a perfume,
agreeable both from its variety and sweetness. This odor, which much
resembled that of March violets, lingered in the room for more than
three days. There was nothing in the room to produce it, so that it
certainly proceeded from the powder of precious stones.
Diamond
Of the many medicinal virtues attributed to the diamond, one of the
most noteworthy is that of an antidote for poisons. Strangely enough,
the belief in its efficacy in this respect was coupled with the idea
that the stone in itself was a deadly poison. The origin of this
latter fancy must be sought in the tradition that the place wherein
the diamonds were generated—“in the land where it is six months
day and six months night”—was guarded by venomous creatures who,
in passing over the stones, were wounded by the sharp points of the
crystals, and thus embued the stones with some of their venom.[472]
The attribution of curative properties in case of poisoning arose from
association of ideas. The Lapidario of Alfonso X recommends the diamond
for diseases of the bladder; it adds, however, that this stone should
be used only in desperate cases.
[Illustration: INITIALS FROM THE LAPIDARIO DE ALFONSO X (XIII CENTURY).
Codice Original (fol. 6), published in Madrid, 1881. That on the left
figures “the stone found in the sea when the planet Mars rises”; that
on the right, “the stone that attracts glass.” Author’s library.]
[Illustration: INITIALS FROM THE LAPIDARIO DE ALFONSO X.
Codice Original (fol. 4), published in Madrid, 1881. On the left, “the
stone that recoils from milk”; on the right, pearl-fishers.]
The diamond was also believed to afford protection from plague or
pestilence, and a proof of its powers in this direction was found in
the fact that the plague first attacked the poorer classes, sparing the
rich, who could afford to adorn themselves with diamonds. Naturally, in
common with other precious stones, this brilliant gem was supposed to
cure many diseases. Marbodus[473] tells us that it was even a cure for
insanity.
In the Babylonian Talmud we read of a marvellous precious stone
belonging to Abraham. This was perhaps a diamond, or possibly a pearl;
the accounts vary, and the same word is often used to designate
“precious stone” and “pearl.” The following version represents it to be
a diamond:[474]
R. Simeon, ben Johanan said: “A diamond was hanging on Abraham’s neck,
and when a sick man looked upon it he was cured. And when Abraham
passed away, the Lord sealed it in the planet of the sun.”
The Hindus believed that it was extremely dangerous to use diamonds
of inferior quality for curative purposes, as they would not only
fail to remedy the disease for which they were prescribed, but might
cause lameness, jaundice, pleurisy, and even leprosy. As to the use
of diamonds of good quality, very explicit directions are given. On
some day regarded as auspicious for the operation, the stone was to
be dipped in the juice of the _kantakára_ (_Solanum jaquiri_) and
subjected for a whole night to the heat of a fire made by dried pieces
of the dung of a cow or of a buffalo. In the morning it was to be
immersed in cow’s urine and again subjected to fire. These processes
were to be repeated for seven days, at the end of which term the
diamond could be regarded as purified. After this the stone was to be
buried in a paste of certain leguminous seeds mixed with asafœtida and
rock salt. Herein it was to be heated twenty-one successive times,
when it would be reduced to ashes. If these ashes were then dissolved
in some liquid, the potion would “conduce to longevity, general
development of the body, strength, energy, beauty of complexion, and
happiness,” giving an adamantine strength to the limbs.[475]
An Austrian nobleman, who for a long time had not been able to sleep
without having terrible dreams, was immediately cured by wearing a
small diamond set in gold on his arm, so that the stone came in contact
with his skin.[476]
The fact that in this case, as in many others, the stone was required
to touch the skin, proves that the effect supposed to be produced was
not altogether magical, but in the nature of a physical emanation from
the stone to the body of the wearer.
We are told that when Pope Clement VII was seized by his last illness,
in 1534, his physicians resorted to powders composed of various
precious stones. In the space of fourteen days they are asserted to
have given the pope forty thousand ducats’ worth of these stones,
a single dose costing as much as three thousand ducats. The most
costly remedy of all was a diamond administered to him at Marseilles.
Unfortunately, this lavish expenditure was of no avail; indeed,
according to our modern science, the remedies might have sufficed to
end the pope’s life, without the help of his disease.[477]
The old fancy that the diamond grew dark in the presence of poison
is explained by the Italian physician Gonelli as caused by minute
and tenuous particles which emanated from the poison, impinged upon
the surface of the diamond, and, unable to penetrate its dense mass,
accumulated on the surface, thus producing a superficial discoloration.
The diamond, being a cold substance, may have condensed moisture from
the body, and the one suffering from the poison may have emitted
exudations. But this elaborate explanation of a phenomenon which
never existed except in the imagination of those who related it is
characteristic of Gonelli, who was always ready to elucidate in
some similar way any of the marvels recounted in regard to precious
stones.[478]
Emerald
The emerald was employed as an antidote for poisons and for poisoned
wounds, as well as against demoniacal possession.[479] If worn on the
neck it was said to cure the “semitertian” fever and epilepsy.[480]
The use of the emerald to rest and relieve the eye is the only remedial
use of a precious stone mentioned by Theophrastus in his treatise on
gems, written in the third century B.C. Alluding to its powers as an
antidote for poisons, Rueus asserts[481] that if the weight of eighty
barley-corns of its powder were given to one dying from the effects
of poison, the dose would save his life. The Arabs prized emeralds
highly for this purpose, and Abenzoar states that, having once taken a
poisonous herb, he placed an emerald in his mouth and applied another
to his stomach, whereupon he was entirely cured.[482]
A certain cure for dysentery also was to wear an emerald suspended
so that it touched the abdomen and to place another emerald in the
mouth. Michaele Paschali, a learned Spanish physician of the sixteenth
century, declared that he had effected a cure of the disease by means
of the emerald in the case of Juan de Mendoza, a Spanish grandee,
and Wolfgang Gabelchover, of Calw, in Würtemberg, writing in 1603,
asserts that he had often tested the virtues of the emerald in cases of
dysentery and with invariable success.[483]
It speaks not a little for the beauty of the emerald that so good a
judge of precious stones as Pliny should have pronounced this gem to
be the only one that delighted the eye without fatiguing it, adding
that when the vision was wearied by gazing intently at other objects,
it gained renewed strength by viewing an emerald. So general in the
early centuries of our era was the persuasion that the pure green hue
of emeralds aided the eyesight, that gem engravers are said to have
kept some of them on their work-tables, so as to be able to look at
the stones from time to time and thus relieve the eye-strain caused by
close application to their delicate task.[484]
Psellus says that a cataplasm made of emeralds was of help to those
suffering from leprosy; he adds that if pulverized and taken in water
they would check hemorrhages.[485] They were especially commended
for use as amulets to be hung on the necks of children, as they were
believed to ward off and prevent epilepsy. If, however, the violence of
the disease was such that it could not be overcome by the stone, the
latter would break.[486] Hermes Trismegistus says the emerald cures
ophthalmia and hemorrhages. The great Hermes must have had a special
preference for this stone, since his treatise on chemistry (_peri
chemeias_) is said to have been found inscribed on an emerald.[487]
By the Hindu physicians of the thirteenth century the emerald was
considered to be a good laxative. It cured dysentery, diminished the
secretion of bile, and stimulated the appetite. In short, it promoted
bodily health and destroyed demoniacal influences. In the curious
phrase of the school the emerald was “cold and sweet.”[488]
Teifashi (1242 A.D.) believed that the emerald was a cure for
hæmoptysis and for dysentery if it were worn over the liver of the
person affected; to cure gastric troubles, the stone was to be laid
upon the stomach. Furthermore, the wearer was protected from the
attacks of venomous creatures, and evil spirits were driven from the
place where emeralds were kept.[489] The direction to place the stone
on the affected part, a recommendation often met with in the treatises
on the therapeutic use of ornamental stones, shows that these were
believed to send forth emanations of subtle power. Probably enough, the
brilliant play of reflected light which proceeds from many of these
gems suggested the idea that they radiated a certain curative energy.
This theory need not surprise us, for, although it is altogether
fanciful in the case of the diamond, ruby, emerald, etc., the newly
discovered substance, radium, really possesses the active properties
ascribed by old writers to precious stones.
Jade
A stone the therapeutic quality of which was specialized is the jade or
nephrite. Strange to say, although there are very few places where this
mineral can now be obtained,—the chief sources of supply being the
province of Khotan in Turkistan and New Zealand,—in prehistoric times
the stone must have been found in many different localities, since
axe-heads and other artefacts of jade have been discovered in many
lands both of the old and new world.
When the Spaniards discovered and explored the southern part of the
American continent, they came across numerous native ornaments and
amulets made of jade (jadeite) and brought many of these with them to
Europe. The name jade is derived from the Spanish designation, _piedra
de hijada_, meaning literally “stone of the flank,” which is said to
have been bestowed on the stone because the Indians used it for all
diseases of the kidneys. The name nephrite owes its origin to the
same idea. In ancient times jade appears to have been looked upon as
a great aid in parturition, and many ingenious conjectures have been
advanced as to the connection between this belief and the form of some
of the prehistoric objects made of this material. Whether the Spaniards
really learned from the Indians that the stone was especially adapted
to cure renal diseases, or whether they only suggested this special
and peculiar virtue in order to give an enhanced value to their jade
ornaments, is a question not easily answered.
An early notice of jade as a remedial agent appears in Sir Walter
Raleigh’s account of his travels in Guiana. Treating of a people
of “Amazons” said to dwell in the interior of the country, Raleigh
says:[490]
These Amazones have likewise great store of these plates of golde,
which they recover by exchange, chiefly for a kinde of greene stone,
which the Spaniards call Piedras Hijadas, and we use for spleene
stones and for the disease of the stone we also esteeme them: of these
I saw divers in Guiana, and commonly every King or _Casique_ hath one,
which theire wives for the most part weare, and they esteeme them as
great jewels.
By the middle of the seventeenth century the curative powers of
jade for the various forms of calculi was very generally admitted.
A singular instance is offered us in one of Voiture’s letters.
He was a great sufferer from “the stone” and he had received,
from a Mademoiselle Paulet, a beautiful jade bracelet. Gratefully
acknowledging the receipt of this peculiar gift, he expresses himself
in the following frank way, a mixture of indelicacy and gallantry
that seems strange to us: “If the stones you have given me do not
break mine, they will at least make me bear my sufferings patiently;
and it seems to me that I ought not to complain of my colic, since it
has procured me this happiness.” The name used for jade by Voiture,
“_l’éjade_,” supplied a missing link in the derivation of our name
jade from the Spanish _hijada_. When the lady’s gift was received by
Voiture, some friends chanced to be present, and they were disposed to
regard it as a token of love until he assured them that it was only
a remedy. It appears that Mlle. Paulet was a fellow sufferer, and,
alluding to this, Voiture writes: “On this occasion the jade had for
you an effect you did not expect from it, and its virtue defended your
own.”[491]
Renal calculi and poetry do not seem to have much in common, but the
following lines freely rendered from an old Italian poem on the subject
by Ciri de Pers show that even this unpromising theme is susceptible of
poetic treatment:[492]
“Other white stones serve to mark happy days,
But mine do mark days full of pain and gloom.
To build a palace, or a temple fair,
Stones should be used; but mine do serve
To wreck the fleshly temple of my soul.
* * * * *
Well do I know that Death doth whet his glaive
Upon these stones, and that the marble white
That grows in me is there to form my tomb.”
As jade was and still is the most favored stone in China, although
never found within the boundaries of China proper, it was very
naturally accorded wonderful medical virtues. An old Chinese
encyclopedia, the work of Li She Chan, and presented by him to the
emperor Wan Lih of the Ming dynasty, in 1596, contains many interesting
notices of jade. When reduced to a powder of the size of rice grains it
strengthened the lungs, the heart, and the vocal organs, and prolonged
life, more especially if gold and silver were added to the jade powder.
Another, and certainly a pleasanter way of absorbing this precious
mineral, was to drink what was enthusiastically called the “divine
liquor of jade.” To concoct this elixir equal parts of jade, rice, and
dew-water were put into a copper pot and boiled, the resultant liquid
being carefully filtered. This mixture was said to strengthen the
muscles and make them supple, to harden the bones, to calm the mind, to
enrich the flesh, and to purify the blood. Whoever took it for a long
space of time ceased to suffer from either heat or cold and no longer
felt either hunger or thirst.
Galen (b. ca. 130 A.D.) wrote thus of the green jasper:[493]
Some have testified to a virtue in certain stones, and this is true
of the green jasper, that is to say, this stone aids the stomach and
navel by contact. And some, therefore, set the stone in rings and
engrave on it a dragon surrounded by rays, according to what King
Nechepsos has transmitted to posterity in the fourteenth book (of his
works). Indeed, I myself have thoroughly tested this stone, for I hung
a necklace composed of them about my neck so that they touched the
navel, and I received not less benefit from them than I would had they
borne the engraving of which Nechepsos wrote.
Ruby
Sanskrit medical literature as represented by Naharari, a physician
of Cashmere, who wrote in the thirteenth century, finds in the ruby a
valuable remedy for flatulency and biliousness. Moreover, aside from
these special uses, an elixir of great potency could be made from
rubies by those who properly understood the employment of precious
stones in the compounding of medicines.[494] This famous “ruby elixir”
may have had little in common with the stone except its color, as such
remedies were generally said to have been made by some secret and
mysterious process, in the course of which all material evidence of the
presence of any precious stone or stones completely disappeared.
Sapphire
One of the earliest specimens of English literature, William Langley’s
“Vision of William concerning Piers the Plowman” (written about 1377),
contains a mention of the sapphire as a cure for disease:[495]