THE JEWEL IN THE TOAD'S HEAD
To what jewel or precious stone was Shakespeare alluding when he makes
the exiled Duke in "As You Like It" (after praising his rough life in
the forest of Arden, and declaring that adversity has its
compensations), exclaim:
"The toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head"?
No doubt the unprejudiced reader supposes when he reads this passage
that there is some stone or stone-like body in the head of the toad
which has a special beauty, or else was believed to possess magical or
medicinal properties. And it is probable that Shakespeare himself did
suppose that such a stone existed. As a matter of fact there is no
stone or "jewel" of any kind in the head of the common toad nor of any
species of toad--common or rare. This is a simple and certain result
of the careful examination of the heads of innumerable toads, and is
not merely "common knowledge," but actually the last word of the
scientific expert. In these days of "nature study" writers familiar
with toads and frogs and kindred beasts have puzzled over
Shakespeare's words, and suggested that he was really referring to the
beautiful eyes of the toad, which are like gems in colour and
brilliance.
This, however, is not the case. Shakespeare himself was simply making
use of what was considered to be "common knowledge" in his day when he
made the Duke compare adversity to the toad with a magic jewel in its
head commonly known as "a toad-stone," although that "common
knowledge" was really not knowledge at all, but--like an enormous mass
of the accepted current statements in those times, about animals,
plants and stones--was an absolutely baseless invention. Such baseless
beliefs were due to the perfectly innocent but reckless habit of
mankind, throughout long ages, of exaggerating and building up
marvellous narrations on the one hand, and on the other hand of
believing without any sufficient inquiry, and with delight and
enthusiasm, such marvellous narrations set down by others. Each writer
or "gossip" concerning the wonders of unexplored nature, consciously
or unconsciously, added a little to the story as received by him, and
so the authoritative statements as to marvels grew more and more
astonishing and interesting.
It was not until the time of Shakespeare himself that another spirit
began to assert itself--namely, that of asking whether a prevalent
belief or tradition is actually a true statement of fact. Men
proceeded to test the belief by an examination of the thing in
question, and not by merely adducing the assertions of "the learned
so-and-so," or of "the ingenious Mr. Dash." This spirit of inquiry
actually existed in a fairly active state among the more cultivated of
the ancient Greeks. Aristotle (who flourished about 350 B.C.), though
he could not free himself altogether from the primitive tendency to
accept the marvellous as true because it is marvellous and without
regard to its probability--in fact because of its improbability--yet
on the whole showed a determination to investigate, and to see things
for himself, and left in his writings an immense series of first-rate
original observations. He had far more of the modern scientific spirit
than had the innumerable credulous writers of Western Europe who lived
fifteen hundred to two thousand years after him. Even that delightful
person Herodotus, who preceded Aristotle by a hundred years,
occasionally took the trouble to inquire into some of the wonders he
heard of on his travels, and is careful to say now and then that he
does not believe what he heard. But the mediaeval-makers of
"bestiaries," herbals, and treatises on stones, which were collections
of every possible fancy and "old-wife's tale," about animals, plants,
and minerals, mixed up with Greek and Arabic legends and the
mystical, medical lore of the "Physiologus"--that Byzantine cyclopaedia
of "wisdom while you wait"--deliberately discarded all attempt to set
down the truth; they simply gave that up as a bad job, and recorded
every strange story, property and "application" (as they termed it) of
natural objects with solemn assurance, adding a bit of their own
invention to the gathered and growing mass of preposterous
misunderstanding and superstition.
In the seventeenth century the opposition to this method of omnivorous
credulity (which even to-day, in spite of all our "progress,"
flourishes among both the rich and the poor) crystallised in the
purpose of the Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural
Knowledge--whose motto was, and is "_Nullius in verba_" (that is, "We
swear by no man's words"), and whose original first rule, to be
observed at its meetings, was that no one should discourse of his
opinions or narrate a marvel, but that any member who wished to
address the society should "bring in," that is to say, "exhibit" an
experiment or an actual specimen. A new spirit, the "scientific"
spirit, gave rise to and was nourished by this and similar societies
of learned men. As a consequence the absurdities and the cruel and
injurious beliefs in witchcraft, astrology, and baseless legend,
melted away like clouds before the rising sun. In the place of the mad
nightmare of fantastic ignorance, there grew up the solid body of
unassailable knowledge of Nature and of man which we call "science"--a
growth which made such prodigious strides in the last century that we
now may truly be said to live in the presence of a new heaven and a
new earth!
[Illustration: Fig. 4.--Representation of a man extracting the jewel
from a toad's head; two "jewels", already extracted are seen dropping
to the ground. From the "Hortus Sanitatis," published in 1490.]
It was, then, a real "stone," called the toad-stone, to which
Shakespeare alluded. It is mentioned in various old treatises
concerning the magical and medicinal properties of gems and stones
under its Latin name, "_Bufonius lapis_," and was also called Borax,
Nosa, Crapondinus, Crapaudina, Chelonitis, and Batrachites. It was
also called Grateriano and Garatronius, after a gentleman named
Gratterus, who in 1473 found a very large one, reputed to have
marvellous power. In 1657, in the "translation by a person of
quality" of the "Thaumatographia" of a Polish physician named
Jonstonus, we find written of it: "Toads produce a stone, with their
own image sometimes. It hath very great force against malignant
tumours that are venomous. They are used to heat it in a bag, and to
lay it hot, without anything between, to the naked body, and to rub
the affected place with it. They say it prevails against inchantments
of witches, especially for women and children bewitched. So soon as
you apply it to one bewitched it sweats many drops. In the plague it
is laid to the heart to strengthen it." Another physician of the same
period (see "Notes and Queries," fourth series, vol. vii, 1871, p.
540) appears to be affected by the new spirit of inquiry, for he
relates the old traditions about the stone and how he tested them. He
says it was reported that the stone could be cut out of the toad's
head. (In the book called "Hortus Sanitatis," dated 1490, there is a
picture, here reproduced [Fig. 4], of a gentleman performing this
operation successfully on a gigantic toad.) Our sceptical physician,
however, goes on to say that it was commonly believed that these
stones are thrown out of the mouth by old toads (probably the tongue
was mistaken for the stone), and that if toads are placed on a piece
of red cloth they will eject their "toad-stones," but rapidly swallow
them again before one can seize the precious gem! He says that when he
was a boy he procured an aged toad and placed it on a red cloth in
order to obtain possession of "the stone." He sat watching the toad
all night, but the toad did not eject anything. "Since that time," he
says, "I have always regarded as humbug ('badineries') all that they
relate of the toad-stone and of its origin." He then describes the
actual stone which passes as the toad-stone, or "_Bufonius lapis_,"
and says that it is also called batrachite, or brontia, or ombria. His
description exactly corresponds with the "toad-stones" which are well
known at the present day in collections of old rings.
[Illustration: Fig. 5.--The palate of the fossil fish Lepidotus,
showing the stud-like teeth in position. These are often found singly,
and stained of a dull brown colour by the rock in which they were
embedded. It was the colour of these fossil teeth, like that of a
toad's body, which led to the assertion that they were produced in the
head of the toad. _a._ A single detached tooth or "toad-stone" seen
from the bright unattached surface. _b._ The same seen from the
attached surface. _c._ A section of the tooth showing its cup-like
shape. (Original drawings.)]
I have examined twelve of these rings in the British Museum, through
the kindness of Sir Charles Read, P.S.A., the Keeper of Mediaeval
Antiquities, and four in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford. Two of these
are of chalcedony, with a figure of a toad roughly carved on the
stone, and are of a character and origin different from the others.
The others, which are the true and recognised "toad-stones" or
"_Bufonius lapis_," are circular, slightly convex "stones," of a drab
colour, with a smooth enamel-like surface. They are plate-like discs,
being of thin substance and concave on the lower surface, which has an
upstanding rim. I recognised them at once as the palatal teeth of a
fossil fish called "Lepidotus," common in our own oolitic and wealden
strata, and in rocks of that age all over the world. I give in Fig. 5
a drawing of a complete set of these teeth and of a single one
detached. They were white and colourless in life, but are stained of
various colours according to the nature of the rock in which they were
embedded. A drab colour like that of the skin of the common toad is
given to them by the iron salts present in many oolitic rocks; those
found in the wealden of the Isle of Wight are black. That the
"toad-stones" mounted in ancient rings are really the teeth of a fish
has been already recorded by the Rev. R. H. Newell ("The Zoology of
the English Poets," 1845), but he seems to be mistaken in identifying
them with those of the wolf-fish (Anarrhicas). They undoubtedly are
the palatal teeth of the fossil extinct ganoid fish Lepidotus.
Before leaving the queer inventions and assertions of the old writers
about these fossil teeth, which they declared to be taken out of the
toad's head, let me quote one delightful passage from a contemporary
of Shakespeare (Lupton: "A thousand notable things of sundry sortes.
Whereof some are wonderful, some strange, some pleasant, divers
necessary, a great sort profitable, and many very precious," London,
1595). "You shall know," he says, "whether the Toadstone called
'crapaudina' be the right and perfect stone or not. Hold the stone
before a toad, so that he may see it. And if it be a right and true
stone, the toad will leap towards it and make as though he would
snatch it from you; he envieth so much that a man should have that
stone. This was credibly told Mizaldus for truth by one of the French
King's physicians, which affirmed that he did see the trial thereof."
We have thus before us the actual things called toad-stones, and
believed by Shakespeare and his contemporaries to be found in the head
of the toad. How did it come about that these pretty little
button-like, drab-coloured fossil teeth were given such an erroneous
history? This question was answered by the late Rev. C. W. King,
Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, in his book on "Antique Gems"
(London, 1860). He says, "I am not aware if any substance of a stony
nature is ever now discovered within the head or body of the toad.
Probably the whole story originated in the name Batrachites
(frog-stone or toad-stone), given in Pliny to a gem brought from
Coptos, and so called from its resemblance to that animal in colour."
We have not, it must be noted, any specimens of the toad-stone at the
present day actually known to have been brought from Coptos. It is
quite possible that the fossil fish-tooth was substituted ages ago for
Pliny's Batrachites, and was never found at Coptos at all! Whether
that is so or not, the fact is that Pliny never said it came out of a
toad, but merely that it was of the colour of a toad.
The Pliny referred to is Pliny the Elder, the celebrated Roman
naturalist who wrote a great treatise on natural history, which we
still possess, and died in A.D. 79 whilst visiting the eruption of
Vesuvius. He says nothing of the Batrachites being found inside the
toad, nor does he mention its medicinal virtues. The name
alone--simply the name "Batrachites," the Greek for toad-stone--was
sufficient to lead the fertile imagination of the mediaeval doctors to
invent all the other particulars! It is a case precisely similar to
that of the old lady who was credited with having vomited "three black
crows." When the report was traced step by step to its source it was
found that her nurse had stated that she vomited something as black as
a crow!
The belief in the existence of a stone of magical properties in the
head of the toad is only one of the many instances of beliefs of a
closely similar kind which were accepted by Pliny (although he records
no such belief as to the toad-stone), and were passed on from his
treatise on natural history in a more or less muddled form to the
middle ages, and so to our own time by later writers. Thus Pliny
cites, as stones possessing magical properties, the "Bronte" found in
the head of the tortoise, the Cinaedia in the head of a fish of that
name, the Chelonites, a grass-green stone found in a swallow's belly,
the Draconites, which must be cut out of the head of a live serpent,
the Hyaenia from the eye of the Hyaena, and the Saurites from the bowels
of a green lizard. All these and the Echites, or viper-stone, were
credited with extraordinary magical virtues, and many of the
assertions of later writers about the toad-stone are clearly due to
their having calmly transferred the marvellous stories about other
imaginary stones to the imaginary toad-stone. The only stone in the
above list which has a real existence is that in the fish's head. Fish
have a pair of beautiful translucent stones in their heads--the
ear-stones or otoliths--by the laminated structure of which we can now
determine the age of a fish just as a tree's age is told by the annual
rings of growth in the wood of its stem. The fresh-water crayfish has
a very curious pair of opaque stones (concretions of carbonate and
phosphate of lime) formed in its gizzard as a normal and regular
thing. They are familiar to every student who dissects a crayfish, and
I am told that in Germany to-day, as in old times also, the
"krebstein" is regarded by the country-folk as possessed of medicinal
and magical properties. I am not able, on the present occasion, to
trace out the possible origin of all the stories and beliefs about
stones occurring within animals. They are more numerous than those
cited by Pliny; they exist in every race and every civilization and
refer to a large variety of animals. Probably many of these beliefs
date from prehistoric times. In the East the most celebrated of these
stones, since the period of Arabic civilisation, is called a
bezoar-stone, "Bezoar" is the Persian word for "antidote," and does
not apply only to a stone. The true and original "bezoar-stone" of the
East is a concretion found in the intestine of the Persian wild goat.
Those which I have seen are usually of the size and shape of a
pigeon's egg and of a fine mahogany colour, with a smooth, polished
surface. The Persian goat's bezoar-stone is found, on chemical
analysis, to consist of "ellagic acid," an acid allied to gallic acid,
the vegetable astringent product which occurs in oak-galls used until
lately in the manufacture of ink. The bezoar-stone is probably a
concretion formed in the intestine from some of the undigested
portions of the goat's food. Such concretions are not uncommon, and
occur even in man. "Bezoar-stones" are obtained in the East from deer,
antelopes, and even monkeys, as well as goats, and must have a
different chemical nature in each case. Minute scrapings from these
stones are used in the East as medicine, and their chemical qualities
render their use not altogether absurd, though they probably have not
any really valuable action. It is probable that their use had a later
origin than that of the "stones" connected with magic and witchcraft.
Sixteenth century writers, ever ready to invent a history when their
knowledge was defective, declared the bezoar-stone to be formed by the
inspissated tears of the deer or of the gazelle--the "gum" which
Hamlet remarked in aged examples of the human species.
The substance called "ambergris" (grey amber), valued to-day as a
perfume, is a faecal concretion similar to a bezoar-stone. It is formed
in the intestine of the sperm-whale, and contains fragments of the
hard parts of cuttle-fishes, which are the food of these whales.
"Hair-balls" are formed in the intestines of various large vegetarian
animals--and occasionally stony concretions of various chemical
composition are formed in the urinary bladder of various animals, as
well as of man. The "eagle-stone" is also a concretion to which
magical properties were ascribed. I have seen a specimen, but do not
know its history and origin. Glass beads found in prehistoric
burial-places are called by old writers "adders' eggs," and
"adder-stones," and were said (it is improbable that one should say
"believed") to hatch out young adders when incubated with sufficiently
silly ceremonies and observances. A celebrated "stone" of medicinal
reputation in the East is the "goa-stone." This is a purely artificial
product--a mass of the size and shape of a large egg, consisting of
some very fine and soft powder like fullers'-earth, sweetly scented,
and overlaid with gold-leaf. A very little is rubbed off, mixed with
water, and swallowed, as a remedy for many diseases. The deep
connection of medicine with magic throwing light on the strange
application of stones and hairs, bones and skins, by imaginative
mankind, in all ages and places, is exhibited in the common practice
of writing with ink a sentence of the Koran (or other sacred words) on
a tablet, washing off the ink and making the patient swallow the water
in which the sacred phrase has been thus dissolved! How convenient it
would be were it possible thus to impart knowledge, virtue, and health
to suffering humanity!
A good example of one of the ways in which magical properties become
attributed to natural objects is the stone known as amethyst. The
ancient Indian name of this stone had the sound represented by its
present name. In Greek this sound happens to mean "not intoxicated";
hence, without more ado, the ancients declared that the amethyst was a
preventive of, and a cure for, drunkenness.