cure for hysteria and were said to reveal the presence of a latent
tendency to epilepsy; connected with this in some way was the curious
belief, repeated by later authors with certain variations, that these
fumes could also be used as a test of virginity. When powdered and mixed
with wine, jet relieved the pains of those suffering from toothache, and
if the powder were combined with wax, a salve was produced that gave
very beneficial results in cases of scrofula.[293] Even as a toilet
preparation jet was recommended for use, and a most excellent dentifrice
is said to have been made from it. In this connection jet was credited
with tonic as well as cleansing properties, as is shown by the words of
Bartholomæus Anglicus, who declares that this material was especially
beneficial for “feeble teeth and waggyng,” since it strengthened them
and made them firm.[294]
The delusions and hallucinations of melancholic subjects were believed
to be put to flight by the power of jet, either in its solid form or
when reduced to a solution. The fact that this material was often used
for the beads of rosaries was thought to have some connection with its
supposed virtues, since the bad dreams or dreadful hallucinations
sometimes accompanying melancholia were designated as “demons,” and thus
the prayers counted off on jet beads might be supposed to have the
greater power to banish the devil and his black angels. The old writer
who cites these particulars about jet, adds that there was to be found
in the river Nile a black stone the size of a bean, at sight of which
dogs would stop barking, and which also drove away evil spirits. Here we
have another among many instances of the curious blending of the
doctrines of sympathy and antipathy, the black stone repelling the imps
of darkness and nullifying the spells of the Black Art.[295]
Lapis Armenus
The _lapis Armenus_ was well known to the Arabs under the name _hajer
Armeny_, and their medical writers describe it quite accurately and
distinguish it from the somewhat similar lapis lazuli, with which it was
often confused in ancient times. Ibn Beithar states that if properly
prepared it would not provoke nausea, as was otherwise the case. It was
said to cause a very abundant evacuation of bile and must have been
regarded as an efficient remedy for the bilious disorders so general in
warm climates.[296]
A “blue amulet” against vertigo, melancholia and epilepsy could be made
up of the following ingredients: shavings from an elk’s horn and from a
human skull, to be reduced to a fine powder, the excrement of a peacock,
white agate, lapis lazuli or _lapis Armenus_, of which enough was to be
used to give the required sky-blue tint. The whole mass was then to be
softened by the addition of gum tragacanth, and formed into heart-shaped
tablets, which were to be dried out in the air, and then smoothed on a
turning-lathe. These amulets were to be worn attached to the neck or the
arm, sometimes they were enclosed in a little receptacle of silver or of
red sandal-wood and suspended from the neck.[297]
Lapis Lazuli
In Papyrus 3027 of the Berlin Museum, a record that dates from about the
fifteenth century B.C., and appears to be contemporaneous with the
celebrated Papyrus Ebers, we have directions for the curative use of
three stones as amulets; namely, lapis lazuli, malachite (Amazon stone?)
and, probably, red jasper. The interpretation of the text offers
considerable difficulty, but it seems that the stones were worked into
the form of beads and then strung on a cord and suspended from a sick
child’s neck. Thereupon a formula was recited, calling upon the disease
to pass through the beads and disperse itself through water and air, or,
more literally, to attach itself to the denizens of water and air. The
translation of Dr. Adolph Erman is as follows:[298]
[A red bead? of lapis lazuli thereon.]
... a green bead? of malachite is thereon.
a red bead of jasper? is thereon
O, ye beads! fall upon the haunches [of the ...] in the flood; on the
scales? of the fish in the stream; on the feathers of the birds in the
heavens. Hasten forth! _nšw_, fall upon the earth
Let this text be recited over the beads?, one of lapis lazuli, the
other of jasper?, the other malachite, which are drawn on a string
of ... and hung upon the neck of a child.
Erman does not venture to translate the name of the disease (nšw), but
says that another word derived from the same root signifies a discharge
from the nose. Possibly we have to do with croup or some similar disease
of the respiratory organs.
A curious prescription for the cure of cataract is given in the Ebers
Papyrus,[299] dating from about 1600 B.C. The six ingredients are as
follows: genuine lapis lazuli, verdigris salve, a resinous substance
perhaps similar to what is to-day called tabasheer, milk, stibium, and
“crocodile-earth,” the slime of the Nile. It is possible that the word
_chesbet_, which usually signifies lapis lazuli, was understood in this
case as indicating some other stone, such as that known by the name of
_lapis Armenus_—this latter is a carbonate of copper and really
possesses astringent properties.
For remedial use a lapis lazuli (_cyanus_) of deep hue is recommended by
Dioscorides. This stone was to be burned thoroughly and the resultant
powder moistened so that a kind of paste was obtained. This was claimed
to have an astringent and caustic effect, and was freely used as a
counter-irritant.[300] Probably here as in other cases a sulphate of
copper has been confused with the lapis lazuli. The ancients did not
favor the administration of lapis lazuli internally, and Braunfels[301]
therefore regarded the free use of pills of lapis lazuli which was
common in his time as a source of grave danger. The _lapis Armenus_,
however, if well prepared and properly washed, was less to be feared;
but, unfortunately, the genuine stone was rarely to be found in the
apothecaries’ shops.
Malachite
Many medicinal virtues were ascribed to malachite. Worn as an amulet, it
averted attacks of faintness, prevented hernia, and saved the wearer
from danger in falling. In this latter respect similar powers seem to
have been admitted in the case of the green malachite as were attributed
to the light blue or greenish-blue turquoise. If malachite were reduced
to a powder, dissolved in milk and taken as a potion, it cured cardiac
pains and colic; mixed with honey, and applied with a linen cloth to a
wound, it stanched the flow of blood, and cramps were relieved if this
solution were applied to the affected part; lastly, if mixed with wine,
it was a cure for virulent ulcers.[302]
Powdered malachite was sometimes administered medicinally, with what
results we have little definite information; certainly, if not very
carefully used, the effect would have been anything but favorable. A
friend of De Boot once told the latter that a dose of six grains of
powdered malachite acted as a purgative, but the wary doctor confesses
that he never ventured to test the efficacy of this prescription.[303]
In Bavaria, at the present time, mothers and midwives are fond of
wearing pieces of malachite set in rings or strung for use as necklaces.
These are believed to help the dentition of children and are also
thought to bring more clients to the midwives. Amulets of this and other
kinds were sold in Bavaria, in the seventeenth century, by wandering
students and by gypsies.[304]
Median Stone
Of the so-called Median stone we read, in Konrad von Megenberg’s “Buch
der Natur,”[305] that it had powers of good and evil; “for when
dissolved in the milk of a woman who has borne a son, it restores sight
to the blind.” It also cured gout and insanity. If, however, anyone were
so ill-advised as to dissolve the stone in water and partake of the
solution, he would die of hasty consumption; or if he simply bathed his
forehead with the liquid, he would be robbed of his sight.
Onyx
A famous medicinal stone was at one time in the Abbey of St. Alban,
founded in 793 A.D. by Offa, King of Mercia, in honor of the British
protomartyr. In 1010, under Abbot Geoffrey de Gorham, a sumptuous shrine
was erected to receive St. Alban’s body; this shrine was principally of
silver, and was richly adorned with precious stones, chosen from among
those in the treasury of the monastery. The records state that one of
these stones “was so large that a man could not grasp it in his hand.”
It was believed to give great help to women in childbirth. Hence, it was
not set in the shrine, but was left free, so that it might be taken from
house to house as required. The size of this stone and the fact that it
was not used for ornamentation might have induced the belief that it was
one of the singular “eagle-stones,” so celebrated in ancient and
medieval times, but it is expressly described as an onyx-gem, the gift
of King Ethelred II (968–1016) to the monastery. From the description we
learn that on one side of this onyx was cut an image of Esculapius, the
god of healing, and on the other that of “a boy bearing a buckler.” As
the art of gem-cutting was practically unknown in Europe in the tenth
century, this must have been an antique gem, and may have served as a
pagan amulet many centuries before it was placed upon the shrine of a
Christian saint and used as a Christian amulet.[306]
An old manuscript of Matthew Paris[307] gives a sketch of the gem from
this author’s own hand. As the special power exerted by this talisman
was to aid women in their confinements, it was loaned out from time to
time to such as were considered worthy of the honor. In one case,
however, it came into untrustworthy hands, for the favored lady failed
to return the gem when her immediate need of its help had passed,
retaining it in her possession until her death, when she bequeathed it
to her daughter. During her lifetime the latter appears to have had no
prickings of conscience, but on her death-bed, possibly through the
exhortations of her confessor, she made provision that the long-lost
sardonyx should be returned to the Abbey. It is said to have borne the
name Kaadman, which Mr. Thomas Wright regarded as a corruption of
_cadmeus_ or _cameus_, early forms of our “cameo.”[308]
Pyrite
In Geneva and in the neighboring regions great virtues are ascribed to a
cut and facetted iron (pyrite), very hard, susceptible of a high polish
and of resplendent lustre. This is cut to resemble the rose or brilliant
form of diamond, and is set in rings, buckles, and other ornaments. In
appearance it resembles polished steel and is called _pierre de santé_,
or “health-stone,” for it is believed to grow pale when the health of
the wearer is about to fail.[309] This substance is known as marcasite
and is a bisulphide of iron. In the time of Louis XVI it was largely
used for ornamental purposes; at present steel has almost entirely taken
its place, although it is still utilized to a limited extent. Many
believe that this is the material to which Victor Hugo alludes in his
great romance, “Les Miserables,” as having been manufactured by Jean
Valjean.
Rock-crystal
Medical men in Rome, in the first century, attested that no better
cautery for the human body could be used than a crystal ball acted upon
by the sun’s rays,[310] and this use of the material seems to have been
very general at that time.
In his commentary on Andrea Bacci’s gem-treatise, Wolfgang Gabelchover,
the German translator, says that a German name of rock-crystal in his
time, the early sixteenth century, was _Schwindelstein_
(“vertigo-stone”), because it was believed to preserve the wearer from
attacks of dizziness. Other remedial or physical effects of rock-crystal
are also noted. Taken as a powder in dry wine, it was a cure for
dysentery, and the physician, Christopher Barzizius, taught that if its
powder were mixed with honey and administered to mothers, they would be
the better able to nurse their offspring.[311]
The following lines by Robert Wilson (d. 1600), a popular
sixteenth-century comedy writer, credit amber and rock-crystal with
qualities not commonly ascribed to them, although the fancied growth of
rock-crystal from a piece of ice probably explains its supposed styptic
virtue:[312]
LUCRE: And if they demand wherefore your
wares and merchandise agree,
You must say, jet will take up a straw;
amber will make one fat;
Coral will look pale when you be sick,
and crystal stanch blood.
That a remedial tincture of rock-crystal could be made was firmly
believed by the Danish chemist, Ole Borch (Olaus Borrichius, 1626–1690),
and in his chemical lectures he gives the following directions as to the
processes to be employed. A rock-crystal was to be heated to a high
temperature and then cast, while still warm, into cold water; it would
thereupon break up into small fragments. By heating these particles
together with tartaric salts, the whole mass would be reduced to a
liquid solution. Half of the quantity, after cooling off, was to be put
into a distilling glass with the best “spirit of wine” and was to be
digested in a bath of lukewarm water. It would then be seen that the
solution became red. This process is repeated several times, and finally
the tincture is concentrated by distilling off the spirit of wine,
leaving the pure rock-crystal tincture. Its remedial quality is stated
to have been applicable to dropsy, scrofula, or hypochondriac
melancholia, if it were taken in doses up to forty drops in a proper
medium.[313]
[Illustration:
ANCIENT PERSIAN RELIC KNOWN AS THE “CUP OF CHOSROES”
The engraved rock-crystal medallion in the centre depicts Khusrau II,
Parwiz (A. D. 591–628), in the peculiar and characteristic garb of
the Sassanian monarchs. The strange wing-like adornments rising from
each shoulder, and the moon crescent and sun-disk above the head,
are especially noteworthy. In the Royal Museum, Bucharest, Roumania.
]
To make the _magisterium_ of rock-crystal, a pound of the substance was
to be heated to a high temperature and then dipped into spirits of
vitriol. After this operation had been repeated ten times, the
rock-crystal was to be ground, on a marble slab, to a very fine powder,
which was a sure remedy for gout and for calculi formed in any of the
bodily organs. The spirits of vitriol in which the rock-crystal had been
dipped was sometimes filtered through blotting-paper and sold as crystal
spirits of vitriol; this was asserted to be a powerful diuretic, from
seven to ten drops being given at a dose in a cup of meat broth.[314]
As late as the last half of the eighteenth century a Dr. Bourgeois
recommended the use of rock-crystal, calcined and ground, as a very
excellent astringent in the most obstinate cases of diarrhœa. In
reporting this, Valmont de Bomare (1731–1807) adds that it would be
desirable to know the nature of the acid in rock-crystal and its state
of combination.[315] Here, as in all cases where some of the
constituents of precious stones may really possess certain curative
powers, a better result can be attained by using these constituents in
other forms or combinations.
The wonderful therapeutic virtues of a Scotch lake named Loch-mo-naire
are explained by a local legend as having arisen from certain magic
crystals which had been cast into its waters. These crystals, if placed
in water, rendered the liquid a potion of great curative power. They
were the property of a woman who had gained by their possession a great
reputation as a healer, but her success attracted the envy of a neighbor
who determined to secure for himself the woman’s wonder-working stones.
In pursuance of this design he came to her, feigning illness. She saw
through his deception and sought safety in flight, but he pursued her
and was gaining rapidly on her, when she threw the stones into the
waters of the lake, crying out the Gaelic word _noire_, “shame,” and
uttering the wish that its waters should be rendered powerful to cure
the sick, all except those of the clan Gordon to which the would-be
thief belonged. As the correct translation of the name of the lake is
said to be not “Lake of Shame” but “Serpent Lake,” the legend appears to
have no good foundation, but is perhaps as true as any of the popular
tales purporting to explain the origin of the virtues of healing springs
or waters.[316]
To many stones was attributed the power of transmitting a certain
remedial virtue to water or other liquid in which they were immersed.
This, as we have related, was the case with the white stone that St.
Columba sent to King Brude at Inverness when the king’s druid priest
Broichan was suffering from disease. A peculiarity of this stone was
that if it were required in the case of a person about to die, it would
disappear from view. Thus its remedial powers could never be put to test
unless success were assured.[317]
There can be no reasonable doubt that some remarkable cures have been
effected by means of relics, or by drinking the waters of a spring
believed to have been pointed out by some divine vision. From a purely
scientific standpoint this can be explained as the result of an
extraordinary stimulation of the nerve-centres, caused by the rapt
enthusiasm of religious faith. The relics, or the pure water, simply
serve as an object about which this faith crystallizes, so to speak, and
gains a concrete and external form, which in turn reacts upon the mind
of the believer. It is a well-known fact that a great shock, or imminent
peril, has sometimes suddenly restored the power of motion to those who
have long been paralyzed. This view does not, however, necessarily
exclude a religious interpretation of these phenomena when they are
produced by religious impressions, for the divine will manifests itself
by natural means, and a true understanding of the regular and normal
working of these means should give us a deeper, truer, and purer faith.
Sapphire
As a substance for medicinal use, the Hindus declared the sapphire to be
bitter to the taste and lukewarm. It had a remedial action against
phlegm, bile and flatulence.[318] A similar action is ascribed to
several other precious stones, the medicinal qualities attributed to
them being less differentiated among the Hindus than they were with the
Greeks and Romans, or in medieval times.
To drink of a potion made from the sapphire was said to be helpful for
those who had been bitten by a scorpion, and for those suffering from
intestinal ulcerations, or from growths in the eye; it also prevented
boils and pustules, and healed ruptured membranes.[319] Here we see that
the sapphire shared with the emerald the power of strengthening the
sight, and one authority asserts that if anyone looked long and intently
at a sapphire, his eyes would be protected from all injury, and nothing
harmful could befall them.[320]
A medieval test of the antitoxin quality of the sapphire was to place a
spider in a vessel to whose mouth a sapphire was so suspended that it
would swing backwards and forwards just above the spider. The supposedly
venomous insect was not long able to resist the power of the stone and
fell a victim to its virtues. Wolfgang Gabelchover gravely asserts that
this experiment had often been successful.[321]
The removal of particles of sand or dust from the eye was said to be
successfully accomplished by “warming” a sapphire over the eye, the
virtue of the stone thus passing into the eye and giving the organ the
strength necessary for the ejection of the troublesome foreign
body.[322] This attribution of a chemical action to the sapphire in
eye-trouble may be added to the many statements of its general curative
powers in eye-diseases.
Topaz
The thirteenth century Hindu physician Naharari states that the topaz
tastes sour and is cold. It is a remedy for flatulence and is a most
excellent appetizer. Any man who wears this stone will be assured of
long life, beauty and intelligence.[323] Many a curious legend has been
woven about the old belief that the topaz quenched thirst. However,
popular fancy does not endow any and every topaz with this power. One of
these thirst-removing topazes is said to have been in the possession of
a celebrated Hindu necromancer, whose services had been sought by one of
the petty rajahs of India on the day of a decisive battle. Either this
necromancer’s art must have failed him at the critical moment, or else a
more powerful enchanter guided the fortunes of the enemy, for the latter
prevailed and the owner of the potent topaz was left dying upon the
field of battle. Alongside him was a poor wounded soldier who was
clamoring for a drop of water to quench his burning thirst. Hearkening
to this prayer, the dying necromancer threw his topaz to the soldier,
telling him to place it upon his heart. No sooner did he do so than his
thirst passed away, and we must suppose that his wounds were also
healed, for we are told that on the morrow he sought everywhere on the
battle-field for the corpse of his benefactor but could find no trace of
it.
[Illustration:
1. Emerald that belonged to the deposed Sultan of Turkey, Abdul Hamid;
weight 45.33 carats. Auctioned December 11, 1911, Paris.
1½. Side view of the emerald.
2. Almandite garnet (transparent) fashioned into a knuckle bone; on
the upper surface is engraved an eagle with outspread wings, above
which are the Greek characters κακγ. Charm seal of some early
knuckle-bone player.
3. Sardonyx idol-eye of a Babylonian bull, pierced for suspension.
Engraved at a later period with the head of a Parthian king.
4. Aquamarine seal (transparent). Sassanian Pahlavi. Found in ruins of
Babylonia.
]
Tavernier, the great French Seventeenth Century jeweler-traveler, the
first European to visit the ruby mines, took with him a number of
emeralds, generally large. These were often cut from the top of the
crystal, usually darker in color, and simply domed off, preserving the
original hexagonal shape. Remarkable specimens are in the Indian Museum
and the South Kensington Museum, part of the jewels of Thebaud, King of
Burma. The finest emeralds of this type belonged to the late Sultan of
Turkey; one of the finest, a remarkable gem, cut rounded en cabochon,
was with the Bijoux du Sultan, S. M. Abd-Ul-Hamid II, sold at the
Galerie Georges Petit, November 28, 1914. It weighed 44³⁄₁₆ carats (old
system) or 45.29 carats (metric system). (See color plate.)
A remarkable charm is a hemispherical, transparent aquamarine, with
figure of hump bull, found in ancient Babylonia. (See color plate.)
A quaint, ancient amulet is carved out of fine knuckle bone, an eagle
with spread wings engraved on one side; portrait of a Parthian King.
(See color plate.)
A Babylonian idol’s eye, of sardonyx, was pierced and worn as charm
against the Evil Eye; later engraved with portrait of a Parthian King.
(See color plate.)
IV
On the Virtues of Fabulous Stones, Concretions and Fossils
Not only precious or semi-precious stones were used as charms or
talismans and for curative purposes; a large number of animal
concretions also were and are still somewhat in favor. These
concretions, variously composed but usually containing a quantity of
carbonate of lime, are found in different parts of animals’ bodies, and
they were believed to contain a sort of quintessence of the nature of
the animal in which they occurred. For this reason the _alectorius_,
from the body of the cock, one of the most widely known of the animal
stones in ancient times, was thought to confer valor upon the wearer,
and is said to have been worn by athletes in their contests.
In the case of venomous, or supposedly venomous, creatures, such as the
toad and certain snakes, the stone was used as an antidote for poisons.
This virtue was thought to be notably present in the so-called bezoar
stone, taken from the stomach of a species of goat, as well as from some
other animals. As we shall see, legend sought to account for the
peculiar qualities of the bezoar by the tale that the animals in whose
bodies the stones were formed had been bitten by serpents. Indeed, it
seems not unlikely that the belief in the curative properties of the
bezoar stone originally owed its existence to the finding of some such
concretion in the body of an animal that had died from the effects of
snake-bite.
As is well known, certain pathological conditions induce the formation
of stones of various kinds and shapes in the human body also. Here the
tendency has been to use these stones to counteract the disease which
produced them. Renal or vesical calculi, for instance, were recommended
for diseases of the kidneys and bladder, a treatment quite in accord
with the popular idea of the homeopathic theory.