THE lyYNCURIUM. 41 



tions based thereon, are as far distant from the crude 

 spiritual conception of Thales as the last is removed from 

 the older belief in the direct interposition of the gods. It 

 is not difficult even to imagine that Theophrastus looked 

 upon the Milesian doctrine with something of the disdain 

 with which the modern astronomer regards the planetary 

 speculations of the astrologers, or the modern chemist the 

 theories which once gave rise to the hope of achieving the 

 transmutation of metals. 



Besides referring to the attractive qualities of the lode- 

 stone and the amber, Theophrastus, for the first time, 

 announces the existence of a third substance having iden- 

 tically the same properties as the amber, which he calls 

 Lapis lynctirius or lynx stone. He describes this as used 

 by engravers as the emerald is used, and that it has a very 

 solid texture, in confirmation of which, and also of the 

 statement of the identity of its attractive quality with that 

 of amber, he appeals to Diocles, an eminent physician of 

 Charysta, who is said to have ranked second only to Hip- 

 pocrates, but of whose works only a few fragments are 

 known. 



It is, he says, pellucid, of a fire color, and is found by 

 digging; and then, with some detail, he declares it to be 

 derived from the secretions of the lynx whence its 

 name. 



The precise nature of the lyncurium has long been a 

 bone of contention, and speculations concerning it have 

 been voluminous. The wrangle, occurring as it did in the 

 Middle Ages, is representative of the intellectual condition 

 of the times. From discussions as to what Theophrastus 

 meant, the commentators fell to arguing about what they 

 themselves meant, and the gloss writers of one century ex- 

 patiated upon the signification of the language of gloss 

 writers of the preceding century, and words were heaped 

 on words, until all sight of the original subject-matter 

 seemed to be lost. This continued until the end of 

 the seventeenth century, when the tourmaline and its 



