FRACASTORIO. 241 



so, by rays from the Bear that is, the North star or Arctic 

 pole and the u lodestoiie attracts iron because of a superior 

 grade in the properties of the Bear." Following the pre- 

 vailing notions, he would naturally have accounted for the 

 attractive quality of amber in the same way; for, as I have 

 stated, no one had drawn any distinction between the effects 

 of the stone and the resin. But it is significant to note 

 that Ficino does not do this, because he has clearly found 

 out that, while the magnet attracts iron and points to the 

 North pole and hence is controlled by the latter, amber 

 does not attract iron but chaff, and does not point to the 

 North pole at all. Yet because iron, under a supposed 

 control, attracts, so some control must likewise be assumed 

 for amber, because it also has an attractive quality, although 

 of a different character. Therefore he triumphantly con- 

 cludes that it is not the Arctic pole, but the Antarctic 

 pole which influences the resin and the argument stands 

 forth in symmetrical perfection; the lodestone is a thing, 

 which is caused to attract iron by the Arctic pole : the 

 amber is a thing, which is caused to attract chaff by the 

 Antarctic pole. 



Many years after Ficino' s time, Jerome Fracastorio, 1 

 poet, physician and philosopher of Verona, reverts to the 

 old doctrine of similitudes to deny its application to the 

 magnet and the amber, and incidentally, for the first time, 

 announces that the amber property exists in another 

 natural body the diamond; for the gem, he says, when 

 rubbed, will attract hairs and twigs in the same way as 

 the amber. 



He is much more concerned, however, in evolving a new 

 theory which will explain why hairs and twigs are thus 

 attracted, when clearly there is no affinity between such 

 substances and the amber or the diamond, than in record- 

 ing experimental details. Yet he also sees clearly that the 

 attracting bodies are widely different from one another; 



1 Born 1483, died 1553. Authorities differ as to the orthography of the 

 name, some giving it as Fracastoro, others as Fracastorio. 

 16 



