210 ANNUAL ADDRESS BY PROFESSOR DUNS, D.D., F.R.S.E.. 



dom. It is met with in the very heart of modern civihzation, 

 testifying how deep its roots are in human nature. Many 

 are in the habit of relegating these popular behefs to a remote 

 past. But so recently as 182(i a book was published with the 

 title " The secrets of nature, for the benefit of fishermen and 

 farm servants," containing references to the remarkable 

 virtues in stones with Avhich these classes were held to be 

 well acquainted, but which, I confess, I have not been able 

 to identify. Two or three may be mentioned : — The Maynetic 

 Stone (not magnetic iron ore) if reduced to a powder and 

 thrown into the fire when the household are asleep the 

 sleepers Avill aAvake in horror and rush out of the dwelling. 

 The Ophthalmic Stone if worn in the breast wrapped in a laurel 

 leaf will make the wearer invisible. The Medor Stone, black 

 or green, if steeped in water "svill skin the hand, but when 

 dried and carefully applied externally Avill cure the gout. 

 The A7'maltuts Stone Avas an antidote against poison. The 

 Quirim Stone found only in the Piet's (Magpie's) nest if 

 slipped under the pillow of a person behoved to be guilty of 

 any atrocious acts, or great crime, will lead him to tell it 

 aloud in his dreams. The book is said to have had a wide 

 circulation among the classes for whom it was written. 



In most of the foregoing notes an attempt is made to 

 bring scientific facts alongside of folk-lore notions, and to 

 find the explanation of the latter in the people's ignorance 

 of the phenomena of Nature and the facts of science. Thus 

 far the state of the question is clear, and unambiguous. 

 But when we meet the superstitious notions actively and 

 influentially current in an age noted above all others for 

 its widespread scientific knowledge of nature, complex 

 elements are introduced w^hich make the explanation more 

 diflicult. A recent Avriter says — " In the present day 

 amulets, though by no means extinct, have fallen into 

 disrepute," and be ascribes this to the progress of science and 

 of the philosophic spirit. 1 rather think that the roots of 

 superstition which we are warranted to trace to the inborn 

 seeking for a sign, the innate desire that ever hankers after 

 the supernatural, lie in depths of man's nature Avhich neither 

 science nor philosophy can reach. That the spread of 

 education and the increase of the knowledge of nature have 

 done something to counteract the baneful influences of 

 superstition no thinker can doubt, but neither can he doubt 

 that wide and accurate scientific attainments are not 

 necessarily the death of superstition. Moral elements 



