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[Vol. XVIII. No 459. 



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MADSTONES AND THEIR MA.GIC.' 



For centuries many accounts have been current regarding 

 the virtues, real or imaginary, of certain bodies known as 

 snake stones and madstones, which are asserted to have the 

 power of absorbing poisons from wounds. The literature of 

 two hundred years ago contains references to these sub- 

 stances; and even now some persons have a lingering belief 

 in their efficacy. The subject is a curious one, and a brief 

 account of it may be of interest, particularly of the origin 

 and identification of one of these peculiar bodies. 

 ' Jean Baptiste Tavernier, the great oriental traveller of the 

 seventh century, in his " Travels in India " (see Dr. Valen- 

 tine Ball's translation in two volumes, London and New 

 York, 1889, pp. Ixs. 429; xix. 496) says: "I will finally 

 make mention of the snake stone, which is nearly of the size 

 of a double doubloon (a Spanish srold coin), some of them 

 tending to an oval shape, being thick in the middle and be- 

 coming thin toward the edges. The Indians say that it 

 grows on the heads of certain snakes, but I should rather 

 believe that it is the priests of the idolaters who ruake them 

 think so, and that this stone is a composition which is made 

 of certain drags. Whatever it may be, it has an excellent 

 virtue in extracting all the poison when one has been bitten 

 by a poisonous animal. If the part bitten is not punctured, 

 it is necessary to make an incision so that the blood may 

 flow; and when the stone has been applied to it, it does not 

 fall off until it has extracted all the venom, which is drawn 

 to it. In order to clean it it is steeped in woman's milk, or, 

 in default of it, in that of a cow; and after having been 

 steeped for ten or twelve hours, the milk, which has ab- 

 sorbed all the venom, assumes the color of madder. One day 

 when I dined with the Archbishop of Goa, he took me into 

 his museum, where he had many curiosities. Among other 

 things he showed me one of these stones, and, in telling me 

 of its properties, assured me that it was but three days since 

 he had made a trial of it, after which he presented it to me. 

 As he traversed a marsh on the island of Salsette, upon 



^ This article also appeared in the New York Sun, 



which Goa is situated, on his way to a house in the country, 

 one of his palanquin bearers, who was almost naked, was 

 bitten by a serpent, and was at once cured by this stone. I 

 have bought many of them, and it is that which makes me 

 think that they make them. You employ two methods to 

 ascertain if the snake stone is good and that there is no 

 fraud. The first is by placing the stone in the mouth, for 

 then, if it is good, it leaps and attaches itself immediately to 

 the palate. The other is to place it in a glassful of water, 

 and immediately, if it is genuine, -the water begins to boil."- 



Thevenot says, in his " Voyages," p. 94, that snake stones 

 were made of the ashes of the root of a certain plant, mixed 

 with a particular kind of clay. Some snake stones appear 

 to have been made of charred bone (see, for an exhaustive 

 account of this subject, Yule-Burnell, "Anglo-Indian Glos- 

 sary"). The belief in their efficacy is still very general in 

 India ; by some they are supposed to be found in the head of 

 the adjutant bird (see " Jungle Life in India," p. 83). 

 '^Francisco Redi describes, in his " Experimenta " (Amster- 

 dam, 1685, pp. 4 to 8\ the extraordinary healing power at- 

 tributed to stones obtained from the heads of certain serpents, 

 called by the French " cobras de capello," found throughout 

 Hindostan and Farther India. These stones are claimed to 

 be an infallible remedy for the bites and stings of all kinds 

 of venomous reptiles or animals, and likewise for wounds 

 made by poisoned arrows, etc. He repeats the usual tales of 

 their adhering powerfully when applied to the bite or wound, 

 and clinging to it like a cupping-glass until they had ab- 

 sorbed all the poison, when they would fall off spontane- 

 ously, leaving the man or animal sound and free. Then 

 follows the account of steeping the stones in milk to remove 

 the poison, the milk assuming a color between yellow and 

 green. These wonderful stones and the narrations concern- 

 ing them had been brought to Italy by Catholic missiona- 

 ries, who seem to have entire faith in their powers; so' that 

 Redi says they offered to prove the accounts by any number 

 of experiments, such as would satisfy the most incredulous, 

 and prove to medical men that Galen was correct when he 

 wrote (chapter xiv. book I.) that certain medicines attract 

 poison as the magnet does iron. For this purpose a search, 

 for vipers, etc., was recommended; but, owing to the season 

 being later and colder than usual, none could at that time 

 be obtained, as they had not emerged from their win- 

 ter quarters. An experiment was therefore substituted, 

 after much consultation among the learned men of the 

 Academy of Pisa, whereby oil of tobacco was introduced 

 into the leg of a rooster. This was regarded as one of the 

 most fatal of such substances, and was administered by im- 

 pregnating a thread with it to the width of four fingers and 

 drawing it through the punctured wound. One of the monks 

 forthwith applied the stone, which behaved in the regular 

 manner described. The bird did not recover, but it survived 

 eight hours, to the admiration of the monks and other spec- 

 tators of the experiment./ 



Redi states that he himself possessed some of these stones, 

 and also Vincent Sandrinus, one of the most learned herb- 

 alists of Pisa. Redi describes them as "always lenticular 

 in form, varying somewhat in size, but in general about as 

 large as a farthing, more or less. In color some are black, 

 like Lydian stone, tinged at times with a reddish lustre; 

 others white, others black, with an ashy hue on one side or 

 both," etc. 



Up to the present time no one has apparently identified 

 what Tavernier referred to in speaking of snake stone. It, 

 however, occurred to the writer, after receiving a quantity 



