Manchester Memoirs, Vol. Ix. (191 6), No. \%. 23 



pass either of these substances, the special significance 

 and auspicious nature of the chank inspiring the confi- 

 dence of patients in the value of this medicine. 59 



The superstitious reverence paid to these white shells 

 by the Hindus and other oriental people, recalls the 

 reverence paid by the Greeks and Romans to snails and 

 other shells. The internal pearly-like shell of some of 

 the slugs was believed by them to be highly efficacious in 

 the cure of fevers, diseases of the head or headaches. 

 The granular substance representing the shell in some 

 species was also believed to facilitate teething if suspended 

 from the necks of infants. 60 In the same category are to be 

 included the worn fragments of shells, or " snail-stones/' 

 which were formerly much commended in Guernsey and 

 the Highlands of Scotland as a remedy for diseases of the 

 eyes. 61 According to Humboldt, 6 ' 2 similar worn fragments 

 of shell, known as " eye-stones " (piedras de los ojos), were 

 regarded by the inhabitants of Araya, Venezuela, S. 

 America, as possessing extraordinary powers in the ex- 

 pulsion of foreign particles accidentally introduced into 

 the eye. Kunz 63 also records that " eye-stones or opthalme 

 are taken from the crawfish in the Sandwich Islands. 

 They have been used from time immemorial for removing 

 dust or other particles from the eye." These " eye-stones " 

 are probably the so-called " crab-stones " or " crab's-eyes," 

 the concretions of carbonate of lime, developed on either 

 side of the stomach in the lobsters, crayfish, etc., before 

 the time of moulting. 



59 See Hornell's interesting work on "The Sacred Chank of India," 

 Madras Fisheries Bulletin, No. 7, 1914, especially Chap. iii. 

 co Pliny, "N. H." bk. xxix., ch. 36. 



61 Johnston, "An Introduction to Conchology," London, 1850, p. 78. 

 02 Humboldt, " Pers. Narrative," i., p. 197 (Bohn's Ed.). 



63 G. F. Kunz, "Folk-lore of Precious Stones," Memoirs Internal. 

 Congr. Anthrop., Chicago, 1894, p. 273. 



