IN MEDICINE 143 



Paternosters and three Ave Marias, to de- 

 liver it from the evil." 



A curious old book called The Secrets of 

 Medicine gives us careful directions as to 

 the finding and use of the swallow stone. It 

 says the stone must be extracted from the 

 belly of the first-born swallow, just before 

 the full of the moon or when the sun is " in 

 the sign of the Lion," and before the bird 

 has touched earth. The author calls it a 

 ready remedy for falling sickness " because it 

 has the power to scatter that tenacious and 

 glutinous humor which is the source and 

 seed of this disease." Strange medical prac- 

 tices indeed ! 



More curious still than the remedies of 

 the swallow stone are the medicines which 

 were made of the bird's little body. About 

 seven hundred years ago, if you had gone to 

 a doctor in Italy and asked for medicine to 

 cure your eyes, yau probably would have 

 been given a mixture containing the burned 

 ashes of a swallow. If your eyes were very 



