324 ANALYSIS OF 



^^ Indies, (by wktcfe their coaches are drawn in He ad of horfcsjthe 

 "bones being half calcitied or charred by ihe dung of the fame buifa- 

 Iq;'' the fame is ftated.by Parr, in his Medical Diaionary, in 

 whieh'-^ihQ lapis coluh.ims--h faid to be made of hartfhorn, burnt to 

 blacknefs, and afterwards polifhedi the whole corroborating the conclu- 

 fion of Dr. Davy, that one fpecies of the.foakc ftoneis'. oothiiig mom- 

 than bone partially calcined.,,,,. 



The notion that a gem or ftone of great value and miraculous pro- 

 perties was formed in the head of a fnake, is one of confiderable anti- - 

 quity and widecirculation, and both in its early introdii6lron and fubfe- 

 qyent revivals is manifeftly o£ Indian origin. Solihus, m his chapter 

 ©n ., Ethiopia, ilates» that *^ exciditur, e arebries drticomm, dracontias 

 ''' lapis ^' and he adds, ufu sjus ^ orimtis.. Reges prcecique glorianlur, 

 q-uoting Sotacus^ or Sw7«5«5 an ancient Greek author, who wrote 

 ■Bioi U'^y as. having feen this , extraordinary gerao. Philpstratus, as 

 cited by Salmasius, is flill more precife as to the .locality of the fable^ 

 and declares, that the natives cl India or Ho* cut off the head of the 

 ferpent in order to extrad the (tone contained m it: the fame account oi 

 the origin of this ftone occurs in Pliny, who mentions its being procur- 

 ed by the. natives -of ^-/^i/^., by decapitaUng the- ferpent whilll afleep i 

 and who alfo notices the-medical application, by the Scythians, of another 

 ilone, faid to be found in the head of the viper, which is ufed as aa 

 antidote : (vipercE) dejfecant quidem Scythes infer auns, ad erjmendum 

 ^pilluTti, quern aiunt ab ea demi'ari territa^ . 



The gem of the ...claiTical writers^ and which -according to them is 

 not a ilone at all, unlefs it be taken from the head of a living fnake, 

 is evidently .the wonderful Carbuncle of the romance writers, it is 

 probably alfo the fame as the fnake-ftone of modern travellers, aU 

 though know to them .only in Jts medicinal chara^er; botharethe 



