100 Froceedings of the Boyal Physical Society, 
the use of the crescent also belonged to the age of bronze. M. 
Troyon quotes from the Eeport of our Honorary Member, Dr 
Ferdinand Keller, in 1858, various explanations of the use or 
meaning of this religious symbol as he terms it, of the crescent. 
He supposes these crescent-shaped bodies had no practical use, 
but were placed either as ornaments on or in their houses, or were 
used as objects of worship. He refers to tbe worship of the moon 
by the Germans, and the use of the crescent and the moon in the 
worship of the Druids, the moon being considered by them as 
" that which heals all things." These mysterious healing virtues, 
which the G-auls also attributed to the moon as the " all healer," 
sufficiently explain, he thinks, the signification of the images of 
the crescent discovered at the lake towns of Steinberg and Ebers- 
berg, and he accordingly comes to the conclusion, that these various 
crescent-shaped bodies had been panaceas, or important healing 
amulets. Dr Keller also mentions, that Colonel Schwab has in 
his collection an article of bronze, in the form of a crescent, fur- 
nished on its convex side with a projecting handle, being the 
implement to which I have already referred, and figured ; it is 
described as being very thin or slender, and incapable of resisting 
much pressure. Dr Keller says, it would be difficult to say whether 
it has served for a cutting instrument ; but it may, like the figures 
in pottery, &c., of the crescent, have been employed as a sort of 
amulet, or as an instrument of healing.^ 
After the references by these learned authorities to the mys- 
terious symbol of the crescent, it may seem rather presumptuous 
in me, who have only seen the drawings, and read the descriptions 
of these peculiar crescent-shaped pieces of pottery and stone, to 
suggest at least the possibility of their having had a more practical 
use. From the great resemblance in the character of the coarse 
pottery of which they are formed, with its imbedded fragments of 
quartz, to the same arrangement — of broken pieces of quartz 
imbedded in the clay of which the Eoman mortaria were formed 
—manifestly to increase their grinding power; as shown, indeed, 
in some of the portions of Koman mortars, presented by me to the 
Museum, which were found at Newstead, Koxburghshire. I am 
much inclined to assume, that these crescent-shaped bodies, may 
have been simply rubbers, pestles, or grinding instruments, to be 
used by one or both hands according to their size, with or without 
a mortarium, for crushing or rubbing down the various grains, or 
harder articles of human food, which, from the remains found in 
1 M. Troyon's Habit. Lacust., p. 188. 
