338 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
In order to cure disease, it was in most cases considered suf- 
ficient to simply wear the stone, when its sympathy with the 
affected part brought its curative power into play. But in other 
cases recourse was had to the grosser method of internally ad- 
ministering the powdered gem. These superstitions naturally 
led men to seek eagerly for stones so marvellously endowed, 
and thus our knowledge of such minerals and of their mode of 
occurrence became widened. Stones which were reputed to 
possess therapeutic virtue were carefully preserved and studied 
in their minutest details. Who indeed would not diligently 
seek and fondly cherish an object which was at once a personal 
ornament and a specific against disease ? 
It is curious to note how wide-spread are the superstitions 
which have clustered around stones of a green colour. Belief 
in their efficacy has been held by the peoples of the New World 
not less than by those of the Old ; they are mentioned in the 
most ancient works on such subjects ; their virtues are extolled 
by mediaeval writers ; and, indeed, it may be doubted whether 
the superstitions have yet died out. To take the emerald alone, 
a catalogue of its reputed virtues would run to inconvenient 
length. Soon after the discovery of America, the Spaniards 
brought to Europe some curious green stones which were held 
to be singularly efficacious in their medicinal properties. From 
the fact that the mineral was a specific for diseases of the 
kidneys, it was termed by the Spaniards Piedra di hijada , or 
66 stone of the loins.” By those who were ignorant of Spanish, 
the term was naturally corrupted ; and it needs no philological 
aid to see how hijada or ijada might gradually become trans- 
formed into jade. The stone was also known as Piedra de 
rinones, or “ stone of the kidneys,” whence arose the term Lapis 
nephriticus , or Pierre nephritique , and finally the mineralogical 
designation nephrite , from vscfrpos, kidney. 
It appears that the earliest recorded reference to this green 
stone as Piedra de hijada , occurs in the work of a Spanish 
doctor, Nicolas Monardes, published in 1565.* In this work he 
gives an account of the medicinal products of the West Indies. 
The materia medica of a mediaeval doctor included some extra- 
ordinary drugs, and the Spanish physician gives us a chapter 
De la Piedra de Sangre y de la Piedra de la Yjada , in other 
words, of the “ bloodstone ” and of the jade. Of the latter he 
says that the deepest green kind is the most prized, and that it 
is worked into various forms by the Indians, who wear the objects 
as amulets against diseases of the loins and of the stomach. 
So strong is the antagonism between the stone and the disease, 
* “ Ilistoria Medicinal de las cosas, que se traen de las Indias occidentales, 
que siruen en Medicina.” 
