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SUPERSTITIONS REGARDING GEMS
From the earliest times and among all peoples there seem to have been sentiments and superstitions connected with gems. Not only was the power of driving away evil spirits and producing all sorts of "luck" long attributed to them but as late as the beginning of the eighteenth century reputable physicians were accustomed to mix fragments of them in their medicines and to use them as charms. /To this day amber is kept in stock by druggists in Paris for use in filling , prescriptions. The Chinese still use powdered pearls, coral, and other gems in medicine, and various Indian tribes of North America ascribe great medicinal value to one gem or another. In the writings of Greek and Roman writers are found many statements indicating belief in the medicinal and other virtues of gems. It was in the Middle Ages, however, that these opinions seem to have been most widely and firmly held, so far as it is possible to learn of them through history.
The following passage from Marbodus, a writer of the latter part of the eleventh century, is a good example of some of the virtues attributed to gems in that time:*
" The chalcedony, if blest and tied round the neck, cures lunatics. Moreover, he that wears it will never be drowned or tempest-tossed. It also makes the wearer beautiful, faithful, strong, and successful in all things. One ought to engrave upon it Mars armed, and a virgin robed, wrapped in a vestment, and holding a laurel branch; with a perpetual blessing.
'" Aristotle, in his book on gems, says that an emerald hung from the neck, or worn on the finger, protects against danger of the falling sickness. We therefore commend noblemen, that it be hanged about the necks of their children that they fall not into this complaint. The emerald is approved in all kinds of divination; in every business if worn it increases its owner's importance, both in presence and in speech.
"A sard, of the weight of twenty grains of barley, if hung round the neck or worn on the finger, the wearer shall not have terrible
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