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Introduction

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INTRODUCTION.
11
intended by the figure engraved be the same as that produced by the natural quality of the stone, its virtue will be doubled, and its efficacy augmented." Thus Eagiel lays down that " a ram or bearded man's head (Ammon) on Sapphire defends from many infirmities, from poison, and oppression. A hoopoe with the herb dragon in front, upon Beryl, hath power to evoke the water-spirits, and force them to speak. It will also call up the dead of your acquaintance, and oblige them to respond to your ques­tions." Again, Chael has " Man with long face and beard, his eyebrows raised, sitting behind a plough, and holding up a fox and a vulture, with four men lying upon his neck—such a stone, placed under your head when sleeping, makes you dream about treasures, and the right manner to discover the same." (This design is the Roman representation, "Quattuor Tempora," the year and the four seasons.) "Man seated, and a woman standing before him, with her hair hanging down loose to her loins; the man looking upwards: this cut on Carnelian hath the virtue that whoever is touched therewith shall be led to do the owner's will immediately " (Hercules and Iole). " Man with a wand in his hand, seated on an eagle (Jupiter), engraved on Hephsestito or Crystal, must be set in a brass or copper ring. Whosoever looketh upon this stone of a Sunday before sunrise shall have victory over all his enemies. If he look upon it of a Thursday, all men shall obey him willingly. But he must be clothed in white, and abstain from eating pigeons." " Goat engraved on Calcedony tendeth to the getting of wealth. Keep this in thy money-box, and thou shalt always be rich." In fact, the country, the birth­place of these fancies, is indicated plainly enough by the circum­stance that Camillo quotes several stones by their Arabic names, such as the Kaman, Gagatromeus, Zumeeh, and Ziazia.
In the 15th century Georgius Agricola did something for the natural history of minerals, interspersing notices from his own experience with the rest of his matter drawn from the ancients. In the following century Kentmann and Gesner did something more for science in their little treatises, generally published to­gether. But it was not before the beginning of the next century that a treatise on mineralogy appeared, still retaining any prac­tical value. In the year 1609 Anselmus de Boot, Latinised into
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