ON THERAPEUTIC USES OF STONES 391
were
at the point of death from hemorrhage, a result of the plague, by
causing them to hold in the hand a piece of bloodstone. By this means
he claims to have saved many lives.47
Robert
Boyle, in his "Essay about the Origin and Virtues of Gems " (London,
1672, pp. 177-78), tells of a gentleman of his acquaintance who was "of
a complexion extraordinary sanguin," and was much afflicted with
bleeding of the nose. A gentlewoman sent to him a bloodstone,
directing him to wear it suspended from his neck, and from the time he
put it on he was no longer troubled with his malady. It recurred,
however, if he removed the stone. When Boyle objected that this might
be a result of imagination, his friend disposed of his objection by
relating the instance of a woman to whom the stone had been applied
when she was unconscious from loss of blood. Nevertheless, as soon as
it touched her, the flow of blood was checked. Boyle states that this
stone did not seem to him to resemble a true bloodstone. It may have
been that the cold of the stone congealed the blood, or that the flow
was checked by exhaustion.
" Sahagun,'" Historia general de las eosas de Nueva Espana, vol. iii. Mexico, 1830, pp. 300, 301 ; lib. xi, cap. viii.
