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MAGIC STONES AND ELECTRIC GEMS 51
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on a stone slab in St. Peter's in Borne and bearing a remarkable likeness to the Blessed Virgin of Loreto.88
The
electric or magnetic gems, tourmaline, amber, and loadstone, possess
not only great scientific interest, but demonstrate the fact that a
certain energy really does proceed from some of these fair, ornamental
objects, an energy that produces a positive action from without upon
the human body. This may well serve to make us less resolutely
sceptical as to the possible presence in gem-stones of some other forms
of emanation not as yet susceptible of scientific
The
supersensitiveness of the innocent child-soul to the most delicate
impressions, and hence to the radiations or emanations from precious
stones, is well brought out in the pretty tale by Saxe Holme (Helen
Hunt Jackson), entitled "My Tourmaline."88a The particular
specimen here immortalized was one of the finest from the famous Mount
Mica deposits in the State of Maine. One day, while on a country
ramble, the little heroine's eye is caught by the color and sparkle of
a brilliant crystal lodged in the gnarled roots of an old tree. In
springing forward to secure this pretty treasure the girl trips on the
outstanding roots, falls, and sprains her leg very seriously, so that
she is laid up for six weeks. However, the beautiful crystal is her
great consolation through the long, dreary weeks, and, strange to say,
she comes to feel that it has a kind of life in it. This is manifested
to her and also to some others, on touching the stone, by a pricking or
tingling sensation in the hand ; but to the child the sensations
excited by the wonderful crystal, as perfectly formed as though cut by
a lapidary, red at one end, green at the other, with a separating band
of white, are much more pronounced. When it is placed in the little
silken bag that has been made to hold it, and
" Op. cit., vol. i, p. 39 ; PI. IV, fig. 6. "•Scribner & Co., 1886.
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