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MAGIC STONES AND ELECTRIC GEMS 63
That
the wearing an amber necklace will keep off the attacks of erysipelas
in a person subject to them has been proved by repeated experiments
beyond the possibility of donbt. Its action here cannot be explained;
but its efficacy in defence of the throat against chills is evidently
due to its extreme warmth when in contact with the skin and the circle of electricity so maintained."*
The electrical property of amber was remarked as early as 600 b.c. by the Ionic philosopher Thaïes, and from this observation may be dated the beginnings of the study of electric phenomena.
That
faith in the magic powers of amber beads still exists is illustrated in
the case of an old Russian Jewess who recently died in one of our
charitable institutions. This woman is said to have reached the age of
one hundred and six years, and she ascribed her extraordinary longevity
to the possession of a necklace of very large amber beads, which had
been given her by her mother, who also lived more than a hundred years.
The daughter, a few days before her death, bestowed this treasured
heirloom upon her daughter, for it is generally believed that the virtues of gems largely depend upon their being received as gifts.
In
northern Germany, also, for more than a century a string of amber beads
was looked upon as a favorite and necessary gift. The writer has seen
hundreds of these strings, many of which have been worn for one, two,
and sometimes more generations. The beads are round and usually
facetted; however, they have been abraded against each other for so
long that they are often flat disks, and a string originally fifteen or
sixteen inches long will be twelve, and often only nine inches in
length, so much of the original spheres having worn away.
A well-known physician of the sixteenth century, Johann Meckenbach, claimed, in 1548, to have discovered the process
•"King, "Natural History of Precious Stones," etc., London, 1865, p. 334, note.
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